In this episode of The Last 10%, host Dallas Burnett sits down with Dr. Gary Sprouse, a retired primary care physician turned author and the 'Less Stress Doctor.' Dr. Sprouse shares his journey from medicine to helping people manage stress through his book 'The Highway to Your Happy Place.' They discuss practical tools like realistic optimism and the worry organizer, aiming to reduce stress without sacrificing the human skill of future envisioning. Dr. Sprouse recounts a thrilling scooter adventure in Salt Lake City and reflects on co-authoring the book 'Mindset Matters' with Jack Canfield. He also offers insights into reshaping mindsets and managing stress effectively for business leaders and individuals. Don't miss this incredible conversation!

Find out more about the Less Stress Doctor: https://www.thelessstressdoc.com/

Buy Dr. Sprouse's books:

Highway to Your Happy Place (Amazon)

Mindset Matters (Amazon)

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Hey everybody, we're talking to Dr.

Gary Sprouse today.

What an amazing guy.

He's is the less stress doctor, a physician turned author who's on a mission

to help people find their happy place.

He even wrote a book titled the highway to your happy place,

a roadmap to less stress.

He's got some incredible stories about Gifts to needy families and

scooter adventures in Salt Lake City.

He's a great new friend of mine.

You don't want to miss this incredible conversation.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: That was,

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Welcome to the last 10 percent your

host, Dallas Burnett into incredible conversations that will inspire

you to finish well finish strong.

Listen, as guests share their journeys and valuable advice on living in the last 10%.

If you are a leader, a coach, a business owner, or someone looking to

level up, you are in the right place.

Remember, you can give 90 percent effort and make it a long way, but it's

finding out how to unlock the last 10%.

makes all the difference in your life, your relationships, and your work.

here's Dallas.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Welcome.

I am Dallas Burnett sitting in my 1905 Coke Brothers Barber chair

Thrive Studios, but more importantly, today we have a great guest.

He's a primary care physician who served on the Eastern shore of Maryland.

He's co authored a best selling book, Mindset Matters, to gain new insights.

He's also every once in a, every once in a while, he's been known to maybe be talked

into dressing up in a costume for karaoke.

So welcome to the show, Dr.

Sprouse.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: that was, thank you so

much for having me on.

I am super excited.

I drove all the way back from Atlanta just to make sure I got on this show on time.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: That's great.

That is awesome.

thank you.

we're excited to have you on the show and excited to have this great conversation.

I would love for you to tell everybody that's listening and watching the

show just how you've transitioned.

I mean, you've had a great career as a primary care physician and

now you're the less stressed doc.

How does that transition take

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: But you know, it's interesting because one

of the things that I talk about is, so I was a primary care doctor for 38 years.

So a lot of doctors that I know, their identity is they're a primary care doctor.

That's it.

So when they retire, they like freaks them out because they're like, what am I

supposed to, who am I supposed to be now?

like a basketball player, a football player who they'd been a

football player, basketball player.

they're 30 years and all of a sudden they have to retire and they get

lost because they don't know what the heck to do with themselves anymore.

But for me, the transition was actually really easy because I'd already

written this book, my highway to your happy place, roadmap to less stress.

So that book was already written.

So when I retired, my job just shifted from helping people with a

stethoscope and a prescription pad to helping people with a book and advice.

So it was the same ideas, but just a different techniques.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: That's awesome.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: so I made that made it easy.

That was so my life's been easy, but my wife, she does the billing for it.

She had done the billing for my office and she really didn't like doing it.

So she was glad when I retired, but the problem was, then she,

even though she didn't like doing it, it gave her something to do.

And so now she's what am I supposed to do with myself?

And I'm like, we'll have to figure that out, Anissa.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: so

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: So she struggled way more with my

retirement than I struggled, so.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: that's awesome.

You went from one thing to another and she's figuring it

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah, exactly.

Wait, but it, so I said to her, look, You can get involved with me and help

me market the book to get in people's hands so they can have less stress.

She goes, No, I don't want to get sucked into your vortex.

I'm like, Okay.

All right.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: All right.

We'll see how she does figuring it all out.

That's fine.

I'm sure she'll, I'm sure she'll do well.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yes.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I, I'm interested because.

you have so much experience with seeing people in stress, in, in

your background as a physician.

is that what inspired you to become the less stressed doc?

I mean, obviously the transition point, the inflection point was

retiring from practice, but,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: ThaT's you're right.

I mean, I had all these patients coming in and they would say, Doc, I'm stressed out.

I don't know what to do.

And their blood pressure is high and their diabetes out of control and they can't

sleep and they got skin rashes and asthma.

And I'm like, Whoa, what has gone with, I'm looking at, I've read a bunch of

books and I'm reading about stress and this, and basically these books would say,

here's the top hundred stresses, like you lose your spouse or you lose your job.

And I'm like, okay, but I've had, there are people that lose their job and

actually do better because they found a different job or they lost their spouse.

They didn't anyway.

So they were like, yay.

So what is it about these things that make it so stressful?

And this was the insight that I came out with.

So the insight, so I'm a doctor, right?

