Baby Steps for Big Goals #alittleQC

Good morning, good morning, good morning! It is the last Monday, the last Monday in 2020. Y'all, you've almost made it through this nutso year. So I am here with Facebook and YouTube, and I am here with Instagram. Good morning, good morning, good morning. And it's the last Monday, and while I am not sad to see 2020 go, I still am a little nostalgic about what 2020 has meant, um, which is a lot of stuff for each one of us individually. I know, I know that, um, there have been things that we hopefully— but still, that the reality is we will never experience again. And this will forever be, for many of us, the year we stayed home, the year we lost a loved one, the year we, um, homeschooled our kids for however long we did that, the year we, um, had a cray cray election. It will be a year of things that we may never live through again. And that year, as hard as it's been, still marks our life, our lives. Um, and I am thinking, as I'm sure you are, in a different way than normal. I think every year we get to the point where we think, okay, how will I be different next year? You know, in the new year. And if you're like me, you're thinking about that. Um, but you don't want to have left 2020 and not learn something. Do you know what I mean? You don't want to have come through this year and, uh, and not learn something to not be different, to be changed, to have grown up some. If you're like me, if you're like me, you probably learned something about yourself that you knew, but it didn't hit you in the face like it did in 2020. And you are desirous, like me, of having that impact you so that you actually are doing what's important, working towards the things that matter to you, living a life that you love because you recognize the brevity of life. That you are conscious of the importance of relationships for connectivity and for meaning, that you are aware, maybe now more than ever, that your relationship with God really matters. That connection with God is, uh, has to be prioritized in order for you to, to really live the way you wanna live. And so I wanted to talk to you today a little bit about what it looks like to take baby steps for these big goals that you have for 2020, because here's what will happen, y'all. For many of us, if not most of us, we will start out with all the rocket fuel, uh, in the world. Because we're motivated and we're feeling the thing. And if Watch Night service is still a thing for our churches, we will come out of that motivated. We will watch the ball drop, if it even drops. We will spend an evening at home and think, tomorrow my life starts. And we will not have done the thinking, the preparation for actually what that requires. Because you are the same you that you were in 2020 and in 2019 and in 2018, and you are still going to be taking you into your new year. And so if you don't spend time with yourself to figure out what has to be different about you going into 2021, then you will do the same old things that you have always done. And so I want to talk to you a little bit about that because I want to warn you about a mistake that many people make that sets them up, that has set me up before, for failure And, um, I wanna warn you about that because if you are not aware of it, then you will make the mistake that typically, uh, at least we've made one time in our lives or another, but most of us have made this mistake many times and you won't be ready for what it actually requires. Okay. So Um, there are a few things I want to make sure you know about before I walk you through some of these little steps that can create big opportunities for big change in your life. Um, I want to tell you about a few things. Okay. So the first thing is, if you did not watch the live from last Monday, which I know that last Monday would have been tough to watch because it was Christmas. Um, and you were probably preoccupied with other things. I'm glad you're here today. Um, I baked for like an hour and 40 minutes. I gave my mother's pumpkin bread recipe and I played around with all of my technology to have multiple views. It was fun. But I also talked about a Bible study that's coming up that will walk you through the 28 Days of Prayer. It's a free Bible study. That will start January the 18th. Okay, so I'm going to put that link up on the screen for you, and then I will tell the girls on Instagram because I can't— the technology. So it's Faith Gateway, and if somebody wants to be nice on Instagram and type that in, it's faithgateway.com/obs. OBS. You can sign up for free and walk through with hundreds, if not thousands, of other people walk through the 28-day prayer journey. Okay, so that's number one. The second thing that I want to tell you about that is free for you is every year at the beginning of the year, I host a Coffee with Chrystal Hurst. This is always on a Saturday, okay? And typically I would do this on a Friday night in person in Dallas, and then last year I did it online, and this year I'll be doing it online. And the web address for that, to sign up for that, It's free, but you do have to register as well. ChrystalEvansHurst.com/coffee-with-chrystal. ChrystalEvansHurst.com/coffee-with-chrystal. So on Instagram, if you want to be nice, type that in for me. Um, appreciate your help. And basically that is me talking to you and kind of giving you what is my focus, my word for the new year, my admonishment for the new year. It's kind of like my— it's my opening sermon for the year. And it's really interesting how every year when I go back and look at what I said at the beginning of the year, how speaking life over your year can actually provide direction. And so you can do that for yourself. You know, you can give yourself your own word, you can give yourself your own direction, you can write some things on your um, on, on the walls of your own life. However, I want to encourage you, um, with some specific thoughts about this new year, 2021. And so I will do that. Um, it'll be in another— on another platform, won't be on Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. It's on another platform that allows us to have greater connection, and you can register for that. That'll be this Saturday. I don't even know if we picked a time, but it's in the morning. It's in the morning, so I can get in your life and out of your life before you need to start that day— start your day. Okay, so, um, so that's that Coffee with Chrystal Hurst. It's kind of like our Monday Coffee with Chrystal Hurst, but the big one for the year. Okay, all right, so that's Coffee with Chrystal Hurst. The other thing that you need to know about is that the Inner Circle will be opening January 1st. So on Friday, the Inner Circle opens. And the reason why this is important, um, it's not that there are multiple levels to the Inner Circle. The main level, the first level is always open. It's $5 a month. It allows you to support what I do, um, both in all of the fees for all of the services, for all of the live streaming, all of the girls who help out in the office and, uh, It just says, hey Chrystal, I'm here and I appreciate you. But the upper levels are not so much where you want to support my work, but you also want to do your own work and you want more content from me, more support from me, community and discounts on all the things that we do do that cost. So those inner circle levels will open on Friday. The reason why this is important is because they don't stay open. They will close on January 4th, Monday night. And when they close, they will stay closed until the end of March, beginning of April. Okay. And the reason is, is because we will be kicking off our next 90-day journey together. We're calling it My Next 90, because I really believe that if you can think about your life in 90-day sprints, that you can focus, that the goals aren't so big, like the whole thing that you want to do for the year, and they're not so small, like what I have to get done this week that's immediate. They allow you to break down your, your bigger goals into a period of time where the goals can actually be achievable, low-hanging fruit. And what we do is we teach you how to do that, and then we provide the content and context and community for you to get some things done. Um, if you are new to the Inner Circle, then you get, um, your 90-day planner sent in the mail for free. If you are a recurring 90-day or recurring Inner Circle member, you get access to this 90-day planner for half off. And so, um, the doors open January 1st, they close January 4th, and we will be doing the thing together. Doing the thing together. And what I have heard, which makes me really happy over and over again, is that women who have been working on things in their life, um, who have been wanting to get things done and move the needle forward, uh, who have not been able to do that in the context of community, are able to see their thoughts come to life, their plans get executed. They just needed a little push. And all of us sometimes need that little push. And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know