Origins of Compass Point Institute: Journey and Quick Wins

Hello, welcome back to the
Compass Point Institute podcast.

This is Jon Murphy, psychiatric nurse
practitioner, and I'm coming to you

today with a solo pod just to talk
a bit about what's been going on

with the Compass Point Institute.

The Compass Point Institute is a
partnership that was destined to happen

between myself and James Kennedy,
psychiatric nurse practitioner.

We've known each other for quite a while.

We went to the same high school,
Duxbury High School, Massachusetts.

Didn't know him too well, but
I knew him enough to recognize

him at orientation at UMass.

Boston and it was there that I sat
next to him and the rest was history.

I was really impressed
with 'em right away.

I was going through the sort of
growing pains of reliving high school

as an undergrad nurse candidate.

Everything was riding
on that undergrad and.

I just felt that sort of icky, I
feel like a teenager again, feeling.

And I felt uncomfortable.

I felt insecure.

And I'm talking to James and the teacher
and the professor, whoever was talking

about class president, and I thought to
myself, huh, who would want to do that?

And then, uh, he gets up, walks
up there and he runs for class.

President and it just blew me
away how effortless he did that.

So time goes on and I
went to Boston College.

I was walking on campus.

When I got accepted, I
only took a year off.

All that hard work was sort of anti
climactic when I found out I was doing

the same stuff still on a psych unit.

It was a cushy one, don't get
me wrong, but nonetheless.

I was like all that for this.

So I went back and next thing you
know, I'm walking around Hogwarts.

I just happened to live
in Brookline at the time.

I spent eight and a half years working
on the psych unit, adolescent psych

unit, Boston Children's Hospital.

Shout out to all the peeps that
were there during that time.

I apologize for being so gravely
triggered and, you know, just, I had

a lot to work through and thankfully.

I was able to do it in a, in another
dysfunctional family setting, if you will.

But, uh, no.

Nonetheless, it's a great company
to work for, great hospital.

Good things happen there.

nothing but positive things to
say about my experience there.

It's just that I had as a
nurse practitioner, it's

kind of time to move on.

you move on to different things.

Usually not staying in the hospital
system, it just wasn't my thing.

Nonetheless, I'll never forget
walking on campus at Boston College

and just thinking, wow, this is
everything that UMass Boston was not.

And UMass Boston was undergoing
construction at the time and it

is just an unfortunate mess of
brutalism from the 1980s, let's say.

So you know nothing against
him, but Boston College just has

that vibe, that aesthetic, and.

When I went to undergrad, I worked so
hard to go to school, and that was a

major wake up call with a DHD for me.

I went, I'm happy to say,
no medication at all.

Undergrad, I guess so.

I mean, at one point in
time that used to matter.

And saying it out loud, I realized
it doesn't, I just needed to prove

to myself I could do without meds.

But it was really sad.

I mean, for me it was hard because
I worked so hard to get that b.

Worked so hard for that bee, and
then James is over here just acing

everything, and I knew, I mean,
he just was more suited to it.

It took me a long time to really
understand I was starting from scratch.

I didn't even know what
a blood pressure was.

And then, uh, I, I hit him up
and he was working at the time.

Some busy, some doing something wild
and crazy, very busy acute care, you

know, emergency room, you name it.

And I hit him up and I just
said, dude, you gotta be here.

You gotta be here.

And the rest is history.

And now here we are when we,
uh, both were practicing.

He graduated all of a
sudden just like that.

And I was starting my business
and he started his and.

We are not destined to
work together in that way.

I'm more of a solo guy and he's
more of the, he started a group

practice down on the south shore
of Massachusetts, modern mentality.

Shout out to modern mentality, got a
great team down there and extraordinary

leadership and it's a big operation.

So therefore, at the Compass
Point Institute here.

My role as Chief Creative Officer.

You know, I'm the one that has
engineered my life to be able to do

these things, these creative things.