So I'm used to writing a prescription for somebody and say, Hey, here's

the medicine for your blood pressure.

Here's the medicine for your diabetes.

And it's a great medicine, but it can have some side effects.

So when I started looking at humans, I was like, wait, you know what?

The majority of our stresses are really side effects to our skills.

So then I go, what does that mean?

So so humans have the ability to envision the future.

So we can look into the future and say, Hey, tomorrow I got to be here

next week, I got to do this when I get old enough, I'm going to retire.

The side effect is then you have to worry about it.

So most psychologists will tell you.

Hey, just live for today, which gets rid of the side effect of worry

because you're just living for today.

The problem is nobody is a human can live for just today.

We've spent way too much time in the future.

And second off, why would I want to give up my greatest skill of being

able to envision the future, which allows me to plan for disasters like

hurricanes and things like that, just because it has a side effect.

So the idea of my book, then it says, Hey.

here's your skill.

Here's the side effect.

Let's find a way to keep the skill and lose the side effect.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Ah, so you're, so essentially you're

saying that as humans, we have the skill is envisioning the future.

We have this ability to, our brains are predictive engines

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yes,

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: to predict

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: got it.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: future, opportunities and risks.

that by living in a lot of times, I do agree.

I think that there's a, I guess a methodology where you're

trying to put that away and live.

I mean, even here in circles of meditation, it was like, you're trying

to center and be present, which I do think, is very helpful in the moment.

But then again, you always have to reengage to your point.

You always, you're always going to re engage with the future

because that's your, everyone's look, trying to look around the

corner, nobody can just constantly

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: yeah, because that's one

of our greatest strengths.

And what I say to people is, look, I want you to be able to live in

all three tenses of your life.

In happiness, right?

So that means in the past, living in the present, living in the future.

I don't want you to exclude the past or the present or the future.

I want you to be able to live in all three of those environments and be happy.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I think that's awesome.

And I think that's a good, I think that's a good perspective.

And I think it's encouraging for people because what you're

saying is you don't have to.

Change the way you are and just be in this present mode where you just constantly

are blocking everything out, there's a way to engage both past and present and

future in a way that's, that doesn't cause a tremendous amount of stress.

So if I'm a business leader, if I'm, if I've got a team of people and I'm

trying to develop people, what's some advice that you would give to me?

either for, I guess we'll start with ourselves.

to deal with some of the stress that people.

Are feeling in their work, at their

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: so what I, so as an example, I say to

people like my one year old grandson, he literally, he doesn't have the

ability to envision the future.

Which is great because then he doesn't worry.

So my one year old grandson does not worry.

He doesn't go, How are we going to pay for college when I get old enough?

How am I, that doesn't, it doesn't go through his head.

He can't do that.

And so his life is less stress, but he also needs somebody to

keep check, keep track of him so he doesn't get in trouble, right?

So one of the things that I talk about is, so worry is, here's what I found.

When I ask patients in my office, They would come in and say, Dr.

Sprouse, I worry that I worry too much.

And I'm like, that probably means you are worrying too much.

Yeah.

So I would say, how to tell me what worry is.

And so I would say to your business leaders, when you say, Hey, I'm

worried what's going to happen with the business in the future.

if you don't know what worry is, then how are you going to fix it?

How are you going to change it?

And so I would challenge people.

It's tell me what worry is.

And they'd come up with some, they go, I got this.

And then they're like, Oh yeah, actually it's harder than I thought.

So this is the definition that I came up with.

So worry is taking that incredible.

Unparalleled human skill of being able to envision the future.

And here's the key then focusing on all the bad things that can happen.

And then the last, which is the most critical is having

a fear reaction right now.

So what you're doing is you're having this physiological fear reaction to this idea,

this concept, this thing that's in the future that hasn't happened yet, but the

physical reaction is happening right now.

So you're having panic attack about something that hasn't

even happened yet because you've just thought it might happen.

So the difference is, so my dog will sit here, like she just did this today.

We had some worker come over to do something and she got up

and she barked at him and they were like, stand down soldier.

And it's but then as soon as she stood down and the guy went away,

she went back to hanging out and just laying there like a rug.

But as a human, we could say, Oh, what if that guy had a gun?

What if I was outside and I hurt my leg and I couldn't run away?

We can conjure up all these bad things.

And then having that fear reaction that just goes on.

And for my dog, as soon as the guy walked away where she couldn't

smell him anymore, she was fine.

For me, I could just think of something and I could have that reaction.

So there's nothing to make it stop.

That's where people get into trouble.

They just do it over and over and over again.

So I came up with two tools to help people.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: yeah.

Okay.

Yeah,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: So the first tool is what

I call realistic optimism.

So we have that skill of envisioning the future, right?

But instead of focusing on all the bad things that can happen, Hey, what would

happen if we focus on all the good things?

That's the optimism part.

as I was writing my book, I could have said, Oh, I'll never finish this book.

Who am I fooling?

I'm just a doctor.

even if I finish the book, who's gonna buy it?

And even if they buy it, who's gonna get better from it?

that doesn't make you feel very good, right?

