A Birthday Gift from Me to You: TOP 10 GOOD SHIFTS I Made This Year

By Dr. JC Doornick, "The Dragon" - Echoes of Hmmm?

Jul 17, 2025

Hey friends,

Today’s my birthday, and instead of asking for anything, I want to give you something.

Over the past four years, I’ve navigated some significant storms that I had no idea were coming. I sat with stillness and practiced meditation every day this year. I battled against many distractions and chose to lean deep into the work. And I mean deep. Even taking me across the world to the Amazon Jungle to work with powerful intergalactic plant medicine.

As a result, I’ve experienced 10 GOOD SHIFTS, life-enhancing distinctions that didn’t just change how I think… they changed how I live.

These aren’t just lessons. They’re invitations.

So I offer them to you today, on my birthday, not as advice, but as reflections that might resonate in your own life enough to make you say, 'Hmmm?'

Here they are.

🔟 Not Everything in Your Brain Needs to Come Out of Your Mouth?

My Shift:
I realized that not every thought deserves a voice. Like the heart beats, the brain thinks without asking for permission or guidance. The more I paused and contemplated, the more I noticed how often I was speaking from a place of reaction rather than wisdom.

Your Invitation:
Master your pause. Learn to react to the stimulus by saying Hmmm? When you speak, speak less to impress, speak more to express. Silence isn’t absence or a weakness. It’s a superpower. Make Sense?

9️⃣ Signal Over Noise is the New Success Strategy

My Shift:
I stopped glorifying busyness and status, and started filtering out all the Noise to identify the Signal, the high-leverage activities that support my goals and dreams, and the few things that matter most. That clarity led to the creation of my soon-to-be-published My Signal Journal.

Your Invitation:
You're not tired. You're overstimulated. The cure isn’t more hustle, it’s better focus. Identify what your North Star is, your Goals and Dreams. Then shed light on the lifestyle changes and high-leverage activities that support your North Star, and the things that matter most to you. That is your Signal. Make Sense?

8️⃣ Resentment is Often Just Incomplete Information

My Shift:
Resentment lost its grip when I saw that most of my anger was rooted in stories I didn’t fully understand, and were mostly made up. Adopting a new perspective replaced the poison of the stories I was latching onto.

Your Invitation:
What if your enemy is just a misunderstood chapter in the book of you? Before you judge or publish that book, zoom out, step to the left, then to the right, and view things through alternate lenses. Choose the perspective that best suits and supports your goals and dreams. Make Sense?

7️⃣ You Don’t Have Attention Deficit Disorder, You Have Awareness Deficit Disorder

My Shift:
I challenged the label of the diagnosis that society created in order to keep us quiet. I realized I didn’t need medication or any outside solutions; I needed to learn how to be here. Fully. I became armed with the weapons of curiosity and awareness.

Your Invitation:
Maybe your mind isn’t broken. It’s just overwhelmed with all you’ve been told. This is my prescription for presence. Feel free to fill it in with the practice of meditation, breathwork, or simply sitting in the pause of 'Hmmm?' Make Sense?

6️⃣ Drifting is Natural. The Return is the Superpower.

My Shift:
My mind wanders. My spirit doesn’t. The IRS (Interface Response System) and W.A.N.D.E.R. techniques were born from this realization, and it changed the way I navigate chaos and showed me how to handle adversity with grace.

Your Invitation:
Don’t beat yourself up for drifting. Consider the drift a gift and an opportunity to create a good shift. Just practice the return. The growth is in the intention and practice, not the result. Make Sense?

5️⃣ Victimhood is Seductive, but Sovereignty is Sacred

My Shift:
Playing the victim gave me temporary relief, but at the same time, it led to permanent stagnation. Owning my story and my ability to rewrite it gave me the keys to progress.

Your Invitation:
Pain is real. But so is power. You don’t have to stay at the scene where the wound happened. You can decide right here in this moment to rewrite your story. Make Sense?

4️⃣ The Courage to Be Disliked Set Me Free

My Shift:
I stopped shape-shifting and mask-wearing to be palatable for the sleepwalking masses. When I chose authenticity over approval, the flow burglars and temporary friends moved on, I found my people, and my purpose.

Your Invitation:
You don’t need to be liked by everyone. You need to be seen by your people. Be real. Be you. It’s what makes you special and powerful. Make Sense?

3️⃣ The Ego Isn’t the Enemy, It’s a Misguided Guardian

My Shift:
I experienced full-on ego death in the Amazon jungles of Peru. I sat with that experience for a while. Underneath the armor that I had forged, I found a scared part of me that just wanted to be safe and significant. I forgave myself and experienced the transformative power of change. Look out for the podcast episode I did, called 'The Alchemy of Forgiveness.'

Your Invitation:
What if your ego isn’t bad… just outdated, untrained? Update its job description, and lead with your true self. It will learn to protect that version of you next.

2️⃣ Forgiveness Isn’t for Them, It’s Freedom from Them

My Shift:
I forgave not because they earned it, but because I refused to carry their energy any further. I learned the stories in my head weren’t facts; they’re F.O.G. (False Overblown Garbage). It’s an inner gesture that says, “I no longer need others to change or things to be different to be free.”

Your Invitation:
Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting or letting others off the hook. It means you’re ready to remember without pain. That is freedom. Make Sense?

1️⃣ The Interface Response System (IRS)

My Shift:
My life’s work and mission to help others navigate through the dark, troubled waters of despair culminated in a 4-step strategy called the IRS (Interface Response System). With full awareness that my perception was not my own, but rather a product of a life experience that had programmed it, I learned to pause, allow myself to change the way I looked at things, and, like magic, the things I looked at began to change. It taught me to stop reacting and start creating.

Your Invitation:
Whatever challenge you’re facing, question whether or not the challenge is an expression of the meaning you gave it. Practice the pause. Say “Hmmm?” and step into the space where you can entertain alternative perspectives, choosing the one that best suits you and your goals and dreams. That breath between trigger and choice? That’s where your freedom lives.

BONUS SHIFT:

💬 “Makes Sense?” It isn’t Just My Catchphrase, It’s a Way of Life

My Shift:
What began as a phrase evolved into a philosophy. It's not a rhetorical question; it's an invitation to step into the space of clarity and reclaim control as the shot caller and dominant force in your life.

Your Invitation:
Ask it often. Of your actions. Your choices. Your relationships. Does this… make sense?

These are the GOOD SHIFTS that helped me navigate the chaos, reclaim my clarity, and come home to who I am.

Remember, learning and knowing this stuff without taking action? It's nothing but a distraction.

If I have one birthday wish this year, it’s to help more people rise too. Whether it's you or someone you love? Just comment “Makes Sense,” and we can have the conversation that can change your life forever.

Welcome to the Uprising of the Sleepwalking Masses.

Where Confusion Dies, and Progress Thrives.

Let’s make the next chapter count.

Make Sense?