And thankfully, uh, James
and I recorded some awesome

stuff for the YouTube channel.

Get some good content to
continue rolling out over there.

To balance out the sort of
goofy material of quick wins.

If you checked out the YouTube channel
at Compass Point Institute dot.

Or, uh, youtube.com

at Compass Point
Institute is the, uh, URL.

But nonetheless, I'm excited
to be able to release more get

this podcast going eventually.

And I really, this is
sort of a holding pattern.

Until we really get this thing moving.

But I'm, I'm hopeful that it'll be
soon because that content is just

building up an archive and thankfully
you can just keep rolling it out, roll

out some good stuff for everybody.

And I am also really happy to announce
that I've released my first book.

It is now on Amazon Kindle.

You can, uh, I'll put
it in the show notes.

It is called Cheat Codes.

How I.

Hacked my A DHD brain and you can
too an A DHD transformation guide.

And, uh, in this book
is a lot of writings.

I compiled a lot of stuff that I've
written on my blog, my Focus Path blog.

I started that blog in 22, 23.

And just revisiting that stuff, I
realized, wow, these are pretty good.

These are older concepts that were really
important to me at the time, and they

certainly were absolutely vital for me.

Everything that happens in that
book, everything I describe, I've

tried and I've used, I did it.

I successfully did it.

I went from complete mess to leveling up
and dialing it in and training my brain.

Doing all the things, disclaimer,
if you have this bit of sadness

or emptiness, nothing outside,
you will repair it no matter what.

but at a certain point in time, especially
if we're struggling with worthiness, then

we're gonna have some dragons to slay.

So hopefully that helps you guys slay
some dragons, and I look forward to

releasing more, the avenue of using,
Amazon to release books in such a, low

friction way, just right onto Kindle.

is a wonderful thing and I've
got a lot to say and I'm excited

to release more information.

To release more, books in the future.

Yeah, a lot of good stuff coming.

And James and I are working on our
continuing education and he's doing that.

He does those big lifts in the background.

He's, uh.

We've been grinding away at, uh, preparing
us to be credentialed for continuing

education courses for clinicians.

And so we're stoked about that
and I wanna spend the rest of the

time just talk about quick wins.

So if you've seen the YouTube channel,
Compass Point Institute, please

give us a follow, a like subscribe.

We really appreciate it.

The algorithms these days are wild
and crazy, let me tell you, but.

these ideas that you see, you
might see, and if you're listening

to this, you're certainly seeing
the fruits of what we've done.

I got a few podcasts, we got the YouTube
channel, all these different ideas.

Well, it really started
in earnest in March.

And in March I was going through a
personal and creative breakthrough.

I had finally learned how to write music.

And music is sort of a long.

Story, so I'll save you that, but it
was always, sort of that last dragon

to slay and I always wanted to write
music and I always struggled with that.

But nonetheless, through a series
of steps and continuing to sort of.

Advance my education.

You know, Udemy is a great place to
learn and just if you're stuck, you

gotta fill in those knowledge gaps.

And eventually I broke through
and I found, wow, I can initiate

creativity at any moment, at any time.

And I did.

And then in March, James
and I, we got together.

I said, Hey, I realized
I'm good at talking.

Can I cut out everything else?

And he said yes.

And he gave me the go ahead
to be extremely creative and.

At first we talked books.

It was just sort of a, I took all
the stuff I've accumulated in my

head and I externalized it, and
there was a lot there and a lot of

great ideas, a lot of great concepts.

And what started as a book on A DHD
ultimately turned into a course.

And the thing is with a DHD
treatment that I realized, So

I developed all these tools.

They're based in many concepts.

One of them is incrementalism,
so people with a DHD just don't

understand this Naturally.

We're gonna understand all or nothing.

You can have it all.

You have nothing.

And it's the euphoria and the stimulation.

The excitement of the now just takes
us to this point where we get burnt

out and then we say, oh, I can't do it.