That makes you feel bad right now, which then makes you not want to write the book.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: exactly.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: So I use my realistic optimism and

say, Hey, I'm going to be optimistic.

I'm going to say, this book's going to be awesome.

I'm going to be at Dallas's show telling everybody about this book

and people are going to get it and they're going to do better with it.

And they're going to get all these feedbacks.

That makes you feel good.

And you're like, yeah, let's go.

Let's write this book.

You can't run around in your life with rose colored glasses.

So that's where the realism part.

So it's realistic optimism.

So up until I was been practicing for 38 years, I didn't quit my day job to

do the book because I know way too many authors that you're not making a living

out of writing books for most authors.

And so I had to be realistic and say, okay, when I retire, then

I can start switching over and spend more time marketing the

book and get into people's hands.

Because now I have enough money that I can live off that and I don't need the money.

I don't need to work every day to make money.

So that's the realism part.

So when you take realistic optimism, now you're focused on all the

good things that can happen, but you're not ignoring the bad things.

And here's the key.

So the last piece then is the second tool.

He's called the worry organizer.

So what I found was fear is like a big problem when you're worried, like that's

the major component of worry is fear.

You're afraid what's going to happen.

So you can plan, but without fear.

And that's where the worry organizer comes in.

So as an example, I had a patient that came in who had breast cancer or no,

excuse me, she didn't have breast cancer.

She was worried she was going to have breast cancer.

So

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Oh

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: it's divided into five columns.

So the first column is.

what is it that you worry about?

So she was like, I'm worried that I'm going to get breast cancer.

And I'm like, second column, why would you worry about that?

And she goes, my mother and my sister both got breast cancer.

And I'm like,

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Wow.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: and you go, how likely is it to happen?

And if it did happen, how bad would it be?

So in her case, I said, so I asked her those questions and she said,

oh, it's a hundred percent likelihood that I'm going to get breast cancer.

Okay.

And if I get breast cancer, it's a hundred percent that I'm going to die.

And I was like, if you're living your life with those statistics,

then you're basically a dead woman.

No wonder you're stressed out because you're basically dead.

So what I said to her was, look, now that we're looking at numbers, we're looking at

statistics, I'm going, here's the numbers.

So if you have a family history of breast cancer, your chances

of getting breast cancer are 15%.

And she's wait, that's all.

And I was like, yeah, that's all.

And I go, and because we're going to catch her early, your chances

of surviving breast cancer, 85%.

And you would have thought she was a new woman.

Like you saw like her body language just changed right in front of my eyes.

Because I'd given her life back, or she got her life back, as long as

she believed my statistics, right?

So then the next column is what can I do to make it not happen?

And then you're like, okay, you can get mammograms and do self

correct exams and do blood tests for Brachygenes and blah, blah, blah, right?

And then the last column, and this is the one where people, they get into trouble

if they don't do it, which is, okay, let's say you did get breast cancer.

What could you do now?

What can you plan if you got breast cancer?

So you can research the best cancer institutes.

You can make sure your will's done.

You can make sure your husband and your sister have signed an agreement

that they're going to take care of the kids if, after you pass.

Here's the dress I want to get put in.

you plan out all this stuff.

Even for the negative things, but you plan out and you don't do it with fear.

That's the key.

So now you're just planning, but no fear.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I like that.

it's just, it takes it and puts it into a lot of what you can control.

Whereas, I feel like when you described it earlier about the fear response and the

reaction, it's all the things that were out of your control that you dwelled on,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: That is correct.

that even happened yet.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah, it hadn't even happened, but it's

if this happened and these things, which were out of my control all happened to me

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yes.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: way, like you, you mentioned being out

in the yard and, Oh, this guy had a gun and I broke my leg and I couldn't

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I mean, the things that now running

away is not in your control, and that's what you're afraid you, this fear of

control and lack of control, whereas what you've done is you've repositioned

it with your personal control.

With your organizer into saying, let's get the facts.

Let's be real.

Let's understand the situation and get clarity around what's going on.

And then we're going to, instead of focusing on what's out of our

control, we're going to bring our focus back on what's in

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: I like that.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: that

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: teaching me something.

I like this.

This is good.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: no, I

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: I

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: she, that's.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: that I've learned a lot from other

people when I give it, not, I think I'm the expert telling people

what to do and then they teach me something like, all right, fine.

Teach me.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: no, just what I was

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: You always got to be a student

and this is the way it works.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: that's really great though.

I think that's that this just reframing that focus in, in what you're doing

is giving people a tool that gives them back control or refocuses

their mind on the control they have.

So I think

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I think

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: I think you said that

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: it.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: all the idea that they're talking about

facts too, because what I see is people start, they get something in their

head and it becomes a fact and then you find an expert and you're like, Oh,

no, that's not really the way it is.

And if you've been living your life based on some piece of information,

That turns out not to be true.

yeah, I could see how you would react more strong.

if you thought you were going to die from breast cancer,

yeah, you'd be freaking out.

But if you found out it was only 15%, that's still a big number.

