The Living Room with Louis Jackson III

"Little Foxes:" Unlocking Personal Growth & Success

• Louis C. Jackson III • Season 1 • Episode 6

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In today’s episode, we’re diving into part two of our powerful series on Little Foxes—those small, seemingly insignificant issues that can have a major impact on our lives.

Last week, we tackled Little Foxes in Relationships, discussing how unspoken expectations can ruin even the strongest connections. This week, we’re going even deeper—addressing the Little Foxes in Personal Development. These are the habits, thoughts, and self-sabotaging behaviors that quietly eat away at our potential, holding us back from reaching the next level in life, business, and faith.

🚨 In this episode, we cover:
✔️ Negative Self-Talk – The internal dialogue that keeps us stuck and how to combat it with truth.
✔️ Perfectionism & Overgeneralization – Why unrealistic expectations lead to insecurity and procrastination.
✔️ Comparison & Self-Worth – How measuring yourself against others can rob you of your joy.
✔️ Spiritual Perspective – Biblical keys to overcoming limiting beliefs and self-doubt (2 Corinthians 12:9, Ephesians 2:10).
✔️ The Elevator Approach – Are you looking to people to define you or trusting the One who created you?
✔️ Practical Application – How to recognize and remove Little Foxes before they destroy your growth.

🎯 Key Takeaway: Personal development isn’t just about better habits—it’s about getting rooted in your true identity. You can’t level up without first addressing the small things holding you back. And true transformation starts with God’s Word, not just self-help strategies.

💡 Question for You: What Little Foxes have been holding you back? How do you combat negative self-talk? Drop a comment, share your thoughts, and let’s grow together!

🔔 Subscribe & Connect:
If this episode spoke to you, don’t keep it to yourself! Like, subscribe, and share with someone who needs this message. Hit us up at LouisJackson3.com and let us know how we can continue to serve you.

🔥 Real. Relevant. Raw. Welcome to The Living Room—let’s grow together! 🚀

#PersonalDevelopment #FaithAndGrowth #LittleFoxes #SelfSabotage #TheLivingRoomPodcast

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Louis Jackson III:

Welcome to the Living Room. I'm your host, I'm your boy, Louis Jackson, and I'm here with my boy, Mr. Eren Davis. What's going on, bro? What's good? Brother, man, I am doing great. It's been a great week. Life has been wonderful. We've been out here getting it in.

Eren Davis:

Yes, yes sir.

Louis Jackson III:

For real Y'all. I am so glad that you joined us for the living room and we hope that you're ready to grow and get ready to go to your next level, because here at the Living Room, we're all about redefining our lives and pushing toward that next level. So I want you to get comfortable and let's grow together today. But before we jump into our conversation, which is going to be good, I want you if you have not subscribed or reviewed this podcast. I need for you to do that right now. Take some time, share it with somebody, uh, whatever, uh particular platform you're listening to, rate it, share it, do it on Facebook. You can always go to lewisjackson3.com, go ahead and comment, holler at us, tell us what we're doing, what we could do better, and tell us where you want us to keep moving forward in. We are excited about this podcast because it is real, relevant and raw. Yes, you feel me, we just going to be talking.

Eren Davis:

Talking.

Louis Jackson III:

That's all it's all about. We just talking, we trying to figure out some things.

Eren Davis:

Trying to figure things out, trying to debug it. You know what I'm saying?

Louis Jackson III:

We trying to get to that next level, and we do it through conversation, yes, and so, without further ado, let's jump into our conversation today. As you all know, if you've been tracking with us for the last couple of weeks, we have been talking through this topic of little foxes small problems, big impact and last week we really dove into the idea of little foxes in relationships and we talked about the different things that will mess up a relationship, and one of the things that jumped out to both of us was those unspoken expectations, and if you have not listened to that, go back and listen to it. We really talked about unspoken expectations and if you are in a relationship right now and you're going through some stuff, you need to go look, listen to last week's podcast, check that out, because we did end on some very practical things and biblical things that I feel like will help you in your relationship to get rid of those little foxes. But today, here's the deal we about to go deeper, because we want to deal with little foxes in our own personal development.

Louis Jackson III:

Yes, let me tell y'all something, peeps yes, relationships are important, but relationships are made up of individual people, right, let me? I really want y'all to really think this through because our society has pretty much said like it takes two people 50, 50 to make a whole, and no, it doesn't. You do not need to go into any type of relationship and you're looking for something from the other person to make you whole? Yeah, soon as you do that, you are dealing with codependency, right. You are trying to find your self-worth in the other person, you're trying to find your identity in the other person, and that does not work. Do you feel me? It don't work. So today we're going to talk about the little foxes that messes us up in our personal development. Are you ready for this?

