Cognitive Capacity: Why Smart People Still Make Bad Decisions

Why Smart People Still Make Bad Decisions | Cognitive Capacity | Performance Matters Podcast

Why do brilliant people sabotage their relationships, careers, finances, and future?

The answer may surprise you.

In this episode of Performance Matters, Dr. Lawrence Salone introduces the third domain of the Performance Capacity Framework—Cognitive Capacity. This isn't about IQ, education, or intelligence. It's about how you interpret reality, assign meaning to life's experiences, and make decisions that ultimately determine your performance.

You'll discover:

• Why intelligence alone doesn't guarantee success
• How assumptions and invisible mental filters shape your decisions
• Why stress, information overload, and emotional exhaustion compromise your thinking
• The hidden conversation between Identity, Emotion, and Cognition
• Why two people can experience the same event and arrive at completely different outcomes
• Practical strategies to strengthen your thinking and improve your decision-making
• The difference between Performance Capacity and therapy—and why understanding that distinction matters

If you've ever wondered why you continue repeating the same patterns despite knowing better, this episode will help you understand why.

Key Takeaway:
Your life is rarely limited by your intelligence. More often, it's limited by the meaning you assign to what happens around you. Better thinking leads to better decisions. Better decisions lead to better performance.

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Take the Performance Capacity Index (PCI) to discover where your greatest opportunities for growth exist.

Then join the Performance Matters Community, where we go beyond inspiration and provide practical tools, coaching, assessments, and implementation strategies to help you intentionally expand your capacity and perform at your highest level.

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• Leave a comment: What story have you been telling yourself that may not be true?

Performance isn't about perfection. It's about intentionally expanding your capacity to become who God created you to be.

#PerformanceMatters #CognitiveCapacity #PerformanceCapacity #PersonalDevelopment #Leadership #DecisionMaking #GrowthMindset #EmotionalIntelligence #Identity #Success #ChristianLeadership #FaithAndPerformance #DrLawrenceSalone

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of Empowerment with Dr. Lawrence. I am your host, Dr. Lawrence. Wherever you're seeing this, however you're seeing this, I realize that you could be anywhere else. So thanks for making me a part of your day. Today I want to ask you a question. Why do intelligent people make stupid decisions? Think about that for a moment. Have you ever known someone who was absolutely brilliant? They had multiple degrees, high IQ, successful. I mean, everybody admired them, yet somehow they couldn't manage their finances or they destroyed their marriage. Or, you know, they continue to destroy incredible opportunities. They make these mistakes over and over and over again. Maybe you've worked for somebody like that. Maybe you've been related to somebody like that. Maybe if if we're honest, if we're all honest here in this moment, at some point in time, you've been that person. So what happened? Are they unintelligent? Of course not. Well then why? Because intelligence and cognitive capacity are not the same thing. That's what we're talking about today. And I think this conversation may completely change how you think about success. One of the things that's fascinated me during more than 20 years of working with successful people was that intelligence almost never predicts outcomes. I meet people with PhDs, they can't maintain healthy relationships. I met executives making millions of dollars. They don't handle their stress well. I met extraordinarily gifted people who find themselves repeating these same painful sights. And on the other hand, I've met people with very little education. They possess extraordinary wisdom. They make great decisions, they build healthy families, they lead people well, they solve problems. So they've learned to adapt. They flourish. And I kept asking myself, what explains the difference? So at first I thought it was knowledge, then I thought it was motivation, discipline, habits, their environment. Yeah, all that matters. That's important. But then I realized that those things are way downstream. And but there's something underneath all of that. That's what I call cognitive capacity. And if you've been following this series, you already know that I've defined performance differently. Performing isn't just about athletes or musicians or CEOs or people who stand on stage. Performance is the output of your life, it's what your decisions produce in your marriage, in your parenting, your leadership, your finances, your health. Are you living in a place of peace in your relationships? Look, every single day you're producing something. So the question isn't whether you're performing, the question is what is your performance producing? Today we're going to explore the part of you that determines almost every decision you'll ever make. How you think. Performance is the output of your life. It's what your decisions produce in your marriage, in your parenting, your leadership, your finances, and your health, your overall peace. Every single day you're producing something. So the question isn't whether you're performing. The question is what is your performance producing? Today we're going to explore the part of you that determines almost every decision you'll ever make. That's how you think. Now, let me say something that may surprise you. Your biggest problem isn't what you know, it's how you process what you know. So think about that. Information has never been more available. You have access to almost every written book, every lecture, every podcast, every research article. AI can answer any question you have within seconds. Yet anxiety continues to rise, depression continues to rise, conflict continues to rise, people are more lonely than ever. Polarization is everywhere. And if information solved human problems, this would be the healthiest generation in history. Instead, we're drowning in information. We're starving for wisdom. That should tell us something. Knowledge by itself isn't enough. Here's what I've come to believe: the quality of your life isn't determined by how much information that enters your mind, it's determined by how accurately your mind interprets reality. So let me say that again because I think it's one of the most important statements in this series. The quality of your life is determined less by the information you possess and more by the meaning you assign to the information that you receive. Because life doesn't simply happen, life gets interpreted. And interpretation drives decisions. Think about two people who lose their job. One says, this will prove I'll be successful. The other says this hurts. Maybe it's opening a new door. Same event, different interpretation, different decisions, different futures. Or two people receiving criticism. Think about two people receiving criticism. One hears, look, I need to improve. The other hears they hate me. Same words, different interpretations, different outcomes. Let's think about failure. One person concludes, I'm a failure. The other one concludes, well, I failed. Those aren't the same sentence. One attacks their identity, the other evaluates behavior. One produces shame, the other produces growth. The event wasn't different, the interpretation was. And this is why cognitive capacity matters so much because your mind is constantly answering one question. What does this mean? Every conversation you have, every setback, every compliment, every disappointment, every success, every conflict, every opportunity, your brain immediately begins assigning meaning, sometimes within milliseconds. Before you've consciously thought about it, your brain has already started writing a story. The problem is your first interpretation isn't always the correct one. That's where I believe many people get stuck. They don't suffer because life happened. They suffer because of the story they've attached to what happened. And eventually that story becomes their reality. Not because it's objectively true, but because it's repeatedly believed. Which leads me to something I want you to consider. You don't respond to reality, you respond to your perception of reality. Those aren't the same thing. They meet, let me say it this way. That may be one of the most dangerous truths you ever learned. Because if your perception just becomes distorted, your decisions become distorted. And if