I'm not, that's not, I'm not sneezing at the number, but it's not a

hundred percent, that's for sure.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: What do you feel like is

people's biggest challenge?

With with stress, they just stayed in that stress cycle.

It was there.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Well, that's why, so the bottom line,

here's the first thing that I found.

Was most people don't really understand what these things are.

Like when I would say, what's worry, they were like, uh, what's guilt.

You know, what's low, what's self esteem.

what is that?

Right.

And what, why do I feel overwhelmed?

So what, the first thing that I had to figure out was how to define

these things in great detail.

So I use diabetes example.

So doctors a hundred years ago, diabetes was.

is too high.

That's all we knew.

So then your advice was, okay, we'll eat less sugar.

And for some people that worked, if they're a hundred pounds

overweight, maybe they got better.

Right.

But as we started learning more about diabetes and realized, Oh, it has to

do with your stomach hormones, and your insulin levels, and your insulin

transport, and your liver, right?

So now with that, with the more information, we got better tools.

So now diabetes isn't nearly as scary.

And as doctors, I'm, in my own 38 years, the changes that we've gone through

and how we treat diabetes is dramatic.

And what I see with stress was, is that same, we were back at,

diabetes is too much sugar.

It's worry is bad.

Like still don't do it.

Just live for today and don't do it.

And it's no.

So when you start defining what it is, then you can come up with tools.

That didn't make sense to what the problem was.

it's not worry by itself is bad because worry actually not a bad thing because

if I don't, if I just run around with my rose colored glasses and don't pay

attention to bad things that happen, bad things are going to happen, right?

but being able to prepare for it without the fear, that's when you get

to use that amazing skill, but for your benefit without the side effect.

How good is that?

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I think too.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: And I would say that to your

business leaders, right?

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: leaders, instead of operating

their business out of fear, operate it with a realistic optimism.

Say, Hey, we're going to focus on this is going to be great.

And yet, but we got to make sure that we pay attention, that bad things could

happen and we got to plan for them.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I think that's a great example,

especially for owners, business owners, team leaders, coaches.

Because when you look at even the tool that you described about worry organizers,

like I was having a conversation the other day with gentleman who was just really.

Stressed and frustrated at one of his team members and we get into talking

about it and he, and I could tell, you could tell when he just was speaking

on the phone, it was just like this unbelievable, like negative energy.

He was already like in the zone, I've just got to do, I need to know what to do.

And he was, ready to , hit the button and, kick this guy out.

And as you get to talking through it and understanding the situation and just

saying, well, you know, is this guy bad?

Is he a bad boy?

No, no, he's great.

What's everybody think about?

Oh, he's one of the most valued employees here.

Everybody loves him.

And it's like this one little thing over here that's just

aggravating me and stressing me out.

It's why is that stressing you out?

Well, because of this and this, and it's okay, but what you're doing as a

team leader, if you could go through that tool, the worry organizer and

understand, it's just the same process of saying, well, what is it about

this situation that's really stressing me out or really driving me crazy?

And then is it.

Is it really true?

Is it really, likely to happen?

And what's the real consequence?

Because this guy was ready to, run the guy out, micromanage him out the door.

And I was like, is that what you really

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yes,

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: No, no, that would be terrible.

And I'm like, that's what you're setting up here.

I think it, if we're operating out of fear, drives us to make these

decisions that we would not make if we were cool, if we were, if

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: absolutely.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: if you're cool, you're not going

to make that the same decision.

So I think that's a really important, topic for

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: a couple of things that the

worry organizer does, which is one, it makes you write it down.

And what I found is when people have it running in their head, it just

goes over and over because again, there's nothing to make it stop.

So it just runs over and over again.

It wakes you up at two o'clock in the morning.

You're right.

So when it's written down.

It makes you focus because you have to write it down.

And second off, when you wake up in the middle of the night, unless

you have some new thought about it, it's already written down, you're

like, Oh, I already wrote it down.

It's good.

And it keeps them separate because here's the other big problem that

people get into is, and this is what patients will come into.

I do this every once in a while.

I call it lumping.

Okay.

So lumping is, Hey, I got this problem.

And then you're like, Oh yeah.

And then this problem came.

And then this problem came and, Oh my God, another problem came.

And then I don't know why people do this because what we

do and you're like, Oh yeah.

And I forgot, let me find that other thing and throw that up on top too.

And it, So now you end up with this lump of stuff, just overwhelming.

So that's one of the chapters overwhelming.

you got all these worries and guilts and regrets and self esteem issues as well.

And you just got this huge mound of crap.

You don't even know where to get started.

you're like way past coping skills.

And you're stuck.

And you're like, whoa, what do I do?

I don't know.

I'm like, I don't know what to do.

And it's so what I found was when people are lumping, one of the things

they lump is these worries, Oh, I'm worried this is going to happen.

This is going to happen.

This is going to happen.

This guy, and then they're stuck.

So by keeping them in pieces of paper, you can write down one worry at a time.

So they're now separate.

So one of the answers to getting overwhelmed.

Is I caught my shoe box theory.

It came from a friend of mine, Melissa.