We bite off more than we chew.

We don't understand how dopamine works.

We don't understand how
behavioralism works.

We don't understand how habits work.

But ultimately, at the end of the day, we
can take a good hard look at ourselves.

And if you have a DHD and you're
on medication, now there's a

chance to apply things differently.

Try something different.

The simple fact is we have to
understand we're gonna do most

things that we do automatically.

so, when we're thinking about habits,
the path forward is the smallest

thing possible, and we're only gonna
be able to prompt ourselves to do.

So many things in the day we're gonna
resort to habits that we've formed or

have been formed for us unintentionally.

And as we move forward, what is the
reasonable and comfortable amount

of change that we can handle?

And then one day if we take the pressure
off and we really are informed of how

an A DHD brain actually works, one
day we'll just start doing the thing.

And man, I just, the
glory of that was well.

It was personally satisfying, but

there's more to that story, ultimately
achievements and it, it can give us

to, we can get to a point where we
feel competent, but then the larger

question is, wait a minute, why do
we feel this way in the first place?

Nonetheless.

On the last quick wins, When
I'm interviewing patients and

I was, all right, here we go.

I got all the, you know, writing a blog,
20 22, 20 23, and I got the whole system.

You gotta start small, you
gotta break it down early.

You gotta have your mindset going.

You gotta use a planner.

The habit of exercise.

So transformative, future
return on the investment.

I gave myself a classical education,
if you could believe that one.

So that was a major drag.

I had been through.

All the last books that I had read was
like goosebump books and, uh, I just

didn't, I had never read a book, really.

Like I read game, there would be
some books, a Game of Thrones, but I

wasn't really reading them properly
and then I wasn't able to stick

with it and reading as a skill.

Was never taught to me the right way.

So it's really, a lot of this
is learning how to learn.

So how are we gonna learn how to learn
if we, it just depends on where we are.

And I know the spectrum 'cause
I've experienced the spectrum.

It's like we can't even put our pants on.

What time is it?

What day is it?

What is the thing?

And to-do list, what's that?

And I'll tell you, when I, uh, was 2021,
this was like the type of person I was

naturally just moving through life.

I remember I had to have a car battery
replaced and I took the other battery

and I just stuck it on the seat and I
didn't even like do anything with it.

And then eventually it corroded
and destroyed the leather seat.

And I remember one time I got a, um,
I'm trying to think what happened here.

Something with my license, I, uh.

I was given a SI accidentally didn't
realize I hadn't, my license had to be

renewed, and so I didn't realize my,
there was something with my license.

I didn't get renewed.

So then a cop pulls me over.

He did the very nice thing, he let me go.

He let a friend drive it home,
but he gave a summons to court.

I got my license renewed and then.

Just totally forgot
about the summons accord.

It didn't even cross my mind.

So then I got a warrant out for
my arrest and I was locked up.

Yeah, that's right.

The big house because they're
like, there's a warrant out.

You, uh, because I never showed up
for that court date, court summons.

So these are the type of things
that I had to learn on my

own because I was on my own.

I never had anyone really
telling me how to live.

I was basically put in front of
the TV and then blamed for it.

I had to fight to do laundry, never.

I remember my girlfriend in,
uh, high school was surprised

when I didn't know how to load a
dishwasher, so that's not normal.

You know, kids, we want.

I think there's a fallacy in our modern
world that kids are just meant to play.

As a father, I love it that
they just want to do stuff.

Hey, daddy's a little helper.

You know, that's a,
that's a parenting hack.

So the quick wins, it's really,
you're going at stages of change.

So for any clinicians out there stages
of change, you might have all the

answers, but is the person ready?

So checking, looking at the
stages of change is a really

good way to help us identify.

You know how receptive
people are gonna be.

But beyond that, there's each individual's
sort of nervous system attachment

responses, which dictates sort of,
are they gonna be more innovative?

Are they gonna be more closed off and
have trouble with trying new things?