your decisions become distorted, your performance is going to be distorted. Which is why this episode isn't about becoming smarter. It's about becoming a better thinker. Because those are completely different goals. Today I want to explore what cognitive capacity actually is and why smart people often make poor decisions, how our thinking becomes distorted, and how we recover clear thinking and why scripture places so much emphasis not on changing behavior first, but on renewing the mind. Because if the mind changes, everything else eventually follows. So let's dive in. So let's answer the question: what exactly is cognitive capacity? Because if I asked a hundred people what does cognitive mean, most people would probably answer something like intelligence or IQ or thinking or smart. Somebody even say, you know, uh how you process information. Those answers aren't wrong, it's just incomplete. You know, if we misunderstand what cognitive capacity is, we'll spend our lives trying to improve the wrong thing. So here's how I define it: cognitive capacity is your ability to accurately perceive reality, to process information, assign appropriate meaning, solve problems, exercise sound judgment, adapt new information, and make decisions that consistently move your life toward a desired future. That's a mouthful. So let's simplify that, okay? Cognitive capacity is not simply what you know, it's how you think about what you know. It's not information, it's interpretation, it's not memory, it's judgment, it's not education, it's wisdom and action. Because here's something we've all learned. Knowledge doesn't automatically change behavior. If it did, doctors would never smoke, financial advisors would never go bankrupt, marriage counselors would never get divorced, pastors would never sin. The psychologists of the world would never struggle. None of us would ever make the same mistake twice, but we do. Because knowing and doing are separated by thinking. So let's let's process that, right? Between every event, every behavior, there's a thought. You don't simply react to life, you think about it, sometimes consciously. Most of the time, though, we think about it unconsciously, and those thoughts determine what comes next. Look, let's imagine somebody cuts you off in traffic. That event itself isn't your behavior. What happens next depends on what your mind says. And that guy's a jerk trying to disrespect me. Maybe they're just rushing to the hospital. Maybe they have to use the bathroom. Maybe they didn't even see you. Same event. Four completely different interpretations, four completely different emotional reactions, four completely different behaviors. Nothing changed except the meaning assigned to the event. That's cognitive capacity. Look, one of the greatest misconceptions in our culture is that people make decisions based on facts. We don't. We make decisions based on what we believe the facts mean. There's a huge difference. Look, facts exist. Meaning gets assigned. Facts are objective, meaning is personal. And once meaning gets assigned, emotions follow. Then your behaviors follow. That's why in our framework, identity, emotion, and cognition, you know, these things are all interacting. Identity influences what I expect. Emotion influences how intensely I experience something. Cognition determines what I conclude. And once I've reached a conclusion, my behavior usually follows. This is why you can't isolate one of the domains from another. They're constantly talking to one another. Now, let me let me introduce another concept that I think is absolutely critical. Your brain is not a camera, it's a storyteller. That's worth writing down. Your brain isn't recording life like a video camera, like some little high school girl up there, you know, with World Star. It's it's it's building a narrative, it's answering questions you don't even realize is asking. Why did they say that? What does this mean? Can I trust this person? Am I safe? What happens next? What does this say about me? Every second your mind is constructing a story. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes it isn't. What happens in those moments? Look, I've had people tell me my boss hates me. Like, really? Well, did he tell you that? Well, no. Well, what evidence do you have? Well, he didn't say good morning. Really? That's your evidence. One miss greeting, and you changed your entire narrative. So the story becomes he doesn't value me, which became, you know, I should probably leave, which could become withdrawal. So now you're pulling back, and you got resentment happening, and now your performance is affected. And eventually that relationship is destroyed. Not because the boss hated you, because the employee believed the story that their mind created. We've done that, I've done that, you've done that. Our minds are incredible, but they're not infallible. That's why cognitive capacity is, you know, it's not simply our ability to think, it's the ability to evaluate your own thinking. And that's a completely different skill. In psychology, there's a term called metacognition. It simply means thinking about your thinking. And I like to say it this way: can you step out of your own thoughts for long enough to ask, you know, what if I'm wrong? Am I getting this right? It's one of the hardest things to do. Uh why? Well, because our thoughts feel true. But feelings aren't evidence, thoughts aren't facts, interpretations aren't always reality. High cognitive capacity means I can question my own conclusions before they become convictions. And that's what's becoming incredibly rare these days. Look, we live in a world that rewards certainty. Social media rewards certainty. News media outlets, politicians, algorithms, they all reward certainty. Nobody gets a million views by saying, I might be wrong. Everybody's looking for that absolute confidence. You know, when when the problem is they could be completely mistaken. Certainty feels like a strength, but sometimes, you know, it's arrogance. Wearing confidence as a disguise. Why, wise people, you know, they have something in common. They're very decisive, but they remain teachable. They're willing to say, I need more information. Maybe I hadn't considered that. You might have a point there. I was wrong. That's hard. But it's not weakness, that's cognitive capacity. This reminds me of one of my favorite verses in Proverbs. The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his depths. I love that picture. The simple person accepts every thought that enters their mind. The prudent person examines everything. Not every thought deserves my agreement. Not every emotion deserves my obedience. Not every conclusion deserves my confidence. So part of maturity is learning to interrogate your own mind. So when I talk about cognitive capacity, I'm not asking how smart you are. What I'm really asking is, can you think clearly under pressure? Can you separate facts from assumptions? Can you remain teachable? Can you solve problems instead of creating them? Can you recognize when your own thinking is becoming distorted? Can you change your mind when truth demands it? Because ultimately, your life will rarely outperform your thinking. If your thinking improves, your decisions improve. If your decisions improve, your behaviors improve. If your behaviors improve, your performance improves. That's why I consider cognitive capacity one of the five essential capacities that determine human performance. Because every day, whether you realize it or not, you're making hundreds of decisions. And every one of those decisions begins with a thought. Now that we've defined cognitive capacity, I want to introduce what I believe is one of the most important concepts in this entire episode. Because once you understand this, you'll begin to see it everywhere. Every single one of us views the world through filters. So think about wearing a pair of sunglasses. If the lenses are blue, everything in your world will have a blue tint. If the lenses are yellow, everything's going to look yellow. The world hadn't changed, the filter has. Well, your mind works the same way. None of us experience life completely objectively. We all interpret life through filters that have been developing since childhood. Some of those filters help us, some of them hurt us. The problem is, most people don't even realize they're wearing glasses. Let's do a simple exercise. Okay. Imagine your spouse walks through the house, doesn't say much, seems distracted. One person might think they must have had a difficult day. Another person might think they're upset with me. Third person might conclude they don't appreciate me anymore. Same behavior. Three completely different interpretations. Well, well, which one is true? Maybe