what? I just need a little community, a little accountability, a little content, a little encouragement in order to make some things happen. You do not have to happen— have to have it. Okay. Um, and let me tell you why I'm telling you that, because I don't ever want you to feel like you cannot make something of your life if you don't spend the money. It's not true. It's simply not true. But if you know that spending a little money, a little extra money, will help you and you have it, then we're here to help. There are plenty of people that have done the whole thing without an online group and without a planner. You know, they do. There are plenty of people, for example, that have lost weight and done it without Weight Watchers. But here's the other side of that coin. Are there lots of people who tried to do it over and over again, year after year, and were not able to do it, and then they join Weight Watchers and all of a sudden the account ability in the community and the plan laid out for them was a game changer? Absa-dog-on-lutely. So what we're trying to do is provide community context, the content that provides a game-changing situation for you to make game-changing moves in your life. So we're here for you to help and to serve. So that is my spiel about the Inner Circle, and I want to get on to what I want to talk to you about. Okay. Um, oh, there's one other thing I want to say because y'all have asked me this question a million times. Um, a million times. Um, and I'm going to answer it now and I've mentioned it before. So what am I going to do in the new year? Coffee with Chrystal Hurst Monday mornings, um, my weekly lives, and before that they were daily. Um, you know, what, what happened? Well, my last one will be Monday, January the 4th. That'll be the last one that I do live on YouTube and Facebook and Instagram because I will continue. Uh-oh, y'all are asking me for this. I'll put it back up on the screen. Y'all are asking because I plan to continue doing them live, but I will be doing them live with the Inner Circle And then I will share the after the live kind of the replay, um, on YouTube. Um, maybe Facebook, I'm not sure yet, but they will continue. We will just do that inside the Inner Circle. So that may be another reason if you want to be on live where I can take questions and put your stuff up on the screen, if that matters to you. Some people it does. All right. And I see you all on here, um, encouraging each other. I'm really grateful for that. Okay. Um, all right. So let me talk about baby steps. Okay. Now I did bring this on. I didn't think about it until I was talking about the planner. I did bring this on to talk about this, not so much to talk about the fact that you get it when you're an inner circle. And let me tell you why. Let me tell you why. And sometimes the— I know one specific person that is on my team is going to be like, ugh, Chrystal, you're killing me. Because, um, we do want to, you know, for the Sister Circle and for all the things that we want to do, we do want to increase, um, revenue because there are big things that we want to do. They're big, big plans and those plans take money. So she's going to kill me because she's like, you're always telling people they don't have to buy anything. And they need to buy it so that we can do whatever. But here's— I didn't bring this on there for that reason. I brought it on here because I wanted to show you, I wanted to show you the messiness that is my situation. So the way this works, and I, I, I'm sure in the past somewhere online I've talked about my process for productivity, but, um, the way this works is you literally sit down and you brainstorm your way through. And, and when you're in the Inner Circle, I actually will walk you through like step by step how to do this. But I wanted to show you something. So, and this is last year's version, it actually looks a little different this year, but you— we give you some words to choose from for you to decide to focus on what's important, right? And then you create this mind map Okay. And the reason why I wanted to show you this, okay, the reason why I wanted you to see this is because my process is not neat. It's, it's actually quite, quite disastrous. Okay. And we always think that someone's process is neater than our own. Okay. We always think that somebody has something we don't have, that they know something we don't know. That they have access to something we don't have access to. And, and they might, they might have money in the bank. They might have been born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They may have gotten their MBA. That is true. However, there are just as many people that I can think of that have impacted my life that don't have that setup as that do. And at the end of the day, the setup is not what makes or breaks you. The setup can help, but it does not make or break you. It does not determine what you are able to do with your life. It is simply this. It is simply this, okay? Do the work. That's it. Do the work. Whether you have a doctorate degree or whether you just walked out of the doctor's office, if you decide that you want to make changes in your life, you have to do the work. And I realize that once you make the decision to do the work, that you may be overwhelmed with all of the work that needs to be done, all of the things that you don't know, all of the things that you want to have access to, whether that's finances or information or people that you may not have. Okay, but you still have to sit down and do the work. And I see your comment, um, Rado Mosley. She said, I am currently struggling My mind just feels blank. Well, one of the things that we learned in one of our online events, in fact, the last online event that we had, Dr. Anita Phillips made this statement. She talked about journaling and she said, even if you don't know what to write, sit down and write something. Like even if you write the same sentence over and over again, if you start the process of doing the work that you're like, I don't even know what to do. But if you start doing something, you open the door for things to flow, and the work does not have to be neat. Now I want to, I want to talk more about that, but I want to show you something else. So this is, um, the first— okay, I'm going to show you a really messy page. So this is the first week of the new year. This is what my planner looked like. Okay, do you see how disastrous this looks? Like, look at this. There is nothing beautiful about it. And the reasons why I have not yet, like, made a whole YouTube video about the planner and all that kind of stuff, y'all, is because it's so messy. It's so messy. And a lot of times when I see, um, people put their stuff up and they do these beautiful, like, product demo videos, it's so beautiful. And for the longest, I was like, I did not share my process because I was like, it's not going to look pretty. And then I realized it didn't matter. It didn't, it didn't matter. So, um, but one of the things that is super important, um, and I'll show you this one other thing. Let's see here. Okay. Um, you know, in this planner, there are lots of blank pages because I need the blank space. But every week there's room for you to journal. And the reason why there's room for you to journal is because I believe that you thinking about your life really matters. I believe that words are important. And the reason why I put this in here is because I realized that most people who don't like to journal is because they don't, they don't know what to write about. They don't, they don't know, like you were saying, Rado Mosley, their brain is just blank and having somebody prime the pump for you is helpful. So that's kind of what makes this this planner different, but mine is messy. Okay, there are weeks that are blank in here because I didn't sit down and write out my plans. There are weeks that there are things that didn't get done, and so from week to week I had to literally circle what didn't get done and move it to the next week. Like, having a pres— a plan planner and a process still, you know, I— there was still like mess-ups. But I do think that when you write things down, it matters. So I'm not going to talk too much about that because somewhere along the line of this year I've talked about writing things down. Um, but here's what I wanted to say. Okay. Every week and every month and every quarter, making this space in this planner, in this, my planner. Um, and I'm about to, you know, tell you This is why they're going to get mad at me. But every, every time I talk about the planner, I always say this, y'all, this don't matter. It is helpful. And I know some of us are planner junkies, but I created this to give you all something that will walk you through my process. You want to know what I was using before this and still sometimes use? Um, a composition book that I paid a dollar for from Target, Walmart, or OfficeMax. Because here's the thing, and this is why I'm showing you this and showing you that this process is not neat and showing you that, you