Eren Davis:

bro, I am, and I wanted to start by asking you what's one personal habit that's held you back when it?

Louis Jackson III:

comes to personal development. There's so many of them. I ain't going to lie y'all.

Eren Davis:

I told y'all, man, this is again one, but we're going to bring it down today. This is great.

Louis Jackson III:

I'm going to be real with you, y'all. One of the things that messes me up is negative self-talk. This is something for me that I've been struggling with for a long time. Right, because it's easy to get people, it's easy for me to go believe in other people and it's much harder for me to believe in myself. That's true, that's true, and I am really hard on me. Right, right, right. And if I'm not careful and this is one that I've been having to fight with a lot I will end up talking negative to me more than the outside world will talk negative to me. I'll beat me down, yes, before you get to beat me down. Yes to me. Yeah, I'll beat me down, yes, before you get to beat me down, yes, and so now my depression, my and I'm not, I'm not depressed at this point yeah, today right, but when I deal with these things, man, it's like I end up I, I, I, I get me.

Louis Jackson III:

It messes me say well, you know you ain't this, or you know you probably couldn't do this. Or you can't do that.

Eren Davis:

Oh yeah.

Louis Jackson III:

I already got to deal with this with other people, but because of that I've been conditioned to actually attack me.

Eren Davis:

Yeah.

Louis Jackson III:

Before somebody else can. Right, I don't know if you're listening to me and maybe this is not one of your little foxes, but we got to deal with that. Yeah, how do we handle negative self-talk? Has this been something that you ever had to deal with?

Eren Davis:

oh, bro um, actually probably is my worst um thing about my personal development myself, and the thing about me is I'm creative with it too, so I'm you know. So I'm not just doing the whole basic, basic tear down. No, like I'm getting crafty with tearing myself down like very specific. You know what I'm saying.

Eren Davis:

So it's self-sabotage, bro, good self-sabotaging.

Eren Davis:

You know what I'm saying and it's not until I was made aware of it.

Eren Davis:

See, bro, I think that dealing with it is is one thing, but, bro, we talked about about it when we were talking about our relationship portion of it Having the right people around you so they can help you identify that is great. But we talked also too about how important it is about being intentional about those relationships. This is why the relationship is the most valuable thing, because when you're intentional about it, it makes it to where you know, usually a spouse in a romantic sense, right, so a spouse will have direct access to you like this. So can't nobody talk to you like this, yeah, you know, because they're seeing you just in another, in another light. So if you're honest to them, you know that can actually help. Um, as it pertains to the negative self-talk, because, like I said, I'm somebody who is is very much so um, negative with with myself, like you said, and giving everybody else, you know these other great personal development things but in areas I haven't quite got a really good grip on.

Louis Jackson III:

Ain't it funny how it's easy to help somebody else and you can tell them great, great things. You could tell them, give them great advice, the best, but you can't take your own advice. That's right and and and. As I was thinking about this negative self talk, man, some of the things in some of the areas that negative self talk manifests itself. It actually manifests itself in perfectionism.

Eren Davis:

Yes.

Louis Jackson III:

In unrealistic expectations on yourself, yes. We end up saying that like I could never be good as that other person or man. You know what In our mind we try to I gotta be the best, I gotta be great, yeah, when really greatness is not something that, yeah, you can strive toward it, but that's that, can't be that. That is subjective, subjective, very subjective, very subjective. You, we, we look at success and we all understand that success is very subjective, yeah, because what success is to me may not be the same thing to you. Yeah, but when I start comparing myself to what others say success is, I will then start talking crazy to my own self.

Eren Davis:

Yeah, and rob yourself.

Louis Jackson III:

And rob myself of my own accomplishments.

Eren Davis:

Yeah, rob yourself of your own joy. I mean, come on, I mean your own joy, like your own, how I feel? So now, the negative self-talk, because I feel like that now I've come around you, now I'm coming around you, that feel great about themselves, and now I'm insecure. Now I'm insecure, yeah, I'm feeling less than so, it's like because I'm comparing, because here's the thing. Okay, let me just use this as an example. Right, um, there's one guy that's making 200 million a year and there's one guy that's making 200 000 a year who's more successful. It's subjective. It's subjective. I didn't tell you, I didn't fill in a blank and tell you that the guy that's worth 200 million is a product of generational wealth. The other guy is a product of building that 200 000 up himself. But if he can, but if he compares himself to the guy that's making 200 million, he just might self-sabotage himself oh, good lord, y'all, are y'all hearing this?