none of them. Here's the fascinating thing. Every person responds not to what actually happened, but to the story that they created about what happened. That's how powerful our thinking is. Look, I've often said that people don't respond to reality, they respond to their interpretation of reality. That's why two employees can leave the exact same meeting and tell completely different stories. One says, Our boss really believes in us, and the other one says, Man, we're all about to lose our jobs. Same meeting, same boss, different filters. Now, where do those filters come from? Well, some of these filters come from a family, some come from culture, some come from your successes or your failures, some come from the experiences that we have, the painful ones, the trauma, the great experiences. Some come from our faith. Some come from the people we've chosen to surround ourselves with. And over time, those experiences begin teaching us what to expect. See, your brain loves patterns. It constantly is asking, well, what happened last time? Because it believes the past predicts the future. And sometimes that's incredibly helpful. Sometimes that's incredibly misleading. So, so for example, if I've been lied to repeatedly, my brain might begin expecting dishonesty. Not that everybody lies, it's just because that's that's what your experiences have taught you. If you experience rejection, you may begin to expect rejection. That's all you see is rejection. Even where it doesn't exist. If you know, if you're constantly criticized, compliments may become uncomfortable. You begin questioning people's motives. Why are they saying that? What do they really want? Again, the filter is changing the interpretation. That's why two people can hear the same exact feedback and leave with completely different conclusions, right? One person hears you have room to improve, the other hears they're a failure. Words were identical. Filters were not. Now, here's something we all need to hear. Your mind is incredibly efficient. In fact, it's so efficient that it often finishes people's sentences before they stop talking. Have you ever caught yourself doing that? You know, somebody begins speaking, and before they finish, you already know what they're gonna say. Except sometimes you don't. You simply assume that you did. Well, we do it all the time. I do it all the time. We assume motives, we assume intentions, we assume the outcomes. We assume we understand everyone else's heart. But the truth is we're usually filtering or filling in missing information with our own experiences, not with the facts. So one of the greatest dangers to cognitive capacity is assumption. Assumptions are fascinating because they feel exactly like facts. Let me say that again. Assumptions feel exactly like facts, and that's dangerous because once we assume something, our brain starts looking for evidence to support it. Not evidence to challenge it, not evidence to confirm it, and that's just human nature. Imagine someone believes my co-workers don't respect me. Now, watch what happens. Every delayed email becomes proof, every missed invitation, every disagreement, all that becomes proof. Their brain begins collecting evidence, not because it's searching for truth, it's because it's trying to remain consistent with the story it already believes. That's why changing someone's mind can be so difficult. You're not simply challenging an opinion, you're challenging an entire mental framework. Here's another thing that I want to mention, and I believe it's becoming more dangerous every year. We talked about it earlier. It's called certainty. We live in a culture where everyone feels pressured to have an opinion about everything. Social media is going to reward confidence, not accuracy. News rewards certainty, not curiosity. Politics rewards conviction, not humility. But here's what I've discovered people with the greatest cognitive capacity aren't necessarily the people with the fastest answers. They're the people willing to ask better questions. Instead of saying, I know, they ask, hmm, what am I missing? Instead of assuming, they investigate. Instead of reacting, they reflect. Doesn't make them weak, makes them wise. One of the greatest gifts, one of the greatest gifts you can develop is the ability to interrupt your own thinking. Think about that for a second. Can you stop right in the middle of your own thought process and ask, what if I'm wrong? Look, that question has saved me more embarrassment, more conflict, more poor decisions than anything else I've learned. Because every one of us is capable of believing something that just simply isn't true. Not because we we lack intelligence, it's because we're human. Now, look, before we move on, I want to make something very, very, very clear. Having filters is not the problem. We all have them. It's part of being human. So the question is: are your filters helping you see the world more clearly? Or are they distorting your reality? Because again, if your thinking becomes distorted, the decisions become distorted. And if your decisions become distorted, your performance is going to become distorted. That's why cognitive capacity isn't simply about learning more information, it's about continually refining the lens through which you see the world. And that takes intentionality, it takes humility, a little curiosity, and sometimes you know it takes courage to admit that I've been telling myself something that's completely not true. So, look, if these invisible filters shape the way we think, the next logical question becomes what damages those filters? What causes clear thinking to become cloudy? Because even healthy minds can become compromised. So now we know something important. Every one of us thinks through filters. Those filters shape the meaning we assign to every experience. But that leads us into another question. Why do those filters become distorted? Because no one wakes up in the morning and says, you know what? Today I'm gonna make a terrible decision. Nobody wants that. Nobody intentionally put uh chooses poor judgment. Nobody wants to sabotage their marriage or destroy their business or damage their reputation, you know. You know, I'm gonna today I'm gonna get up and lose every relationship I have, you know. Nah, that's that's not how it happens, okay? But we do it every day. Why? Well, it's because of our thinking, and and our thinking can become compromised, right? I want you to picture a windshield. You're driving your car, okay. When that windshield is clean, you see things clearly. You recognize every hazard in the road, you see what the person's doing next to you in the car, you know where you're going. But what happens when it starts to rain? When it becomes foggy or something splashes on the windshield? Did the road change? No. Your ability to see it changed. And your life works the same way. Many times the problems is in reality. The problem is that our view of reality has become obscured. Look, I've spent 20 years working with successful people from every walk of life. Extraordinary leaders, high performers, you know, regular people, parents, students, executives, military folks, business owners. One thing is painfully obvious. Clear thinking is fragile. It can be disrupted. It can be exhausted. It can become distorted. Not because someone lacks intelligence, but because life has a way of placing tremendous pressure on the human mind. One of the greatest enemies of cognitive capacity is chronic stress. Now, remember what we uh discussed in emotional capacity. Emotions are just indicators. They're trying to communicate something. But when stress is constant, your brain begins shifting priorities. Instead of asking, what's the wisest decision? It begins asking, How do I survive? Completely different question. Think about what happens when you've gone several nights without good sleep. Everything changes. Your patient decreases, you know, all these little small problems, they just be seen enormous. You become more reactive, your creativity drops, your concentration suffers, your judgment is weakened. Did you lose intelligence? No. Your capacity changed. It's just an important distinction. It's one of the reasons I use the word capacity. Capacity can expand, it can shrink. Your intelligence remains the same while your ability to effectively use it can change dramatically. That's true with your emotions. It's true physically, and it's certainly true with cognition. Have you ever noticed that when you're overwhelmed, your world becomes smaller? You stop thinking long term, you stop looking down the road, you stop seeing possibilities. You become so myopic and fixated on one little problem. Uh so your decisions narrow, your creativity narrows, your hope narrows. So