So if you walked in a room in your bedroom and there were a hundred shoe boxes all

over the place, the bottom here, the lever there, the left, the right, the paper,

and there's a hundred and they're just thrown all over the freaking place, right?

You would go, ah,

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: But if you walked in the same room

and you had the same amount of boxes, but they're put together, the box is

there, the lid's on top, the shoes are inside and they're stocked up

in the closet, same amount of boxes.

But now it's not overwhelming.

So when I have people come and they come in and they're lumping, I go shoe box.

And they go, yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Great.

So then you just take down one shoe box and you look in and you figure

out what to do and you put it back and you put it back in the closet.

That's not overwhelming.

it's when you let them all lumped in together.

That's when you get overwhelmed.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I think that to your point, I think the

writing things down, I think so many times leaders want a solution, but they're

not willing to do the mundane things that leaders do that make them great.

I mean, great leaders are great because they're not just great

when they're given a speech.

They're great when they're dealing with their stress in the middle of the night

at two o'clock, it's, everybody's going to have these things that, that keep

you up, but the great leaders are the ones that are willing to do the mundane.

And you may hear what you just said, and I guess I don't

want anybody to dismiss that.

Someone may be listening that says, yeah, he just said, write it down.

I don't have time for that.

Man, what you're saying when you say that to yourself, I just want you to hear

yourself saying that is what you're saying is I'm not prioritizing my own mental

health from a physician who's seen a lot of people like me, who's got a solution.

That's a really simple solution that doesn't cost me a penny other than a,

maybe a big pen and a piece of paper.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: to their defense, what I would say

to people is writing it down does take more effort, no question about

it, but you only have to do it once.

When you think about something, you have to do it over and over again.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: and

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: And when you only have to do it once in

the end, it's actually way more efficient.

And the second is particularly if you're working with a team by writing it down,

nobody has to figure out what's in your head because it's written down and now

everybody can chime in because it's like with this patient, she had her own idea.

She'd had her own information.

You had her own sources.

But when she shared with me what she was thinking, then I could share with her

what I knew and my facts and figures.

And so together as a team, we were able to help her out.

So you're a boss and you got five people on your team.

And you're doing a worry organizer and you get to say, okay, what

can we do to make it not happen?

And then what can we do if it does happen now?

It's not just one person thinking that up.

Now you got a team and it's I just, I'm just reading this book called

from Napoleon Hill called thinking grow rich, which was probably

written in 1930 or something.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: sure was.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: But the book is still relevant to today.

And what he talks about is having a group, a mastermind group.

And that's what the order organizer allows is here's your mastermind group and now

five people using all their experience and all their information and all the

things that they've learned are all put working together on the same problem.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I love that.

And, I think that's, again, just another way to use the worry organizer

is not necessarily just for you to see just for your eyes only.

maybe some things are, but.

That you could totally use that organizer to push it out as a

team and say, Hey, I need, these are the things I'm worried about.

We need to work on as a team.

we're not meeting our production goals.

We're not meeting our sales goals, whatever.

Here's the things that I'm worried about.

Now let's work on this as a team and put it

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

and it becomes a to-do list, right?

When you're doing, here's the things that you start making the list and now you can

organize the list and start prioritizing.

You got, okay, this we need to do today.

This can wait till next week.

This can wait till next year.

But now you got a list and now you can start going, okay, let's do it.

Right?

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I love that.

And I think too, just the mental aspect of getting that information out.

It's, it, there is really something to putting pen to paper

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: absolutely.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: It's amazing how that

just, you just feel better.

It's like you said, you are organizing your shoe boxes

and you're just getting that.

So it's not like you have to keep thinking about it because

you know it's safe on the paper.

It's not gonna go away.

It's right there, but it doesn't, it can be on, it can live on

the paper and not in your brain.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

So there's two physiological reasons that happens.

One is because when you're trying to think, which is an amazing skill that

we have, but half your brain has to remember what it is you're thinking about.

So when it's written down on a piece of paper, now all of your brain can

start thinking about how to solve the problem, as opposed to only half your

brain, because half has to remember.

Oh, yeah.

What was that thing I was supposed to worry about?

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: right,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: your brains will think remembering

what it is supposed to worry about, it can't help focus on the problem.

If it's written down, then you can just focus on the problem,

not worry about remembering.

And the second thing is by seeing it in different sensory inputs.

So instead of it a voice in your head telling you stuff, now you're looking

at through your eyes, you're hearing people talk to you, you're, you can

touch it, you're writing with it, you get a more, kinesthetic feeling to it.

It changes how you process the information.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: feel like that sometimes when you do

that, and I've experienced this myself is when you write those things down

and you look at it and you go, that doesn't even seem as near as bad as what

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Oh, absolutely.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: in my head, it just looks

different to your point.

It just looks different.

And it's Oh, that's in my head.

It was just, massive, Sasquatch running around in the forest of my mind.

And on paper, it's like, it's not that bad.

It looks like a little fur ball, you know, that's

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Well,

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: deal.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: putting numbers to it

makes a difference, right?