Eren Davis:

because I honestly believe that's what we're doing because what it'll do is, bro, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's never, it's's just, it's never, it's never healthy and it's uh. I thought it was great that I said um it, it. It steals the joy from you, bro. It steals, it literally sucks, and I and and track me if I'm wrong, leave a comment and tell me that negative self-talk mode, kid you not. It makes you feel insecure, it makes you feel less than and it makes you procrastinate. Yes, it does, it's so unbelievable. Yes, it does it's so unbelievable that's all affecting, affecting our personal development oh my gosh.

Louis Jackson III:

See, these are very real things, these little foxes that are destroying our personal development, which then we bring to our relationships with others because I don't feel good about me. I will then take that idea and place it onto my partner. Yeah, whether, again, if it's romantic, or whether it is spiritual, whether it even is business, we will then take these things because we don't feel good about us. So we feel like someone wouldn't invest in us. Right, and I have to fight this for me. Yes, because you think, why would you invest in me? I'm not great, so what I'll do? I will overwork myself to this unrealistic idea of perfectionism that I got in my head, trying to become something that nobody else has ever said. I needed to become nobody, but I've tried to. I said I gotta be this, and then, when I don't reach that, I then take it out on you because you're the guy that, but you're not understanding that you're the guy that's built yourself up to the 200,000.

Eren Davis:

Yeah, off your own bootstraps. You buckled your own bootstraps up. You know I'm saying not to say that that guy that's built yourself up to the 200,000 off your own bootstraps you buckled your own bootstraps up. You know what I'm saying Not to say that that guy who's at the 200 million hasn't been built in another way, but it's just that he's been built in another way. He's been built in another way. So there's nuances that he has that you don't have, and then there's nuances that you have that he doesn't have.

Louis Jackson III:

So we got to be able to appreciate that.

Eren Davis:

Yeah, we got to be able to understand that. We got to be able to appreciate that the only way to get secure with yourself is to get in that word.

Louis Jackson III:

So, so. So the point you being you are just flowing today, because what I wanted to do is I wanted to pick out some scriptures that will and I and I have some here that's going to combat these little foxes in our personal development and one of these scriptures that I want to to really just knock out and we're gonna. We'll talk about a few of them. I got like 20 of them, but I only want to just do a couple of them, right, um, when I have self doubt or I actually have a limiting belief about myself, it comes from second Corinthians, 12 and nine. See, you all know this. So I want you to get your scriptures, I want you to get your bible app out and and really look at this.

Louis Jackson III:

Second corinthians, 12 and 9 says this. But he said to me my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in the weakness. Therefore, this is Paul says. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. When I find myself feeling self-doubt and limiting, which essentially makes me feel weak, you can understand that in your weakness, that's when God's grace comes strong. That's when he says it's okay to be weak. You don't have to run from your weaknesses. You can begin to boast in your weakness because you know he says I'm strong. Right, you're going to be strong because I now my power is about to work within you.

Louis Jackson III:

Yeah, y'all, if you're listening to me today and you are seeing this little fox of self-doubt eating at your vineyard that is in full bloom, yeah, yeah, and you see this fox that's just grubbing eating it, you can begin to say you know what? I refuse to trip over what I'm weak at. Yes, because I think, honestly, bro, most of us don't want to deal with our own weaknesses. We try to avoid them or we act like we don't have them Right have them right.

Louis Jackson III:

But this scripture says I can literally look at my weakness, look at it head on and say I'm okay with my weakness, because wherever there's weakness, there's grace.

Eren Davis:

There's grace and that's the great thing about um jesus christ, that that's, bro. Like, how the relationship is with with jesus is like I got you, I'm faithful when you're not. It's like I messed up right here, I did this, I did that. It's like, before you beat yourself up, understand that I've provided grace for you. Like, like, if you ever don't you hate, don't you hate when somebody come to you calmly and you turned all the way up, you be turned all the way up.

Eren Davis:

You pissed, and then he's just like hey, you know, I said to love, right you know I said to be patient, right, you know I said, uh, don't let the sun go down and you're angry, right, come on Like. These are the things, bro, and as we continue to get rooted in our word, these are the things that we'll recall as we are slipping back into that negative self-talk, because that's the fact of the matter. When it comes to personal development, yeah, it's about. Okay, I may slip, but I have the right skeleton in place to get it fixed.