what's happening to your future? It narrows. That's what compromised capacity does. Now let's talk about something we don't discuss enough: mental overload. Never in human history have people consumed this much information. Think about your average day from the time you wake up to the time you have your first cup of coffee, text messages, emails, uh, social media. What did the news say? Podcasts, the videos, your meetings, the notifications, AI. Look, your brain is processing thousands upon thousands of pieces of information before you leave the room. And here's the problem: we're not designed to give equal attention to everything. Eventually, you're going to experience decision fatigue. The quality of your thinking is going to decline. Not because you're incapable, because you're overload. Let me tell you something that happened that I learned uh when I was in the army. Uh, I was a signal officer, and at a time I was assigned to a tank brigade, right? And just to frame this, a a platoon typically typically consists of four tanks, right? Four platoons make up a company, about 16 tanks. Four companies make up a battalion, roughly six to four tanks. So imagine this. Imagine sending one platoon to engage another platoon. You don't do that, you send an entire battalion against a single platoon. So 64 tanks against four tanks. So what do you think happens in that battle? It's not an epic battle. It's not what's going to happen. The smaller force becomes overwhelmed. Not because they don't know where to look or who to engage or that their equipment's messed up. They just don't know who gets their attention first. Their ability to process information begins to collapse. They freeze. They're not less trained, they're just overwhelmed. And I wonder if that's exactly what's happening to people every day. Every notification is another tank. Every breaking news alert, another tank. Every email, every social media post, every text message, every demand at work, another tank. Every family responsibility, every financial concern, those are two tanks. Every health issue, every opinion from everybody online. Okay, we're not designed to handle all of that. You know, and it's not that these people are lazy or they don't care. Okay, that they're they lack intelligence. You have an entire battalion attacking a platoon, and eventually the mind doesn't know exactly what overwhelm, the mind does exactly what overwhelm symptoms systems do. It slows down, it narrows its focus. Sometimes it's going to freeze. One of one of the the I'll I'll say it this way. Okay. In an environment where we face 64 tanks every day, one of the greatest acts of wisdom you can do uh isn't consuming more information. Uh, I think it's learning what deserves your attention and what doesn't. I mean, yes, the 64 tanks are out there. Does it mean that I have to engage all 64? No. How many arguments are started because somebody was just mentally exhausted? How many business decisions were altered because somebody was up 12 hours a day for 12 days? I mean, think about that. How many parenting mistakes happened because mom and dad just had nothing left to give? How many regrettable emails were sent before you processed the emotions, right? You send an email cognitively depleted. So sometimes the wisest decision isn't making another decision. Sometimes the wisest decision is getting some rest. There's another factor that we we rarely consider, and that's success itself. Success can actually compromise cognitive capacity. And I know that sounds strange, but think about it. The more successful someone becomes, the less people challenge them. They begin hearing fewer opposing opinions, and people stop correcting them. Employees become hesitant to disagree. Okay, your friends become cautious. Spouses don't want to say much because you got it all figured out. Eventually, that person starts living in an echo chamber. And nobody's, when you know, so when nobody's challenging your thinking, your thinking is going to slow down, it's going to become less accurate. You don't lose intelligence, you just lost the gift of honest feedback. And I think this is becoming one of the greatest challenges of our time. We're creating environments where people are increasingly afraid to tell one another the truth. Sometimes it's because they're afraid of offending somebody, sometimes it's because they're afraid of losing the relationship. Sometimes it's because they might be afraid of losing their job. Well, okay. Are you gonna live in that space and remain silent? You know, look, here's the thing: whatever the reason, when people stop telling us the truth, our thinking begins to drift. Healthy organizations need people who are willing to respectfully disagree. Healthy marriages need spouses who can confront one another in a loving environment. Healthy friendships require honesty. Healthy churches require accountability. Healthy leaders need people who are willing to say, I think you might be missing something. Because the moment everyone around you only tells you what you want to hear, your cognitive capacity begins to decline. Then do anything with your intelligence. You just lost access to perspectives that challenge your own. Every echo chamber feels comfortable, but comfort and truth are not the same thing. Sometimes the greatest gift another person can give you is respectful disagreement because disagreements force us to examine our thinking. And examine thinking, it almost produces better decisions. Always produces, let me say it that way, it always produces better thinking. One of the things that I've learned and tried to do throughout my career is surround myself around with people who aren't impressed by my title. I don't need everybody to agree with everything that I say. I need people who care enough about me to tell me when I'm wrong. Because I'm not trying to protect my ego, I'm trying to improve my judgment. Those are those are two different goals. Look, let's bring this back to our first episode where we talked about identity capacity. If my identity is insecure, my thinking becomes defensive. I don't evaluate criticism. You know, I start rejecting it, right? Not because it's inaccurate, because it threatens who I believe that I am. So think about that. Sometimes people don't reject truth because it's false. They reject truth because it threatens their identity. That's where identity capacity and cognitive capacity are inseparable. Now let's connect cognitive capacity to emotional capacity. When your emotions become overwhelming, our thinking becomes reactive, right? Fear exaggerates danger, anger, you know, exaggerates offense, you know, anxiety exaggerates uncertainty. Shame, you know, exaggerates failure. Notice what happens. The emotions begin influencing the interpretation. And once the interpretation changes, the decisions change. This is exactly why we discuss emotional capacity before cognitive capacity. Your emotions don't have to control your decisions, but they are absolutely influenced if your thinking is left unchecked. I think one of the greatest examples of compromise capacity. Oh gosh, say that three times fast. They'll never change, I'll never succeed. Those statements usually don't come from evidence, they come from exhaustion. When people become depleted, temporary circumstances begin feeling permanent. That's compromised thinking. One of the things I've learned over the years is you know, our mind has a tendency to magnify whatever it focuses on. If all you consume is fear, fear becomes your reality. If all you consume is outrage, that becomes your reality. If all you're consuming is negativity, eventually you're going to start expecting negativity everywhere that you go. The world didn't change. Your attention changed. And your intention influences your interpretation. And I want to make something very, very clear here. Everything we discussed today stress, uh, fatigue, information overload, identity, emotions, none of those automatically mean someone has a mental illness. There's an important distinction. Every human being experiences seasons where their cognitive capacity is diminished. That's part of being human. So the goal isn't perfection, the goal is awareness. Because once you're aware that your thinking may be compromised, you can slow down a little bit. You can begin asking better questions, you can seek wise counsel, you can postpone major decisions until a time where you're thinking more clearly. It's not weakness, it's wisdom. You know, maybe that's one of the greatest signs of cognitive capacity. Not believing every thought that you have, not acting on every emotion you feel, not assuming every conclusion is correct, but having the humility to pause and ask, am I seeing this clearly? That single