So one of my fun examples is like a kid is, 16 year old comes home to

his mom says, Hey, I want to go to a concert and you're like, Oh, you're 16

or I just got your driver's license.

And you're like, all right, you can go, right?

And then he goes, oh, yeah, but it's in another state and

you just went from wait, what?

No You can't be like, wait, what?

I'm just going to a concert.

What's the way?

What?

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: yeah,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: so then you start arguing and then

you're a snotty little teenager and you're a controlling mother and right?

And I like with the way you organize what you say is okay What's the chances

of me getting into trouble and it's the same whether you're in this state or

the next state But then the next column, which is, how dangerous is it, that's

where it changes because then you go, Oh, because in this state, I know the

police and I know what the rules are and it's not that far away in another state.

I don't I can't help you out there.

So what changed was the numbers of the likelihood of getting into trouble

didn't change, but the number of here's the things that happen like that.

I, the dangerousness of it changed.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: and here's the beauty.

So instead of arguing with that, your mom's a controlling pain in the butt and

you're a snotty teenager, you go, Oh, I think it's 5 percent or I think it's 10

percent or let me call a policeman from that state and see, blah, blah, blah.

So now you can start having objective things that you can talk about.

And you can start, become objective instead of subjective.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: No, that's really good.

And I, I think that's really what the worry organizer does again, with the

first tool of realistic optimism and it just helps you work through that.

And like you said, become more objective.

You mentioned before the show, we were talking about this unique trip that you

had out West to another city called Salt Lake and it happened to involve a scooter.

So tell us a little bit about that scooter trip.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: So this is fun, right?

So my wife and I fly into Salt Lake City and we're going to rent a car and we're

going to drive up through Glacier National Park, up to Canada, through Banff,

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: wow.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: through Yellowstone, right?

All these places.

But we're, we started in Salt Lake City and we're like, Hey, neither of

us have ever been to Salt Lake City.

So let's take a trip.

So we looked it up and we found this trolley tour that took us on a trip

around Salt Lake city and the two people that were the guides were dressed

up in period clothes and they were telling the stories about Brigham young

and how they got here, blah, blah, blah, this building, that building.

So we looked it up and it goes, okay, you got to meet at this hotel and

it's a mile from where we're staying.

And it's, and we're like, Hey, we got an hour.

Let's just walk.

So we walk our mile.

We walked through Salt Lake, we get down to this place and

it's an empty parking lot.

And we're like, Oh, that doesn't look right.

It's like an old hotel.

They've been closed down.

I'm like, maybe they just decided they're going to use the parking

lot because nobody else is using it.

And that's just going to be their meeting point.

And we saw a sign that said tours here.

So we get there and no, the tour is for an apartment building next door.

And there were no trolleys.

And we're like, Oh, something's wrong here.

So we get out our phone again and instead of looking at their website, we look

at the ticket itself and it says, Oh, you're supposed to meet at the other

hotel, which is back where our hotel was

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Oh

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: like, I don't like.

Then we only have 10 minutes to get there and we got a mile to go.

I'm like, what?

So my wife sees one of those electric scooters and she goes,

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: hmm

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: okay.

Now neither of us have ever ridden a scooter before.

We're like, yeah, we're adventurous.

Let's do it.

So I'm proud of myself that I was able to get on an app, rent a scooter.

Yay.

So she gets on her scooter and I'm trying to rent a second one and it won't let me.

And it's going, you already have one.

I'm like, no, I need a second one.

No, you already have.

I'm like, ah, so mine's we only got eight minutes now.

And she goes, get on.

I'm like, what?

She's get on.

I'm like, what?

So she's now on the front of the scooter like this and I'm standing behind her.

Okay.

And I'm like, holding my hand on the handlebar, right, trying to not fall off.

And now we're, the two of us are riding through Salt Lake City,

trying to get to the street.

And we got eight minutes.

And we're like, Get out of our way!

Get out of the way!

And on the handlebar, it has one of those little bells, and it's

like, Ring, ring, ring, ring!

And we're like, Ah!

Get out of our way!

So we pull up to where the trolley's gonna be, and just as we're turning

the corner, the trolley takes off.

And we're like, No!

Right?

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: oh,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: like, this can't be.

And I'm like, you know what?

It's a trolley for visitors.

So it's going to have to stop somewhere.

Follow that trolley.

So now we're both on the scooter and we're riding into it.

And we're like, we're following the trolley and we're like, stop.

Right.

And I'm sure the trolley driver was like, there's some crazy people waving at us.

So it gets to a red light and we're like, yes.

And just as we pull up, the red light turns green and it turns.

I'm like, no.

So we followed for three or four blocks.

Finally, it stops and I knock on the door and the door opens up and the

guide goes, are you Gary and Terry?

And like, yes.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: oh, wow, that

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: story.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Happy ending.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: it sounds like an, episode

of the amazing race

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: It does.

Right.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: man.

You know,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: on a scooter.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: So later on in our trip, we ended up

visiting Calgary and they had this thing where you take a scooter and

you tour the city with a guide, right?

So he takes you around on scooters.

And so my wife and I were like, Oh, we're experts now.