know, this is not Instagram, Pinterest ready, or YouTube product shot. And don't get me wrong, we're going to work on our YouTube product shots, but let me tell you why I'm showing you that, because it's not the planner. It's not the planner. It's you. Angelique, I see your question. So email us at hello@chrystalhurst.com. We'll figure out what happened to it. It's not the planner. It's you. Now it doesn't— the process is helpful. I mean, I have bought planners in the past because I wanted to walk through somebody's way of thinking. There have been business planners that I bought. There have been pretty planners that I bought. There have been daily planners that I bought. That I bought, you know, monthly planners, weekly planners. Over the years, I used to go to the Franklin Covey store and spend a million dollars on a planner and on the COVID And my grandmother was like, I can't believe she's spending that much money on a planner. Just write it down. Just write down what you want to do. You know, I asked my father one day, did you and Mommy sit down and have these goal-setting sessions and go away for a weekend to have a planning session? They didn't do all of that. So I want to relieve the stress that you have to have the right planner. What you need is a process, okay? What you need is a process, and that's why I created the planner, so that I would put my process there. But here's what my planner does, and most other planners should do if they are goal planners— not just write down what you have to do today, but goal planners, okay? They should make you break down your big goals into baby steps. And that's where most of us get screwed up. That's where most of us get screwed up. So I don't know how to pronounce it, if it's Vidal or Vidal, I'm not sure. But she says, I start, but I need to be consistent with journaling. I have so many notebooks. You're right, Chrystal Hurst, it's me. So that's— that's— there's nothing to feel bad about because that's all of us, okay? That's all of us. We all have something where we have to realize it's not about the process, it's not about the planner, it's not about what I paid, It's the person. It's me. I can't help alliteration. I'm a preacher's daughter. It is what it is, right? So here's, here's the thing. You have to have a process that helps you to break things down into baby steps because life will happen. You will have a bad day. You will have an emotional day. You will have a week that interrupts your life. Somebody will pass away. A child will get in trouble. You will have a crazy week at work. You'll get fired. You'll have an unexpected spend, that even though you had a plan for your money, you know, this breaks down, you know, everything. I was just talking to my sister-in-law Kanika last night, and they were doing some stuff in their home, renovations in their home. So they finally had been saving to do it. They have this, this— they moved out of their house and they moved back in, and as soon as they get in, stuff starts breaking down, you know. Um, we moved into our home, and as soon as we move in, right, you know, there's all the things. And our home is not a new home, So we move in and it's an older home and all of these things are problems. All of a sudden, my dryer that normally would take an hour max to dry a load was taking like 6 hours. And so I realized that the vents that lead to the outside for the dryer, they needed to be cleaned. I've never had that happen before. I didn't even know about it. So I had to learn how to do that. And so, you know, I mean, all of these things happen. So you have to have a plan to come back to when life derails you, because life will derail you. You will derail you. Okay, so the process for getting things done in your life has to involve baby steps. If it doesn't involve baby steps, if you don't know how you're going to get there, and if you don't know what your checkpoints are for getting there, okay, then you will get derailed because you will be overwhelmed at how to start climbing the mountain again. When you made progress and then life knocked you over. Life knocked you over. Okay. So, um, oh, and I always do this because it makes me feel good about my life. So I'm going to pull up my notes, but while I do that, I want to ask if you are a millennial. No, I'm not even going to say millennials. I want, I want, I, Xennials, I call them. So you're kind of Gen Z, millennial. I'm not sure where the millennial age ends. I know it I know the top of it is like you're closing in on 40 if you're a millennial, but if you're Gen Z, you're still in your 20s, I think. I want to know if you're, if you're Zennial, kind of at the bottom level of millennial or, or Gen Z. If you're here and you're that age, give me a fist bump. Okay. Hey, Joanna. Okay. So if you're here and that's you, give me a fist bump. All right. So let me talk to you about a few ways that you can take baby steps towards your goal. All right. Let me give you some steps so you can take baby steps towards your goal. Okay. All right. Hey, Danielle, 32. Gen Zs, 1996, that one girl. I see y'all giving me fist bumps. Proud of you for being here. Let me tell you what's important. And everybody that's over the age of 40, will co-sign on this. There are certain things that you're going to hear in your life— there are certain things you will hear in your life. Are you listening? Listen to me! There are certain things that you're gonna hear in your life. Steffi, I see you, Steffi. Okay, you're gonna hear them, you're gonna hear them. I see you Shakira, and I see you Desiree. You're going to hear them, you're going to hear them over and over and over and over and over and over. I see you Deborah. 20 years old, I'm glad you're here. I see you here. Listen, but if you don't do them, if you do not execute on them, you will be 40 and think, I can't believe I haven't done that yet because I had the information. So I am telling you right now, Carol— uh-oh, mic fell over. I'm telling you right now, Carol 26, I see you, I see you. If you do not listen to what I'm telling you right now, I'm about to give you— it's really simple, it's really simple. This is not magic, it's not, it's not a secret, okay? It's not a secret. But if you don't execute on what I'm saying to you— hi Drew 21— if you don't execute on what I'm telling you right now, you're going to realize later I knew it but didn't do it. And then you will realize that you lost out on the compounding effect of time. Hi, Cherie. Cherie, I'm going to call you out, y'all. I've known Cherie for what, 30 years? And I'm going to pick on Cherie, but I'm going to ask everybody to answer this question who is over 40 or close to 40. Okay, what did you know in your 20s or early 30s that you did not do and you could kick yourself right now for not doing it? You may have done it later, but you're like, I started, I started way later than I should have. And I, uh, Cherie said no. Yes, come on, Cherie, come on, you're gonna kick it off for me. What is the thing, y'all, that you knew you should have done in your 20s or your early 30s and you didn't do it. And now, and now, Cherie said, I was supposed to write. Because you're a ridiculously great writer, Cherie. You hear me? You're a ridiculously great writer. Make the space to write this year. Okay, accountability. I love you. So what else did we not do? Save money, take care of my health, go back to school, being consistent exercising, investing in my 401k, finishing my degree. Exercising discipline, writing my book, planning for retirement, travel, changing career paths, investing, forgiving, buying my first home. Let me tell you something, this current house that I'm in— I see you working on my Spanish, I love that— this current house that I am in is walking distance from a house that I wanted to buy in my mid-20s, and I was afraid to buy it. I was afraid to commit. I was afraid to be— that I would be disciplined enough, my finances, to, to really prepare for home ownership. I doubted my own ability to grow, for things to, to continue to get better in my life, for me to make enough money to support myself. I was afraid. It was a big commitment, a mile from. And when we bought this house, I thought I should have bought that house in my 20s. Every reason that I didn't do it had to do with doubt. It had to do with, um, fear. It had to do with, uh, not effectively putting together a plan that would have enabled me to see that I could do it. And I'm thinking, had I owned that house I would have had more equity to put down on the house I'm in now, a mile away. And I thought, I don't even know if I want to be there. It seems kind of far from everything else. I mean, all these things are in my head, and here I am a mile away. Let me tell you something, life is full circle. And if you don't do the things that you know you're supposed to do in your youth, the things that are eating at your heart, the things that are wisdom, the saving, the traveling, the going back to school— if you just don't do it You just don't do the thing. Life is full circle. You will come back later and see that the things that were in your heart to do in your 20s did not go away. They didn't go away. You are who you are, the you, the soul of you in your skin. You're going to carry you with you for your whole life, and you will realize in your 40s that you should have done it. Emily's being brave here and sharing something hard. She said, I should have let go of a very toxic relationship in my life. I held on far too long and I lost valuable time. God has restored those years, and I'm grateful for the lessons that you've learned. Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You will learn the lessons and it will make you better. But, and here's the thing, time is the most precious commodity that you have. You doggone skippy, Michelle. Yes ma'am, I sure am feeling it now. Y'all can tell when I start getting into my preacher voice that I'm feeling it now. And yes, Justine, doubt and fear will keep you trapped. One 100%. 100%. Hi, Lucretia. Let me tell y'all about Lucretia. Lucretia, for a long time, wanted to be a baker. I remember when she used to work for— was it Sanger Harris? When Sanger Harris was even still alive. And I remember her talking about this dream that she had. She was raising kids and finished kids. So this is, you know, a second part of life dream. And she was working on it while she was working on her full-time job. I remember when she brought me and Priscilla a cake and said, I really, really want to know what you all think. And, and now she's a baker. Her whole life. So it's never too late. That's what I wanted to say about Lucretia. And I've run into her like 3 times in the grocery store in the last few weeks getting groceries because she's got to bake. But what I want to tell you is while it is never too late, if you are millennial, zennial age right now, I want you to Stop waiting. Mandy Opong said, I should have had some hard conversations with my dad. What are you waiting on? What are you waiting on? Hi, Allison. She said, I needed this today. Life is full circle. It is full circle. Hi, Sheila Golden. It is full circle, and you will come right back around to the things that you were harboring in your heart early on. And you might have more strength to do it then. You might have the finances to do it then. Oh, it was Neiman Marcus. Excuse me, Neiman Marcus is still a thing, barely, but it's still a thing. Thank you for correcting me. You will come right back around to those things because you are the same person. Yes, and you do need to ask for help. Yes, that's absolutely true. Yes, doubt and fear, Myra, will stop you 100%. What I need you to know after looking at these comments today is that you're not the only one that should have. But as, uh, my friend says, you don't need to should all over yourself. You just need to realize what you wanted to do that if you're still alive, you can do in some form. In some form. Can you still be the ballerina dancer, you know, or the opera singer at the Met? Okay, maybe not that, Can you still engage in that thing that will bring you joy and still take the classes and still dance because it makes your heart feel on fire and still sing? 100%, 100%. So you take the woulda, coulda, shouldas and you funnel them into this season of your life and you run harder, further, faster. My dad always says that if you have realized that you've been moseying along in the race of life, and you are running out of time, then in the season that you're in, you run faster. You, you don't say, well, I fell down and oh well, I lost the race. You get up and you run faster. You run with more focus. Hi, Miss Gail Maddox. I know you too. Yes, ma'am. At 68 and widowed. We love you and Pastor Warren. You still can go forward 100%. 100%. Okay, so that was my encouragement preacher voice thing. You have another thing, Miss Lucretia, that you need to finish? Oh, okay. So after we're done, can you text me and tell me what it is? Because I love you and I would love to hold you accountable if you even need that. I'm just really wanting to know what it is. Okay, so here it is, y'all. Here are the things that I want to tell you about. Super, super simple. Okay, super, super simple. But it's, it's— if you don't move forward with these things, then you will be in trouble. Okay, number 1, what is it that you want to do? But why do you want to do it? Why do you want to do it? Okay, absolutely. The Cherry on Top said, big sister encouragement. Yep, that's exactly what this is. I love this, uh, Chapman. She says, at 40 years old, I read through some old journals from 10 to 13 years ago and realized I still have the desires If you look back, you'll realize that some of the, some desires do change with age, but a lot of the core things that you wanted, especially when you were a teenager before the world told you that you couldn't do it, you still want those things. You still want those things. There are some things I still want to do. Um, but why, why? Uh, Shonda Stagall, who is like an honorary team member, she's probably watching right now, but hates that I'm calling her out. She was in a record store in Carrollton last night, and I didn't even know there were still record stores. So now I'm gonna have to go visit the record store. So while she was in the record store, she said— we were on the phone, and she says, oh my gosh! And I knew it. I knew what she was— I knew before she told me what she was gonna say. I said, girl, did you find my mother's album? Album. She said, yes, yes, I found your mother's album! See, some of y'all didn't even know my mother recorded 2 albums. Why? Why did she record 2 albums? Because she loved to sing, and that had always been a lifetime goal. And when she recorded, uh, her albums, me and Priscilla were teenagers. I think I had one of them, I had graduated from high school. It still mattered to her. Of course, with my mother passing away, we're looking around and we're looking at all the things that, you know, maybe we didn't look at. We have different eyes. And in a curio cabinet in the front room, there are these things that were important, but that was the front room. We didn't, we didn't get to go in the front room. We weren't even, you know, we didn't go in the front room. And there's a curio cabinet with things that were important to her. So I was snooping around in there one day, one day with her, and she pointed to something and she told me what it was. So I knew that that particular thing had writing on the bottom. And so she put a Post-it note to tell us what it is. So I'm now going in there looking at all the other things I didn't, I didn't know. I don't know why they're in there. And some things have writing on the bottom on a Post-it note and some of them don't. Gail said, I have her records. I have her tapes, y'all. But one of those things with a little trophy, and inside the trophy there's a Post-it note and it says, "1966 singing competition, first place." Because when she was a teenager, she was singing. It was important to her then. And the culmination of her singing career in her mind was recording albums. So in her late 30s, she did the thing because the desire didn't go away. It was embedded in her. Why? Because she loved to sing and because she wanted to share her voice with the world. That was a dream of hers. It was important So your why matters, even if the why is, I just love it and it's just a dream, it's just a goal. That's enough that I will feel that I, I lived my life if I do this thing. Health is easy. I want to live long. I don't want to be taken out of here prematurely because of, you know, of an addiction that I have to sugar or salt or soda or or sweet tea. That's your why, right? You want to live. Okay, I want to write the book because there's a story that I have, and if I don't put the story out there, then the story dies with me. That there is something, a voice that I want to put into the world. Okay, maybe, uh, your why is because you, you, you, you know what it is to be in debt. You know what it is to be poor. You know what it is to not have enough, and you don't want the generations to come after you to not know what to do with money, to not know how to make wealth, to not know how to save. You want to get your life together financially because you want to leave an inheritance for somebody else, or you want to show your kids how it's done. And if you don't have the good habits, then they don't have them either. The first one is why. Why do I want to do the thing? Why? Start with your why. And I love this because I had some of the girls help me out with the direction, and I'm going to read what they wrote. In order for you to get up at the crack of dawn to work out, to read more, or to spend quiet time with God, you need to know why you're doing it, because your motivation will run out. So I was watching Inside Out this weekend with my kids, and there's a scene in there where, um, Joy falls down with the elephant— I forgot his name— into the abyss, and they're trying to get out, and they have to sing, sing, sing, sing, sing in order for the the little vehicle that they're in to have enough