question has probably prevented more broken relationships, more, you know, uh poor financial decisions, career mistakes, personal regret than any other question that you can ask yourself. So look, we've talked about what cognitive capacity is. We've talked about the invisible filters that shape our thinking, we've talked about what compromises our ability to think clearly. Now let's bring this into everyday life because cognitive capacity isn't just a theory. You see it. You see it at home, you see it at work, you see it in leadership, you see it in your parenting relationships, your marriage, you see it in business. Look, let's look what it looks like when cognitive capacity is either healthy or compromised. Now let's move from theory to real life because cognitive capacity isn't something that only matters in a therapist's office or in a boardroom or in a classroom. It shows up in ordinary moments, the conversations that we have, the decisions that we make, the assumptions that we form, the stories that we tell ourselves. In fact, most of the decisions that shape your life aren't made during major crises. They're made in ordinary moments that quietly accumulate over time. So let's look at a few examples, five examples exactly. So we're gonna start with marriage. So imagine a husband comes home from work. He's usually he's unusually quiet. He walks in, he puts his keys on the counter, answers a few questions with some short responses, and he sits down. Well, immediately his wife begins interpreting what she's seeing. Is he upset with me? Must have done something wrong. He's pulling away. He doesn't even want to talk to me anymore. Well, within 30 minutes, she's emotionally withdrawn. He's confused because he doesn't understand what changed. Finally, she says, What's your problem? And he responds, Look, I just had a difficult day. Now think about what happened. The conflict didn't begin with his silence, it began with the interpretation of his silence. The story became the reality, not because it was true, but because it was believed. How many arguments have started? Not because of the facts, but because of the assumptions. Let's look at our second example in the workplace. Let's go to work, right? Uh your supervisor walks past your office. Normally they stop and talk. Today they don't. That's it. That's all that happens. They didn't stop by. Now your mind starts working. Did I do something wrong? Maybe, maybe they're disappointed in me. I wonder if I'm getting ridden up. I've noticed they've been talking to Sarah more. I bet they're replacing me. And by lunchtime, an entire narrative has been created. And by the end of the day, your attitude didn't change. Your performance is changing, your interactions have changed, and none of it was based on evidence. It was based on an interpretation. The next day you find out they just had they were going to an emergency meeting. That's cognitive capacity. Or maybe that's compromised cognitive capacity. Let's look at the third example, right? Leadership. All my leaders out there, y'all listen up. I work with y'all for years. I'm a leader, right? I can say this. One of the biggest mistakes that I see is confusing confidence with certainty. Healthy leaders make great decisions. Great leaders, they continue evaluating those decisions, though. There's a difference. Weak leaders surround themselves with agreement. Strong leaders, they surround themselves with the truth. Weak leaders become defensive. Strong leaders lean in and become curious. Weak leaders protect their image. Strong leaders protect the mission. One of the greatest signs of cognitive capacity isn't always having the answer. It's being willing to reconsider the answer. Let's shift to parenting. Okay, you've seen this, I've seen this. Your teenager comes through the door, they get to that bedroom, they slam the door, they don't say much, and immediately our mind goes all over the place. You might think that they're disrespectful, you know, they don't appreciate what you do. You're slamming my doors. They got an attitude for sure. Sometimes that's true. Or what if they failed a test? What if one of their friendships ended? What if they're embarrassed about something? Okay, what if they just exhausted? I mean, the point is our first interpretation isn't always correct. One question, one question, just one question, can save hours of unnecessary conflict. So instead of assuming, you know, let's get curious. Hey, why don't you go over there? Open the door. Hey, tell me about your day. Curiosity often accomplishes what confrontation never could. Last example, the most example, say the best is for lastis. Okay, we're gonna talk about yourself. We're gonna make this personal. Okay, you ever talked yourself out of an opportunity before you even tried? Man, I'll probably fail. They ain't gonna pick me. I'm not qualified. Ain't never really done like that before. Man, I embarrassed myself. None of those statements describe reality, they describe a prediction. And we often treat predictions as facts. How many opportunities have you buried by concluding that you, you know, conclusions that were never really tested? How many of your dreams died? Not because someone failed, because you decided that failure was inevitable. Sometimes the greatest obstacle to performance isn't the obstacle in front of us, it's the conclusion we've already accepted. Do you see the pattern? Every one of those situations had the same thing in common. Okay, the event wasn't deciding the fact it wasn't the deciding factor. The interpretation was. And that's why cognitive capacity matters. Because interpretation drives emotions. Emotions influence our behavior. Behaviors determine performance. If your interpretation is constantly distorted, your performance eventually becomes distorted. Not because you're incapable, but because your thinking has led you in the wrong direction. The longer I study people, the less convinced I become that most of our biggest problems begin with a lack of intelligence. I think many of them begin with unchecked assumptions, unexamined stories, and conclusions that were never accepted without enough evidence. The encouraging news is this if distorted thinking can be learned, clear thinking can be learned also, that means cognitive capacity can grow, it can be strengthened, it can be refined. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about next. Because understanding cognitive capacity is valuable, but learning how to build it is transformational. So now we arrive at the question everyone should be asking: can cognitive capacity actually improve? Or are we simply stuck with the way we think? I believe it can absolutely improve. In fact, I believe your thinking can become more clear, more disciplined, more accurate, and more productive. Not overnight, but intentionally. Just like building physical strength, just like developing emotional maturity, just like growing up in your identity. Your thinking becomes stronger, but it won't happen accidentally. So let me give you several practical uh practices I believe uh expands your cognitive capacity. Number one, slow down long enough to think. One of the greatest enemies of wisdom is unnecessary urgency. Have you noticed that everything feels urgent today? Respond now, buy now, comment now, decide now, now. We live in a culture that rewards speed, but I've learned something. Speed and wisdom are not the same thing. Some decisions deserve time, some conversations deserve reflection. Some emails deserve waiting until tomorrow morning. One of the greatest disciplines I've developed is refusing to make an important decision when I'm emotionally activated. If I'm angry, I'm gonna wait. If I'm exhausted, I'm gonna wait. If I'm discouraged, I wait. Because I've learned my first thought isn't always my best thought. Sometimes clarity comes after the emotion settles. Number two, get curious again. All this certainty, get curious. One of my favorite questions is simply this what am I missing? Think about how powerful that question is. Instead of defending your position, you begin exploring. Instead of proving yourself right, you begin pursuing truth. Curiosity expands cognitive capacity. Your pride shrinks. Curiosity says, teach me. Pride says, I already know. The older I become, the more I realize the smartest people in the room are usually the ones asking the best questions. They're not the ones giving all the answers. Third thing, let's separate facts from stories. This changed my life. Ask yourself, what do I actually know? Not what you assume, not what you fear, not what you imagine, what do you actually know? Let's go back to that workplace exam. My supervisor walked past me. Fact, they're disappointed in me. Story. My spouse was quiet