Right.

And we had our own scooter.

And so we're like, and it was a great way to see the city

because better than a bike.

Cause it was.

You didn't have to worry about it and you didn't have to

literally, you didn't do anything.

You just moved your finger with a bike.

You got a pedal and all that kind of crap.

and it was way better than a car because you could go places where you couldn't go.

And it was way better than walking.

Cause with walking, you couldn't go very far.

So we literally saw half of Calgary just by riding around on the scooter.

So that was cool.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: That's so cool.

That's so cool.

Now I want to talk a little bit about, you have another book

out that you're a co author on

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yes.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: called mindset matters.

This is amazing.

tell everybody who you co authored

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

So, so Jack Canfield, who was one of the coauthors of chicken soup for the soul

and all the books that sold from there, he sold like, It was 500 million books.

I think he's up to 600 million now.

And you're like, come on, seriously.

And here, I'm going to give you this number.

The average author sells 250 books.

That's the average author.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Yes.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Jack Hanford who sold 600 million.

there's a whole lot of other people on the other end of 250 to make that come out.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

It's a lot of folks that brings that average

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah, exactly.

Right.

Had the opportunity to work with him and there's 29 other people and we

all wrote one chapter of the book.

And when I got the opportunity, I was like, you know what, this is what I

found and we've been talking about this, your mindset really does matter in

terms of how you approach the problem.

So I was just talking to, my stepson and he's been a little depressed about

where he's working and things like that.

And I'm like, look, you have to see life as choices when you see it as a choice.

if you say I have to go to work.

That implies there's no choice to it.

When you say, I would rather go to work than live in a tent, or I would rather go

to work than, and have food on my table, like you don't have to, you could say, you

know what, I'm not going to work today.

I don't want to go live in a tent.

I'm going to be a homeless person and go live out on the street.

I'll survive.

But you know, there's difficulties when you're living out on the street.

And so when you say to yourself, Hey, I'm making the choice that I

want to go to work because I want to make money and be able to do these

other things, then you see it as a choice, then it's so much easier.

So I had a patient and he was like 64 and he was going to retire in the next year.

And he was working for the state and he was, but he was really like, he

came in all aggravated and upset.

I'm like, what's the matter?

He goes, I really want to retire, but I can't.

And my boss wants me to, he's trying to get rid of me.

So he's giving me all these crap jobs and he's just upset.

And I'm like, why still working?

He goes, because I want to work that extra year because my retirement

goes off and he gives me 25 years instead of 20 and whatever, number of

different reasons that his life would be better if he worked that last year.

And I was like, what would happen if you quit now?

And he goes, I'd be alright, but I'd be better if I waited a year.

And I was like, oh, so you're working because you're choosing to work.

And then he stepped back and he goes, huh, yeah, I guess I am.

And I go, if you're going to choose to work, then you're going to say, I don't

mind doing crappy crap for a year, because at the end of that year, I'm going to have

some benefits from it, so it's worth it.

And I go, yes.

And I go, let's think about this.

How much leave time do you have?

He goes, dude, I got 500 days of leave time or something.

Cause he basically never take leave his whole life or something.

like, look at this.

Like you have enough time.

You could take off once a month.

You could take a week off every month for the next 12 months.

So now you work three weeks.

You take a week off, you work three weeks, you take a week off.

How bad would that be?

He goes, oh yeah.

So just by changing his mindset, he went from being miserable for a whole another

year to go on, Hey, this is kind of nice.

I'm easing into my retirement.

I got a week off and then I go work for three weeks.

How bad can it be for three weeks?

Knowing that at the end of that three weeks, I got another week to take

off and I'm going to get paid anyway.

and then at the end of the year, I'll get all the benefits.

Yay.

And it all was about mindset.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: mindset, 100%.

That's awesome.

And so the process, did you, were you able to, collaborate or meet,

Jack ever in the process of all that?

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: So in process of writing the book,

no, but after, yeah, we, so there were a couple of different opportunities

where you got to sit down with Jack.

So we did literally, I just came back from LA and we'd had a dinner

with Jack and it was really nice cause he's like 80 years old now and

he's still pretty vibrant, right?

And you're like, and I said to him like, Why are you working this hard?

You're 80 freaking years old.

and his CEO is like, yeah.

And his wife tells him every day he should be retired.

And I go, yeah, I'll bet.

But he, yeah, he works hard and his mind.

Like he helped me with my first book.

He gave me some critiques on it.

And it was like, yeah, I was a little nervous because you'd paid

to get his critique and his whole team spent a half an hour with you.

And you're like, Oh, what's he going to say?

But then he came out and he said, I thought your book was amazing.

I learned a lot from your book.

everybody needs to read this book.

And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was nice.

So yeah, I've gotten to spend a fair amount of time with him and he's, he wrote

this book called the success principles.

That's what he's been doing lately and they're good stuff, but he said the

American version is 600 pages long.

And when he wanted to print it in England, they were like, no.

Britt is going to wear read a 600 page book.

So cut it out.

So he literally had to cut out half the book when he's put it in England.

It was like, okay.