power to make it to the top, right? And they're singing, singing, singing, singing, singing. They're doing all this stuff, but no matter how hard they're singing, that vehicle runs out of steam, okay? It runs out of steam. And so they do it again, and they sing, sing, sing, sing, sing, and no matter what, it's running out of steam. And that's because it had too much weight. And then the little elephant, it's so sad, he realizes that he's actually not going to make it. He sees himself disappearing, so he decides to, uh, have her jump in the car with her and sing, sing, sing, sing really loud so that the vehicle can make it all the way to the top of the hill. Because Joy is trying to get back and save her person. She's trying to save her person, and she's got to get back into headquarters to save her person. And the elephant jumps out. He says, keep singing, Joy. He jumps out because not only did they have to know why they were going back, not only did they have to put the energy into going back, but he knew that the motivation, that the energy that that vehicle needed in order to make it to the top of the hill, it was going to run out. And here's the other thing that he had to do: he had to get rid of the weight. He knew that there was too much weight. You are probably carrying extra weight. If you don't have the time to write, then you are, you are carrying too many things in your time because we all have 24 hours. And if other people can get a book written, that means it can be done in 24 hours every day. But you have to get rid of the weight. Of course, that applies to health. You have to get rid of the weight if you want to get where you're going to go. You can have a why, but if you're carrying too much weight, you will always run out of steam because you're trying to do it with too much, too much on board. Some of the things that we cannot finish in our lives are because there are too many other things we're trying to carry at the same time. And unless you eject it, you will keep running out of steam and never quite make it over the top. What is the weight that you're carrying? What is the weight? Have a why, get rid of the weight. What is your weight? I have a whole— and here's the thing, even if you can make it, it slows you down. So we took a trip in the middle of a pandemic. We went to Disney World. Disney World. And that was weeks ago. We're all good. But here's the thing. We got to the airport. My husband said he was in charge of packing the kids, and I didn't pay any attention. Thanks for being honest, Tanisha. She said social media, total procrastination. Love that. Yes, Lavon, lay aside every weight. That is what the Bible says. We get to the airport and I look aside to my first son and he has 4 carry-on 4 carry-ons, 4. Chrystal Hurst, why didn't you tell him about the rule about 2? And we're going to Disney World. What are you doing with all those bags? So we get to the, you know, we get through security, we get to the gate. Of course he has to check a bag. It slows us down with getting on the plane. And then when we arrive at our destination, it slows us down with getting where we want to go. We made it, but it took longer than it needed to. You can make it if there's weight, because I know some of y'all are thinking, my husband is the weight, you want me to get rid of him? No, I do not want to get— you want you to get rid of him. I understand, but here's the deal, you just need to understand that you can still make it. It will just take you longer and it will be a little bit harder, and sometimes that's the best you can do. You're single with 4, 4 single parent, 4 kids. You didn't ask for that. It's a weight you have to carry it. So I want to relieve the stress. Hi, Shaniqua. KJ. I want to relieve the stress that sometimes there's a weight in your life that you don't get to change without walking outside of being a good person or a Christian person. And I understand that. I always understand that, right? Ruby said, honey, you read my mind. So I understand that, but here's the reality. You just need to understand then that you can still make it. It'll just take longer. When I got pregnant my first daughter, my dad said, well You're going to still climb the ladder. You're just going to have to climb with a backpack. It'll be harder, but you can still do it. So to those of you who have a weight that you cannot control, you can still do it. But as much as possible, um, you need to situate that weight as good as, as well as you can so that you can get as much mileage out of the moments that you do have available to do it. Okay, so what is your why? Um, 100%, Belinda, mindset can be a weight. What is your why and what is the weight that you're carrying? And what can you do to either get rid of the weight or to shift the weight? All right, okay, what can you do to shift it? So like Arnetta, if your biggest weight is fear of failure, okay, you can shift the weight by talking to a good friend, a pastor, or a counselor. Shift the weight. You— that may be innate to you to have fear, but you can shift the weight. You can, you can ask somebody else to help you carry it or to give you input that will help you to balance that weight, right? You can do it. Hi, Marilyn Williams Fair, how are you? All of my real people that I know, they're jumping on. That's fun. All right, so here's what's next. Change slowly. Quit coming out of the gates on January 1st, talking about this crazy diet that you're going to do that you know you cannot sustain. You know you can't sustain it. You know it because you've done it a million times before. So change slowly. So one of the things, you know, at some point it's not on the master plan. My team is going to kill me, but at some point we probably want to do another 21 days. Fat Demon Challenge. Was it 28? 28? I don't know. But the point is, when we do that challenge, we start slow. For a whole week, focus on water. Quit, quit trying to, quit trying to, you know, come out of the gate and be a fat-free vegan. What are you doing? Because your life does not support that. And I can tell you from having done a fat-free vegan diet, like, like I actually may do that with Karris. We've been talking about doing it, but I'm going into it knowing that that's not, that's not, that's not what I'm gonna keep. I'm gonna do that to jumpstart and then I'm going to fall back to something that's sustainable. Right. And you have to go into those major changes that shock your system, knowing what you're going to do with coming out of that. Right. You got to know what you can sustain. So I'm not, I'm not opposed to like a jumpstart. Start, but you got to know what you're coming out of, okay? You got to know what you're coming out of, so, or what you're going to come out and go into. Um, but if you know you're not trying to be no fat-free vegan your whole life and that's the only thing you have coming into 2021, let me tell you what's gonna happen. You will fall flat on your face without your plan that you can sustain. And that's why starting slowly— yes, Atomic Habits is a good book to read— that's why starting slowly is always better, because you can be successful. And sometimes what you need in order to have major change in your life is not a jump start. It's not a jump start. It's sustainable success. So when you change slowly, here's what happens. And I talk about that in my book, She's Still There. Hi, Christy Cole Harper. How are you? She's recommending a book, Your Future Self Will Thank You by Drew Dicht. Okay. Here's why this is, this is successful. You know what happens when you build a row of dominoes, right? And you push the first one. One domino can knock down the whole situation because you just need to be successful. And here's why: because then it changes the message that you have for yourself. When you can tell yourself, I did that, that messaging tells you, I can do the next thing. Because a lot of times the reason why we crash and burn is because we never really believed that we were capable in the first place. And then what we've done is crashed and burned and added another failure to the list of things that we knew we couldn't do. Your success often is tied to your narrative of self. And when you change slowly, you're able to change your narrative. And changing your narrative is actually the most important domino. Domino, because that narrative will keep knocking down the other dominoes. It is the power of mindset, 100%. Michelle Gibson, that is what we're talking about. It is mindset. And when you change slowly, you change your mindset. Yes, and success begets success, and your mindset tells you when you get to the next domino that you can do it. There's a reason why Many Fortune 500 leaders, like the majority of them, have control of their weight because it's a mindset that success in one area of your life breeds success in other areas of your life. It just, it just works that way. Doesn't mean you can't be successful if you struggle with your weight. I'm just saying statistically there is a connection. So you need to understand that, that changing slowly, while