tonight. Fact. They don't love me anymore. That's a hell of a story. I didn't get selected. Fact, I'll never succeed. That's a story. Learning to separate facts and interpretations may be one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself because facts deserve confidence. Stories deserve examination. Number four, invite people who would challenge your thinking. You know, earlier we talked about echo chambers. Now let's talk about the solution. Surround yourself with people who care more about your growth than your approval. I don't want people around me who clap every time I speak. I want people around me who respectfully ask, had you considered another perspective? Every major decision I've made in my life has benefited from wise counsel. Not because I couldn't think, but because I can see everything. None of us can see everything. We have blind spots, right? One of the greatest signs of maturity is recognizing that we have blind spots. Number five, continue renewing your mind. This is where faith becomes incredibly practical. Romans 12 doesn't simply tell us to behave differently, it tells us to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Notice the order renewal, then transformation, not the other way around. The more truth enters your mind, the more accurate your thinking becomes. The more accurate your thinking becomes, the better your decisions become. The better your decisions become, the stronger your performance becomes. Renewing your mind isn't merely reading scripture. It's allowing truth to replace distortion. It's allowing wisdom to replace assumption. It's allowing reality to replace fear. Now here's what I want you to remember. Okay, if if you're listening carefully today, you're probably noticed something. Cognitive capacity isn't really about intelligence, it's about stewardship. God's giving every one of us a mind. The question is, how well are we using it? Are we feeding it truth? Are we feeding it outrage? Are we feeding it wisdom or noise? Are we feeding it thoughtful conversations or endless distractions? Because whatever consistently occupies your mind eventually begins shaping your life. Now, before we leave this topic, I Like to give you something practical to do this week. At the end of every day, ask yourself five questions. Okay. We got a bunch of numbers today, so just stick with me. Number one, what assumptions did I make today that I didn't verify? Number two, what decisions did I make today that I'm proud of? Three, where did my emotions influence my thinking? Four, what truth did I learn today that challenged my previous thinking? And five, what story did I tell myself today that may actually be true? That may not be true, rather. Okay. Every evening, ask yourself these five questions for the next 30 days. So what do you think is going to happen? You think your thinking is going to become more accurate? I do. Not because you became smarter, because you become more intentional. And intentional thinking produces intentional living. As we prepare to wrap up, I want to make one final distinction. Everything we discussed today falls into the realm of normal human performance. Every one of us has assumptions. We all have blind spots, moments of poor judgments, times when stress clouds our thinking. That doesn't automatically mean something is clinically wrong. So where's the line? When does compromise thinking become something that requires professional treatment? We're going to talk about that. We've talked about identity capacity, we've talked about emotional capacity, and today we spend our time exploring cognitive capacity. Now I want to show you something that completely changed the way I understood human behavior because here's the mistake most people make. They think these capacities operate independently, as if identity is over here and emotions are over there, and behavior just happens. Well, I don't believe that's true. I believe there's a conversation happening inside every one of us, every single day. We just don't realize it's happening. So let me explain what I mean. Imagine something happens, right? Something somebody criticizes you, your spouse forgets something important, your boss calls you into the office, your child talks back, somebody praises you, they might reject you. All these experiences, you know, they enter your life the same way as an event. Now, watch what happens. The event wasn't the first thing that determined your behavior. Identity picks first. You know, I be identity immediately asks, what does it say about me? Am I respected? Am I valuable? Am I loved? Am I competent? Am I enough? Great question. You know, your identity is always searching for evidence to support what it already believes, and that's important because identity doesn't simply receive information, it interprets information through the lens of who you already believe you are. Then emotions enter the conversation. They ask, how do I feel about this? Am I afraid? Am I embarrassed? Am I angry? What's going on here? You know, am I ashamed and excited? Am I hopeful? You know, remember what we talked about last week. You know, your emotions aren't bad, they're just indicators. They give us information, they're telling us something that deserves our attention, but they aren't the final authority. And then, you know, your cognition enters. And I think this is where everything begins to change. Cognition asks one question. What does all of this mean? Your identity is spoken, your emotions are spoken. Now the mind begins connecting the dots. It starts building the story. This happened because this meant that. This always, this never, I should, they will. Like those things, you know, these constructs start happening in the mind, it is applying meaning, and sometimes it applies meaning accurately, and sometimes not at all. But once meaning is assigned, behavior becomes remarkably predictable. So think about that. Your behavior isn't random, behavior is usually the logical conclusion of the story we've chosen to believe. And behavior produces performance. That's why I said throughout this series, performance isn't the event, performance is the outcome. Performance is what your life produces over time. Now, let me show you what that looks like. A husband forgets his anniversary. The event is exactly the same. Now, watch the conversation. One wife has an identity rooted in security. Yes, I'm not important. Emotion says, I'm hurt. Cognition says if I married it, he would have remembered. Behavior becomes withdrawn. Now it comes bitterness and silence, and the marriage is suffering. Okay. Another wife in the same situation, another wife says, I know I'm loved. Okay. Her identity says that I know I'm loved. Her emotion says I'm the point, you know, I'm disappointed. Okay. Her cognition says it's just not like him. I wonder what's going on. The behavior switches to curiosity. And we have a conversation, we have a little grace. Nothing about the event changed. It's just the internal conversation changed. Let's look at another example. Somebody compliments you. You know, some of you listening right now have a very difficult time receiving praise. Why? Well, the compliment enters and immediately your identity responds that I'm not that good. Your emotion says this feels uncomfortable. Cognition begins working. They're just being nice. They don't really mean that. Okay. You reject the compliment. You minimize your success. You change the subject. Does that sound familiar? The problem wasn't the compliment, the problem was the conversation happening on the inside. Let's look at leaders. A CEO reveals difficult feedback from the, you know, uh, the executive team. One leader hears, you know, you've made some mistake. Their identity says, you know, uh, I can't let everybody think I'm weak. Emotion says I feel threatened. Cognition says they're trying to undermine me. The behavior becomes this defensive. They start micromanaging or maybe retaliating. Another leader receives that same feedback, right? Their identity says, my work isn't threatened by being wrong. Their emotion says, Man, that's things. Cognition says, they may see something I don't, but their behavior, they lean in, they start listening. They learn, they make adjustments, they grow. Same feedback, different performance. Do you see what's happening? Most of us spend our days, our lives, trying to change behavior. Stop doing that. Start doing this. Try harder, work harder, be more disciplined. And while discipline absolutely matters, behavior is usually downstream. It's the product of everything happening upstream. That's why I don't believe sustainable performance starts with behavior. It starts much deeper. It starts with identity, it moves through emotion, it's interpreted through cognition, it