Yeah, good stuff.

Yeah.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: But he had printed, he printed

a 600 page book with success principles in the U S that's amazing.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: That's good.

Actually.

Yeah.

I mean, so Jack Canfield, like Tony Robbins, like this guy, Napoleon Hill.

These are people that have been changing people's lives for a long time.

And I'm like, I'm just, there are times and I'm like, ah, why can't I change

more people's lives like right now?

And I'm like, it took me 11 years to learn how to be a doctor

and 38 years of practicing.

And these guys have been doing this for decades.

All right, fine.

All right.

I'll have to be patient.

Wait a little bit longer.

All right.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

Just cut yourself some

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah, a little bit.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: You're doing a great job.

That's awesome.

It's just been, the most fun show.

I really do appreciate your wisdom and insight.

I think that you're, worry organizer tool and, just your understanding

of stress and how you can help.

You encouraged a lot of people today.

I think that's been really phenomenal.

And I'm sure there's a lot of business leaders who appreciate

that, who appreciate your wisdom and time in that regard.

And obviously you have a ton of experience in dealing and helping people deal

with stress and so that's really great.

if we wanted to let the listeners know how to get in touch with you

and your work, what are the ways that they would get in touch with you?

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Okay.

So obviously the books are out there where you can read them

and then get that information.

Second is I have a website called the last dress doc.

com.

And then I have an email.

at gmail.

com and call me and, get in touch with me any of those ways.

I'm actually doing my own podcast, which is really fun.

I can see why you guys do this.

Like I'm having a great time.

So it's called happiness highway.

So come listen to that one too.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Okay.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: wrote a theme song to it.

What?

Yeah.

So yeah, that was cool to say.

You had to listen to the song.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I'll have to listen to that.

That's so awesome.

You're a man of many talents, right?

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Absolutely.

Yeah.

We didn't even get to talk about karaoke.

Come on.

What?

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I know.

Hey, so you did, we did say that in the introduction.

so I have another friend of mine who is a raving fan of karaoke to the point where

it's wow, that he takes it so seriously.

So are you a raving karaoke fan that takes it so seriously?

Or did somebody, did you lose a bet?

Oh,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: wife and I do karaoke around the world.

So we've done karaoke in Iceland, we've done it in Alaska, we did it

in Canada, we've done it on cruise ships, we've done, we did it in Mexico.

So we have fun going around the world doing karaoke.

And so people go, who's the better singer?

I go, Marais is a way better singer.

But I'm the better entertainer, right?

So that's why I tell people, there have been, I do, I'll do a karaoke

show where I'll get dressed up.

So one, this is funny.

I get, 20 years ago, I got dressed up as Prince.

So I had this full length velour purple jacket.

I had these stiletto three inch heels that were like, and I'm

like, I had like spandex pants on.

I had a wig, right?

Dude, I was awesome, right?

So I'm singing I don't know if I can say this now.

So one of the ladies came out and I said, I'm singing the song Cream.

I don't know if you know the song or not.

But it's a very sexy song, right?

And the DJ was the DJ for my wedding.

We had a karaoke wedding, but we've known her for 15 years now.

And so I'm, he was taking a break and I'm talking to him.

This lady comes up to me and she says, goes, Eddie, you're so great.

I love you.

I remember when you used to be at this other place.

And she goes, yeah, that was 20 years ago.

She goes, I remember there was some guy that was dressed up as Prince.

And he literally, without saying a word, he just turns and points to me.

And she goes, Oh my God, it's you.

You're the guy who dressed up as Prince.

And I'm like, yeah, that was me.

And she goes, this is the best part.

She goes, I still have you on my phone.

She pulled up her pictures and I'm there on her phone 20 years later.

And I'm like, Oh my God, download, give me that picture.

I need that.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: is so funny.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Don't know about your

friend, he's serious.

But I take it to a whole different level.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: you definitely take it to, I think, actually,

I think you and him would get along just

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Probably, right?

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: he's a showman as well.

but I mean, Hey, I don't know if he's ever dressed up as Prince.

So like that's,

Sprouse, I appreciate you being on the show today and I thank you for letting

everybody know we'll have to, when is the mindset matters coming out?

When is that?

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: So that's out.

So it came out about two months ago.

That's how it got to be number one.

Got to be a number one bestseller.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: Okay.

So it's already out.

All right.

So congratulations on your number one bestseller.

Congratulations on also, your, the other, your first book.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Yeah.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: we'll just, we'll put these, items in

the show notes and, we'll have to have you back on the show again and, finish

our conversation about stress and other,

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Do not resign yourself to

live in a stressed out life.

There are ways to have a better life.

There's ways you can spend way more time in your happy place

and have lots less stress.

Don't resign yourself to the, oh, this is the way it's got to be.

No, it doesn't have to be that way.

There's ways out.

dallas-burnett_24_10-15-2024_124945: I love it.

couldn't set it better.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Sprouse for your wisdom and thanks for being on the last 10%.

gary-sprouse-the-less-stress-doc_1_10-15-2024_124945: Thank you for having me on.

This has been great.