it doesn't feel like you did anything, let me tell you what you're doing. And let me tell you why it is a game changer, because you shift your mindset. And if your internal dialogue tells you that you are not going to be able to do it, you won't be able to do it. Chrystal Hurst, you have to try to stay positive and trust the process. That's right. And the change in your life is more about your processing. Yes, Mermaid Survivor, and the compounding effect of your interest in your life. I need to write that down. Your mindset is a process, and if you stick with that process, you will experience the compounding effect of your interest in your life. Just like there's a compounding effect of money that happens in your life when you just stick with the change slowly. If you are like me and you have any money saved or invested, you just didn't look in 2020. You just didn't look. I have made the decision to keep investing, dollar cost averaging. I have a, I have an institutional money management background. I understand the rise and the fall. Of course there could be some catastrophe, but even the person who was in the worst scenario in 1929, Black Friday, if they would have stuck with it, they still made money. Because of the compounding effect of you keep doing the thing, and then the compounding effect of sticking with it means you have the opportunity over time to see change. Process slowly matters. So start with your why. Why are you wanting this change? Write it down. Okay. Start with the weight. What weight has been keeping you from actually making it over the top and experiencing sustained change? Is it a mindset? Is it Physically? Is it a relationship? Is it a job? Is it a habit? What is getting in the way? What can you do to get rid of that? Okay. The third thing is look at your change and decide to change slowly. Don't hit January 1st and come out of the gates doing something that you've done every year that you know don't work. It doesn't work. Okay. Next thing, exercise consistent discipline, a discipline. And some of you all have been saying that in the comments. I understand that, but here is the thing with consistency and discipline. Discipline. People will say, I don't have discipline, or they will say, I can't be consistent. Let me tell you how you are consistent. You are consistent not because you're a consistent person. You are disciplined not because you're a disciplined person. So take off the definitions that you may have of yourself, put that to the side. You are consistent and you are disciplined when you— here it is— when you do something every day, which means you don't have to be a consistent and disciplined person. It means you have to get up and do one thing every day. Can I be a person who is consistent and disciplined about drinking water in my life? I would tell you no, except that when I put my water bottle and I wash it and I set it out in the morning next to the little water thing that we have. In the morning, I get 32 ounces of water, put lemon in it, and I drink it. So every day I just drink a little water. That's my only goal, drink a little water. And then I go, I did it today. That's it. If you start from the vantage point of, oh my gosh, I've gotta be a consistent, disciplined person, and my past is telling me I'm not a consistent, disciplined person, so I'm probably not gonna be able to do it. You're starting from the wrong point. The, the point is your one thing that you're gonna get up and do. So instead of getting up every day and getting on my phone, I'm going to plug my phone in somewhere else— in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in my office, you know, in the living room. And then instead of putting my phone next to me on the bed, I'm going to put my Bible next to me on the bed. And then in the morning, I'm going to get up and I'm going to read one verse. One verse. Just every day I want to read one verse. I'm going to set myself up for success because I'm going to get rid of the weight. I'm going to get my phone out of the way because that's a problem. I'm going to assist myself by setting myself up for success, but I'm going to just do this one thing. Keep it simple. There's a saying, KISS— Keep It Simple, Stupid. I'd say keep it simple, sister. What one thing would you say, oh, I can do that. Even the goal, it's not about getting out and running a marathon. That's overwhelming. But if you say, you know what, every night I'm going to lay out my clothes so that I make it easy for myself to go out to walk. I'm not even going to challenge myself to walk. I'm just going to make sure I put out my clothes. Clothes so that I don't have to go fishing for the clothes. I'm just going to do that every night. I'm just gonna put them out there. I'm not even going to tell myself that I'm gonna do it every day. I'm just gonna put out my clothes. Do you know that that was the one thing that helped me train for a marathon? Putting out my clothes every night. That was it. And then in the morning, it seemed like such a shame when the alarm went off and the clothes were already laid out for me just not to get up and do it. It's like, I already did the work. So consistent discipline means focusing on one thing that you're going to do that you know you can do, low-hanging fruit, and showing up to do that one thing. And then you change the narrative slowly. Okay, and here's the last thing Get back up, keep going. Such a simple thing. It's not that hard. It's not, you know, miraculous. But if and when you fall, if and when you get off of your rhythm, if and when you break your chain, you know, Jerry Seinfeld would talk about the chain of consistency and he would write a joke every day and he would check it off on his calendar and his goal would be to not break the chain. If and when you break the chain, If you get to the end of January and week 1 you broke the chain 1 day, and week 3 you broke the chain a couple of days, but every other day in January you did the thing— you, you read the verse, you went for a walk, you called your mom, you, uh, you, you, I don't know, combed your hair, you put on makeup you, you know, saved your change, like, you know, whatever it is. Would you then say that January had been a success? Yes. Yes, you would have. Hi, Kim Dillard. Part of my problem— I have to really work hard, Kim, to say Kim Dillard because Kim Gaffney, you will forever be Gaff. But you said part of my problem is that I feel like the small goal is not enough and then I over overwhelm myself. Yes, but it is. Let's think about Jesus for a second. And y'all know I don't like over-spiritualizing things, and I don't like making everything a Bible study. But here's, here's the thing. Jesus changed the whole freaking world. He changed the whole world, and he didn't ever go many miles from his hometown. If Jesus would have had the mentality that a lot of us had, he would not have had enough bandwidth to effectively pour into the disciples, walking with them along the road just a few miles from his hometown, so that the impact, the ripple effect of his small thing, which was disciple those 12 people for them to have an impact. If he would not have done that small— if he had our mindset the gospel wouldn't have spread like wildfire. Now, of course, God could have come up with another plan, but what I'm telling you is Jesus chose the small route. He chose small wins. And if Jesus chose small wins, a small circle, a small circle of influence, a small locale, a small mileage distance, if he chose the small way, what makes you think that you choosing a small step will have any less impact? What makes you think it'll have any less impact? So what I want you to understand is that the small steps matter. And when you fall off, first of all, the fall from a small step is a lot easier to recover from than a fall from a tall ladder. So quit climbing the ladder and going, oops, I fell and I hurt myself. Just get a step stool. Just get a step stool. When I used to teach step aerobics, yes, I used to teach that. I used to teach spin. Yes, I've run a marathon, all these things. But you would choose the height of your step. So some people would do the workout with 3 steps stacked. You know, those were the extraterrestrial workout people. Um, I normally picked 2. Um, some people picked 1, and some people did the workout with no step at all. Yes, Zechariah 4:10, do not despise the small things. Come on with the scriptures. That's why I'm so glad y'all love Jesus. Some of y'all need to write that down. But here's, here's the deal. We were all doing the work out. Did anybody care who was doing 1, 2, or 3? Nobody cared. We were all in there with a jamming playlist doing our workout. So if you made it to the workout, you were winning, and nobody cared whether or not you were on no step, one step, two step, or three. Nobody cared. Jesus came back to the people, uh, the servants at the parable of the the servants, the talents, the master came back and Jesus is telling the story and the guy that had 5 doubled it. The guy that had 2 doubled it. The guy that had 1, he didn't do