becomes behavior. And over time, it produces performance. So one of the reasons I developed the performance capacity index. Because if we look only at behavior, we're looking at the last chapter of the story. I'm interested in understanding what produced the behavior. Is it an identity issue, emotional issue, a cognitive issue? You know, we're gonna next, you know, next week we're gonna discuss relational capacity. And then we're gonna follow that up and close it out with structural capacity. And when all five are evaluated together, you begin seeing patterns that behavior alone could never reveal. So you stop asking what's wrong with this person, and you begin to ask, where's their capacity breaking down? It's a very different question, and I believe a much more helpful one. So here's what I want, I hope that you remember from today's conversation. Inside of every one of us, there's a conversation happening all day long. Identity is speaking, emotions are speaking, your mind is assigning meaning. The question isn't whether the conversation exists, the question becomes who is winning the conversation? Because whoever wins that conversation usually determines the performance. After everything we've talked about today, I think there's one question remaining. Can the way we think actually change? Are we simply the product of our past? Are we the product of our upbringing and experiences, you know, maybe our successes and failures, uh, our personalities, our traumas, and so forth? Because if the answer is no, then this conversation has been interesting but ultimately hopeless. If we're trapped in the mind we have today, then there isn't much reason to continue, but I don't believe that's true. In fact, I believe one of the greatest lies people ever accept is this. This is just the way I am. Have you ever heard someone say that? Maybe you've said it. You know, I'm not a people person, I've always had a temper. Okay, I'm an overthinker, I've struggled with confidence. This is just who I am. Every one of those statements sounds harmless, but listen carefully. Those statements don't simply describe behavior, they establish identity. And once identity is established, thinking begins defending it. Remember what we talked about in episode one. Identity always looks for evidence to support itself. So if I believe I'm just an anxious person, my mind begins collecting evidence that confirms it. If I believe I never make good decisions, my mind notices every poor decision and quietly ignores the good one. Not because I'm lying to myself, but because my identity and my cognition are working together. One is creating the expectation, the other is gathering the evidence. Now, here's the encouraging part. The human mind is remarkably adaptable. We know this scientifically, we know this biblically. Think about your own life. There are things that you once believed that you no longer believe. There are fears that you once carried that you that no longer control you. There are skills you that you once lacked that now feel natural. There were conversations that terrified you that today don't even make you nervous. Well, what changed? You changed. More specifically, your thinking changed. And when your thinking changed, your performance changed. But here's why I think uh many people get stuck. They confuse information with transformation. Those aren't the same thing. Information tells you something new. Transformation changes how you live. You can read 50 books on leadership and still be a poor leader. You can listen to every podcast, every day, and still make destructive decisions. You can memorize scripture and still fail to apply it. Knowledge has value, but knowledge alone doesn't produce change. Applied truth produces change. And that's why I tell people all the time the goal isn't simply to know more, the goal is to become different. This is one of the reasons I created the performance capacity index. Not to tell people what's wrong with them, not to label them, not to put them in a box, but to help them identify where growth is possible. Because once you know where capacity is limited, you can become intentional about expanding it. Think about physical fitness. If I have someone tell me I have weak legs, I don't get discouraged. I know exactly what I have to strengthen. If someone tells me I have cardiovascular endurance, you know, if that's poor, I don't quit exercising. I just adjust my training. Why should our mental performance be any different? Awareness is it's not condemnation. Awareness is the beginning of growth. One of the greatest mistakes I see in self-development is that people become obsessed with behavior. Do this, don't do that. Wake up earlier, read more books, exercise, journal, meditate. All of that can be valuable. But here's the question: Who's doing those things? Who's the person doing those things? Because if identity hasn't changed and emotional, you know, your emotions hadn't matured, and cognition continues to sign and distort it meaning, then eventually behavior drifts back to where it started. That's why sustainable performance is built from the inside out, not from the outside in. Now I want to pause here just for a moment. Some of you listening today may recognize yourself and what we've been talking about. You may realize I've been telling myself the same story for years. Maybe this is a story about failure. Maybe it's a story about rejection. Maybe it's a story about fear. Maybe it's a story about never being enough. I want to encourage you with something. Just because you've believed the story for a long time doesn't make it true. It just because a thought has visited your mind repeatedly doesn't mean it deserves permanent residence there. One of the greatest acts of courage is challenging the story that you've always accepted. This is where my faith becomes deeply personal. Romans 12 says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Notice something remarkable. God doesn't begin with behavior, he begins with the mind because he understands something that we've been discussing throughout this whole series. The quality of your thinking will eventually influence the quality of your life. Renewal isn't pretending. Renewal isn't denying reality. Renewal is allowing truth to replace distortion. It's allowing wisdom to replace assumption. It's allowing God's perspective to challenge your own. And every time that happens, capacity expands. I don't believe God created us to remain trapped by yesterday's thinking. I believe He created us with the capacity to grow, to mature, to become wiser, to become more discerning, to become more Christ-like. That doesn't happen in a single decision. It happens through repeated exposure to truth, followed by repeated obedience to truth. That becomes transformation. So if you're asking yourself, can I really change? My answer is yes. Not because I believe in positive thinking, not because I believe in wishful thinking, but because I've watched it happen. I've seen people rewrite their story. Okay, I've seen relationships restored because someone finally questioned their assumptions. I've seen leaders become more teachable. I've seen marriages become healthier. I've seen people move from fear to confidence, from confusion to clarity. Not because their life became easier, because their capacity became greater. As we close today, I want to make one final distinction. Everything we discussed has been about human performance, not diagnosis, not pathology, performance. So before we finish, let's talk briefly about where performance capacity ends and where therapy begins. I want to make an important distinction. Throughout this series, I've talked about identity, I've talked about emotion. We're talking today about cognition. And in the coming weeks, we're going to talk about relationships and structure. Some of you may be wondering, isn't this just therapy? It's a fair question, but my answer is not necessarily. So let me explain. All right. Every human being has an identity. Every human being experiences emotions. Every human being thinks. Every human being has relationships. Every human being has systems and routines. Those aren't clinical concepts. They're human concepts. They're part of being alive, which means every one of us has capacity in each of those areas. Some people have developed tremendous capacities, others have areas where capacity is limited. That's true whether you've stepped into a therapist's office or not. Performance capacity is about understanding how those capacities influence the outcomes of your life. It asks questions like why do two equally intelligent people make different decisions? Why do two leaders respond differently under pressure? Why does one marriage continue growing while another