Now, being the scapegoat of a
toxic family, I'm very innovative

because it's like, oh, okay, let's
go out in the world and do stuff.

So that's the thing of it, is I
know that I had a lot of things.

Going for me though, I
didn't have a lot to lose.

so there's principles though
that are true nonetheless.

So I think if everyone can appeal
to themselves and know themselves.

They might be able to do this, but
I was still thinking about this.

I just thought the drop off
rate's gonna be so high.

So how do we game this thing?

Because I know, 'cause I went,
there's three stages to this.

It's like a DHD when you hardly
know what's going on and you're

not waking out of you sleeping in.

And you don't get outta bed till
noon one day and then the next

And it's just like everything's a blur.

So that's like really there's
no basis of anything other than

just sort of in the moment.

Then there's the intermediate phase.

You sort of got your routines in,
and you're sort of learning how to

do stuff, developing those wins.

But you haven't like developed the
habit formation technique intentionally

understanding how to do things.

It's not a matter of, if it's a matter of.

How or why, you know, we need to
wanna do these things after all, and

we certainly can't do everything.

So nonetheless, then there's boss mode.

And boss mode is, well, I'm
sitting here in boss mode.

I'm happy to say after all these years.

So I know the path.

And it was all started from there
and we thought about quick wins.

Okay, these are quick wins, like
the quick, because you know, I've

had these over the years, you know?

Just put a visual reminder
up or just these things.

They don't require you
to do some sort of habit.

They're just one quick thing you can do.

I like little timers here.

That's a quick win.

So this, you know, James and I
were laughing and we had this

great idea and it developed and.

Then all of a sudden when we were
done sort of brain dumping everything,

it became rubber hits the road.

Okay, well what's the way
to sort of get things going?

And then you look at the social
media platforms and all these

ideas, these bigger ideas, these
larger lifts, they start small.

One post at a time, one thing at a time.

And here we are and uh, quick wins is
on TikTok At a HD Quick wins TikTok

and, um, on the YouTube channel
we're gonna be releasing four more.

And so it's, it's.

Really outrageous, and it's turned
into this infomercial thing and it's,

but it's conceptually still there.

And it started with what
we're trying to teach first.

It's teaching things to people,
meeting 'em where they're at.

And if you have a DHD and you're
struggling, well, where are you gonna be?

you're scrolling on TikTok, you're
scrolling on the YouTube shorts.

So there's some comedy there.

It's, there's a subversion thing,
but if you go and you look at, uh,

roll before you scroll or roll before
the scrolls on there right now,

and, uh, it's, the whole idea is you
don't wanna scroll on your phone.

As soon as you wake up, 'cause it'll
burn out your dopamine receptors.

You just woke up and now you're
hitting the pleasure switch.

So everything you do from brush your teeth
to get dressed is gonna be so much harder

'cause you gave yourself that dopamine.

You gotta work for it.

So that's the simple idea is that, and
I used to always say you'd be better

off to roll on the floor and lay on the
floor and scroll as I illustrate the idea

so it becomes rolled before the scroll.

Uh, don't really do that.

There's, uh, a lot of humor
in it, but at the end of the

day, it's a delivery device.

We are teaching DHD hacks and, uh, the
clownish ness is fun, but it's gonna be

balanced out by some clinical stuff soon.

I'm excited for James.

Uh, he's gonna have some shorts
coming out on YouTube soon, so a lot

of good, exciting things coming up.

I just wanted to check in because
the cadence, the consistency,

everything I'm talking about's
important and with consistency.

And time.

Then you have the rule of compound
interest and isn't it a beauty.

So that's it for the solo episode
of the Compass Point Institute.

Thanks for coming to class and I look
forward to checking in with you next time.

Hopefully we get something good
with James coming up, but, uh,

I'll carry the torch as long as I
need to and feel free to reach out.

Check me out on my Focus Path blog.

We'll see you later.