anything. He didn't tell the 1 guy, man, you should have tripled what I gave you. He said, with what you had and with what you could do, you should have done something. So when you are doing something, and whatever your something is, because you know, you know what you can do and what you can sustain, and if you fall off, don't let failure consume you. Don't let the overwhelm eat you alive. Don't let the narrative of 'I knew I wasn't going to finish' take over. You dust yourself back off, you shake the dust off of your feet, and you get back up and you keep going. Because if you reach the end of the month and out of 31 days you jack it up 7 of them, then you still, for 23, 24 days of the month, we're doing the thing. And that still spells progress. Anybody who's lost a substantial amount of weight will tell you this. That one bad day where you ate the whole medium pizza does not determine your month. But if you allow that failure on that day, that fall on that day, to allow you to be overwhelmed, to allow you to say, well, I knew this was going to happen— if you allow that to eat away at the mindset that you've been working hard to cultivate, you will then discover that you are now self-sabotaging. You have to dust yourself back off and get going again. You have to resist the urge to believe what the enemy wants to tell you, what your flesh wants to tell you, what your history wants to tell you. You have to resist the urge, and, and you have to say, soul, That's why David was successful. Do you know how many times he had to tell himself? He had to speak life to himself. He would say all the things to God, why are you letting this happen? This sucks. Where are you? My enemy's this, my enemy's that. And then he would say, but I will rejoice in the Lord. But you, but your loving kindness endures from generation to generation. But your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Like he would come back to his senses and say, but let me set the record straight. You have to decide to set the record straight, whether you are setting it straight with the enemy and him coming after you, whether you are setting it straight with your people, whether you are setting it straight for yourself. You have to get your script that you're going to say over yourself. That's why I believe in writing things down and using your lipstick or Expo markers on a mirror. That's why I believe in the note cards in your car. That's why I believe in affirmations. That's why I believe in memorizing scripture. I believe that you have to know what you're going to say to yourself when you fall fall off. You may not fall off, but my Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray. So it's the likelihood that you're not going to eat perfectly, the likelihood that you're going to miss a day of working out, the likelihood that you're going to say I'm going to write every day and that this day you're not going to write 500 words, you're going to write 20— that, that day will come. And when that day comes, what's your script? Write your script down in advance. Write it down in advance and put it somewhere so that when you have a break in your chain, you know how to get back up on your step again. Yes, Lori Hostetler, it's that simple. You speak life. I've said this and she's still there. You are the only person who is with you all the time, so you have to learn to be your own best friend. And you have to learn how to say those things to your soul. Soul, I will live and not die. Soul, this is not the end. This was only the beginning. And just because I messed up does not mean I can't continue and be successful. And you do, you do know that one of the biggest traits of people who have mastered success in their sphere is that they have scripts, they have resilience, they decide to get back up again when they fall. The question is not did they fall. The question is when they fall, when they fell, did they have a plan? Did they know what to say? Did they get back up? Did they have a script? Did they have, did they have people? Did they have support? Did they have something that was a tether for them? So team, we need to write that down the next time we do the planner. We need to have a place in here to write a script. This is what it says in the beginning of this planner. So this is, this is the script, but we need to have a script for the fall. That's my idea for today. It says, and it is a contract I made with myself: my name is Chrystal Hurst. I am choosing to be intentional about creating a beautiful life. I am committed to practicing who I want to be and consistently as possible so I can enjoy the gift of living a life I love. That was my statement to myself the beginning of last year. But now I want to— that's what we'll add. Let me, let me tell you this. I was talking to— I talked to my friend Shandria last night for 3 hours. It was one of those conversations we never get to have That's why I'm late today, because I needed a little bit more sleep after that conversation and staying up late. But she was telling me as a counselor, she said, here's the thing I want you to know, Cherie, write that and send me that today. Then I'll quote you the next time I write it down, right? I'll be like, Chrystal Hurst said, okay. She said, listen, and she's a counselor. She said, I counsel all kinds of people. And she said, and I get to counsel people who we would consider are very, very successful, that they're pretty well known and that they seem like they have it together. She said, let me tell you something, Chrystal Hurst, their life looks like your life. All the questions you have, all the things you don't know, all the things that get screwed up, all the things that you, you know, that you're trying to figure out, all the things you think people have, uh, that you don't have, that the experiences, the money, the staff. She said, everybody's just walking around here trying to figure it out. Everybody, everybody. There is nothing— here's what I want to say to you— there is nothing you do not have. Let me say this a different way. There is nothing you need to live your life well that you can't either learn, create, or be, because everybody is having to learn it, create it, or figure out how to be it. Everybody's trying to figure it out. Everybody has to decide on their why. Everybody has to lay aside every weight. Everybody has to figure out how to take change slowly. Everybody has to figure out one day at a time how to be consistent, how to exercise discipline. Everybody has to figure out when they get overwhelmed, when they fall off, when they have a a day of failure, how to get back up and keep going. Everybody has to figure it out. Everybody. So guess what that means? That means you can figure it out too. That's what it means. Now, I know we're all— we all have different starting points, you know, we, we do. And, um, I'm aware that if somebody left you and saddled you with an enormous amount of debt, that is a— that's a rough starting point. I realize that if your mother died when you were 10, that's a rough starting point. I realize that if you don't have a college degree and you're trying to figure out how to better your life, I realize that that is one of the entry tickets that can make life a little bit easier sometimes. I understand, I understand that. I understand that maybe you never saw a good marriage and that it's still a rough starting point and you're trying to have a good marriage currently in your situation. I, I understand that. I, I understand that. But here's what I want to tell you. The best stories that we love from people are the stories that come from people who had the worst starting points. Why? Because they tell us that no matter what the starting point is, you still can achieve. You can You can be successful. You can find your place. You can find your path. You can develop a rhythm and still make it out. We love the stories with the worst, with the worst critical points of the moment. You know, when you're learning the arc of the story and the denouement is the fall, but what's the, what's the point, the point at which you have the crisis, right? And teaching my kids, you know, all these things and you have the setting and all these things. And there's this rise and the fall of the story. Well, everybody has a story. Everybody has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And we all have different moments in the middle where we experience crisis, where we go, oh my gosh, how am I going to get myself out of this? And how am I going to go back and correct this? And if I knew then what I know now, or had I done something with the information that I had— we all have this moment where we gotta pivot, make a decision about doing something different. But that's what makes a good story. That's what makes a good story. And your life is a story waiting for you to live out loud. And the only person that can write it is you. Okay, so I'm gonna recap these steps really quickly, but before I do that, I'm gonna start where I start I'm gonna end, stop where I started, because I know a lot of y'all didn't get the information. So here were the announcements. Ready to hear it? Here it go. Free Bible study, 28 days of prayer. If y'all can type this in Instagram for me, I'd greatly appreciate it. faithgateway.com/obs. Okay, free Bible study. All right. Next thing, the Inner Circle opens January 1st. It closes on the 4th. If you've never been in before, you get the planner, this year's version, which has been new and improved, the 2021 version. You get that for free. If you've been in it and you come back or you're still with me, cause I know a lot of y'all are still with me, you get it for 50% off, right? 