slowly deteriorates? Why do some people consistently execute while others remain stuck? Those are performance questions. They're not clinical questions. Now, can mental health influence performance? Oh, 100%. Absolutely. In fact, it often does. Someone experiencing significant depression may struggle with motivation. They may struggle with concentration or decision making and hope. Someone living with severe anxiety may avoid opportunities. You know, they may overanalyze every decision. They may be consumed by fear. Someone who has experienced profound trauma may interpret the world through a lens of danger, even when they're objectively safe. Those are very real experiences, and sometimes they require professional treatment. So this is where I think it's important to be honest. There are times when improving performance isn't enough. There are times when someone needs therapy. Sometimes they need medication. Sometimes they need psychological testing. Sometimes they need trauma treatment. Sometimes they need intensive support. And there should be absolutely no shame in that. So if someone tears a ligament, we don't tell them to simply try harder. We tell them to heal. The mind deserves the same compassion. So where's the difference? I think about it this way. Performance capacity asks, how can I be a better version of myself? Therapy often asks, what is preventing me from functioning the way I was designed to function? Those aren't competing questions. Sometimes they're sequential, sometimes they're happening at the same time, but they're not identical. I spent more than 20 years in behavioral healthcare, right? I've watched therapy change lives, I've watched medications restore hope. I've watched people recover from experiences they never thought that they would survive. I believe deeply in that work. It's one of the reasons I dedicated my career to it. But I've also learned something. Not every performance problem is a mental illness. Sometimes it's an identity issue. Sometimes it's emotional immaturity. Sometimes it's distorted thinking. Sometimes it's poor structure. Sometimes it's simply a lack of intentional growth. Treating every problem or performance challenge as a diagnosis can be just as limiting as ignoring genuinely mental illnesses. Wisdom requires us to know the difference. One of the reasons I created performance capacity index was because I wanted people to have a framework that worked beyond systems. Not to replace therapy, not to replace mental health care, not to replace pastors or executive coaches or mentors, but to complement them, to provide a common language, a way of asking, where is capacity limited? Because once we identify where capacity is limited, we can begin expanding it. Think about your physical health. You don't wait until you're critically ill to begin taking care of your body. No, you exercise, you eat well, you sleep, you try to prevent problems before they become crisis. I believe performance capacity works the same way. The healthiest people I know aren't, you know, the people who never struggle. They're the ones who intentionally build capacity before life demands it. They prepare before pressure arrives. And I think that's one of the greatest differences between treatment and preparation. Therapy often helps us recover. Performance helps us prepare. Both matter, both have value, and many people will benefit from both at different seasons in their life. So if you've been listening to this series and you find yourself thinking, I recognize some of these patterns in my own life, it's not an imminent, it's not an invitation to label yourself, it's an invitation to become curious, to ask better questions, to grow intentionally. And if during that process you realize you need additional support, oh by all means, reach out. There's a tremendous strength in asking for help. Seeking help has never been a sign of weakness, it's a sign that you're committed to becoming healthier, to becoming better. As we wrap up today's episode, I want to leave you with one final thought because everything we discuss, identity, emotion, cognition, has been building towards something much bigger than information. It's been building towards transformation. So let's close there. As we walk through these first three capacities, identity capacity, emotional capacity, and cognition, we probably you've probably recognized yourself somewhere in today's conversation. Maybe you realize I've been allowing my identity to define my limitations. Or maybe you recognize your emotions influence the decisions far more than you realize. Or perhaps today's conversation exposed something different. Maybe you've been believing stories that simply aren't true. And if that's you, let me encourage you. Awareness isn't something to fear. Awareness is where growth begins. You can't strengthen what you're unwilling to acknowledge. You can't improve what you're unwilling to examine, and you certainly can't expand capacity that you don't realize is limited. That's one of the reasons I developed the performance capacity index. Not to diagnose you, not to label you, not to tell you what's wrong with you, but to help you answer a much more important question. Where is my capacity limiting my performance? Because once you understand what capacity is breaking down, you can become intentional about strengthening it. Think about every high performer you've ever admired, athletes, you know, they don't guess where they need to improve. Businesses don't guess where they're underperforming. Pilots don't guess what instruments are working. They measure, they evaluate, then they improve. Why should some of the most important performance you'll ever imagine, the performance of your own life, be any different? If today's conversation resonated with you, I want to encourage you to take the performance capacity index. It's the first assessment in what we call the performance capacity suite, a set of assessments designed to help you better understand your identity, your emotions, your thinking, ultimately your performance, how your performance is working together. Because clarity always precedes growth. But let me tell you something else I've learned. Information alone doesn't transform people. Implementation does. You can listen to podcasts every week, read books every month, attend conferences, take assessments, highlight your Bible, fill notebooks with great ideas, and still never truly change. Because lasting transformation doesn't happen through information alone, it happens through intentional application over time. That's exactly why I created the Performance Matters Community. If you're serious about building your performance capacity, not just learning about it, I want to personally invite you to join us. The Performance Matters Community is a growth system designed to help you intentionally expand your capacity. Together, we'll continue exploring each of the five domains of performance capacity framework. We'll go deeper than we can in these podcast episodes. You'll have access to exclusive teachings, practical implementation guides, live coaching sessions, member-only masterclasses, and go and ongoing assessment that allow you to measure your growth over time. Our goal isn't simply to give you more information. Our goal is to help you become the person God created you to be, to help you build capacity to lead well, love well, think well, and to ultimately perform well. That's what performance matters is about. It's about intentionally becoming stronger from the inside out. So if you're ready to stop guessing, if you're ready to better understand yourself, and you're ready to intentionally build your performance capacity, I'd encourage you to take the assessment and join us inside the Performance Matters community. I think you'll find that growth happens much faster when you start trying to figure it all out alone. And look, next week, we're going to continue building this framework as we explore what I believe is one of the most overlooked capacities of all relational capacity. Because no matter how strong your identity is, no matter how well you manage your emotions, and no matter how clearly you think your performance will eventually be limited by the quality of your relationships. And we're going to explore why some people consistently build trust, resolve conflict, and strengthen people around them, while others unknowingly damage every relationship that they need most. I believe it's going to be one of the most practical conversations we've had so far. And so until then, remember, performance isn't about perfection. Performance is about intentionally expanding the capacity to become who God created you to be. Thank you for joining me today. I'll see you next time. Take care of the city.