Eren Davis:

Number one skeleton, number number one thing, as it's a part of this skeleton that we're um creating, right, christ one, because if you put that first, the insecure feeling starts to feel a little more like I can do this. Then he's also giving you keys in his word. He's telling you if you do this, this is beyond some self-help, this is the way you're supposed to live. Everybody thinks that it's about the parameters that Christ sets, but you got to understand, as I'm continuing to learn, he's setting these parameters to save you from yourself. Come on From your own demise.

Louis Jackson III:

Come on, and that's the deal. We got to be able to realize you said something there that this is what we're trying to holler at you about in the living room. It's not some self-help. No See, this ain't this. Ain't that? Because, as I'm looking at my personal development, I can't become all that I need to be unless I go to the one that created me man.

Louis Jackson III:

See, we keep trying to be great and try to be at this level, because we're looking at other people and they're telling us what we should be, but they didn't want, they weren't the ones that created us the elevator approach.

Eren Davis:

Ok, explain it the elevator approach, right. So you're, you're getting on the elevator and the button that you're pressing is let's just use figuratively the person is the button that you're pressing is let's just use figuratively the person is the button that you're pressing. So when you get on the elevator, you're getting on that elevator of this person's going to tell me who I am so the elevator is going up and down, correct?

Eren Davis:

okay, so when you push the button now, this person takes you to that level, but they're not the one who actually took you to the level. God may have used that. See. The Lord made elevators to make it easier for you to travel, but that doesn't mean that that's the only way to travel, because taking those stairs builds you just a little bit differently than taking that elevator. Is it more convenient to take the elevator? Yes. Is it easier to carry something on the elevator? Yes, but what are you carrying?

Louis Jackson III:

I hear you when I think of the elevator and I'm trying to process, like your, your, your thoughts. I look at, okay, this elevator approach is, yes, someone, I push two and I get the two. But to me, the most important person of the elevator is the one that created it, because he had to create the elevator with a uh uh.

Louis Jackson III:

He had an idea in his mind when he created it yeah yeah, and in order for that elevator to do what it is supposed to do and to function the way it's supposed to function, it has to go according to the the perimeters that the creator made it. So when it malfunctions, I can't go to the elevator itself and say fix it. I gotta go back to the very person who actually had the original design to be able to say, hey, hey, this is malfunctioning. How do I fix this piece? So, as we get going and I want you to think about this other little fox and this other little fox of overgeneralization, in other words, we have, we put on ourselves negative labels you end up thinking I'm not good enough. Or you end up saying nothing never goes right for me. Why do we think that we speak that and it ends up going into our own spirit.

Louis Jackson III:

But here's when you got that little fox. I want you to think about this scripture Ephesians, chapter two, verse 10. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared for us to do in advance. Which God prepared for us to do in advance. In other words, you were created intricately by God to be who you are, and whatever is happening with you, you can know it is not beyond what he has already created before the foundation of the world. He has you on his mind, y'all and these things. There are so many more that we can go into. I want to go into more, but here's the deal, here's the crux of today.

Louis Jackson III:

We got to understand that, these little foxes that mess us up in our personal development, we got to combat them with Christ, with who we are, who he's made us. You cannot fight it on your own and just by doing better habits because you do on your own, and just by doing better habits because you do. When personal development we always talk about, you know you got to do better habits and you got to develop daily routines and self-reflection habits. Yes, them are great things, them are great self-help tools to use. But today we gave you one big tool. The big tool was you got to get into the scripture and go to the creator and allow what he says about you become what you are and what you meditate on.

Louis Jackson III:

Peeps, I'm telling you it's been crazy, crazy good. I know this episode is a little shorter than the rest, but I feel like we got a lot more that you got to really eat on, because you will not get to the next level if you don't prepare yourself truly. Deal with the little foxes, the negative self-talk, the procrastination, talk, the procrastination. You won't get to your next level until you deal with those little foxes of what other people think about you. But if you do, I'm telling you, you're going to be great man.

Louis Jackson III:

It was another great episode, big bro yeah and I'm telling you, if we can just keep moving forward, as my mom would say and daddy god, we, we're going to be all right, we're going to be all right. So, as we go on, man, if you have not liked and subscribed to this podcast, please do so today, without further ado. Y'all, I hope you have a great week and we will be back on next week here in the living room.

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