90 days. Not only that, but you get the community and the accountability. To help you to get the things done in your life. But when it closes, it does not open again until the end of March, early April, because we will be focusing. We have limited amount of energy, and so if we deal with open and closes all the time, or if it's always open and we have— then that doesn't allow us to focus on the women who are in there. So that's, that's the goal. We stop it so we can focus and give everybody time and attention in there. Y'all, there are hundreds let me see, you got like almost 1,500 women in there. And so the likelihood that you will find somebody in there who is working on the same goal that you're working on is very high. And that's where the community and the accountability comes from. So put it on your calendar. You can always join for $5 to say, Chrystal Hurst, I want to support you. But on January 1st, the other levels open and the other levels are where the magic happens because it's not just about you supporting my work. It's about me supporting your work on you. You. ChrystalEvansHurst.com/innercircle. That's where you go to join. Um, mark your calendars because January 1st, all the levels will be open. And then this Saturday, mark your calendar and go sign up because even if you're not able to make it on Saturday, you'll be able to watch the replay if you're signed up. And this is where I talk about this coming year. Um, ChrystalEvansHurst.com/coffee with Chrystal. It is more about where I kind of let you in on some of the secrets, the things that we're working on this year, the plans. I think we have giveaways. It's like a little party. It's kind of like a beginning of the year party. And it's where, and you know, in the past it was kind of unique because I would say it's my opportunity to come out of the inner circle to share with everybody, but I've been sharing with everybody all year long. So we will make it special. We'll do some giveaways. And share some things. Um, but if you are looking for kind of additional stuff for me, that's where you want to go to get it. ChrystalEvansHurst.com/innercircle. When you spell my name Chrystal, don't forget the H. Chrystal, C-H-R-Y. And then, um, the last time I will be going live, at least for my consistent lives, um, on Mondays is next Monday because we've decided to make that a perk for being in the Inner Circle. Um, so that I can more effectively take questions, get to know you so that we can, um, so that I can do that and, um, kind of take that to the next level. And I will, you know, do lives here and there occasionally throughout the year, but those weekly lives will then belong to the Inner Circle. So last Monday is our last QC. QC was a 2020 phenomenon because I wanted to be helpful to you. I wanted to encourage you. But as you launch into 2021, those training wheels will come off and we will bring them inside the family room. Um, there are a lot of things that I've been doing in 2020 that I have to— and this is what happens when you grow, right? This is what happens when you grow, when you grow. And by grow, I mean not get bigger, but when you when you, when you get older, you start to realize what are the things that you have, because we all have limited time, right? We all have a limited time that when with your limited time, you have to say, this is what gets my attention. Like, I only have so much time. This is what gets my attention. Um, and I've had to do that at home. I've had to do that with work. I've had to do that with a writing project. That I'm furiously trying to meet the deadline for. And there are some things in 2021— I'll repeat it in just a minute, Instagram— I'll— there are some things in 2021, in order for you to do the things that you know, you know deep down that you are supposed to be doing, you know it it! You know you need to lose the weight; you know you need to write the book; you know you need to finish that degree; you know you need to spend more time with the people that you love; you know that you need to get off your phone; you know that you need to declutter your closet— you know these things. You know you need to save the money; you know that you need to deal with unforgiveness; you know you need to go see counselor. But in order to make room for these things—in order to make room for it—you're going You're gonna have to make some decisions, and those decisions won't always be easy to make because we are attached to the things. Like the QC, like I have to tell you, like even as I talk about not doing it anymore live on YouTube and Facebook, there's parts about that that don't feel good, but There's a limited amount of time and we all have to make decisions with what we do with our time. Hi, Catherine Fitz. So there are going to be decisions that you're going to have to make in that the way you did it in 2020 is not the way that you're going to do it in 2021. And you can start making big decisions, big changes, meeting big goals in your life by taking baby steps. What— that's what today has been about. So if you need help in prayer, I'm putting all the links on the screen. I'm going to say them one more time because y'all are still asking me questions and I want to make sure you get it. I'm going to make sure they're all on the screen. At one time. faithgateway.com/obs. You need to talk to God because how you get the— how you get the what to do— do I do with my life is reading God's word and talking to God. Okay, that's number one. faithgateway.com/obs. Some of my Instagram friends, type that out. If you're like Chrystal Hurst, I just need help. Like, I kind of know what I need to do, but I need accountability, I need community, I need a process, I need the tools I need ongoing encouragement. I need access to you. I need, you know, and your team. I need more and I want to do the work for me. Okay. Then sign up for the Inner Circle. Okay. Sign up for it. The good news is the QCs, by the way, the QCs aren't the higher levels. They're the $5 level. So if you're like, oh yeah, Chrystal, I can do that. I can't do $25 right now because life and the quarantine and Corona in 2020 and my job and my situation. Okay. That's fine. But just so you know, it's, it's there. It's at that level. It's not at the higher levels. But if you're like, inner circle, I need to, I need to work on me. I need to work on me. I need extra content from Chrystal. This has been helpful. Or I want to do the work on me. I need a planner. I need a process. I need community. I need accountability. Okay. ChrystalEvansHurst.com/innercircle. Okay. ChrystalEvansHurst.com/innercircle. Then if you're like, Chrystal, I wanna spend, I wanna kick off my year right. I wanna have focus, which I mean, I've given you so much content. Honestly, if you don't make Saturday, you haven't lost anything, but it's always a little special. And I always say a few things in that medium for that purpose at that event that I don't say other places. So if you wanna join me for free on Saturday or have access to the replay, then register Chrystal Evans Hurst.com/coffee with Chrystal. Okay, Bible study, faithgateway.com/obs. Inner Circle, Chrystal Evans Hurst.com/innercircle. This Saturday's event, you're gonna join me with your coffee mug, we're gonna have a little chat. Chrystal Evans Hurst.com/coffee with Chrystal. Chrystal Hurst. 3 links. Don't forget. Sorry, it's too much, but it's the end of the year and the beginning of the year and all the things. Carla said, I'm so glad I stopped scrolling and listened to you. I'm glad you stopped scrolling too. I want to thank you for all of you who have been a part of the QC community because I realize that many of you, it's not just— you don't just come here for me. Me. You come here for each other. You've gotten to know each other in the comments. You recognize each other's names. You have wished each other happy birthday. You have, um, you have given your condolences when someone has lost a loved one. I, I'm aware that many of you showing up live on Monday mornings at 7-ish or almost 8 o'clock if I needed to sleep in, it has been a part of your life on Monday morning. I'm aware of that. And I wanna thank you. I, you know, you guys were calling yourselves the QC community and I was like, is the, is it a thing? Is the community like a whole thing? And for many of you, it was, it was. You, you showed up here and realized that you were seeing the same women's names every Monday and that became a part of your situation, right? Um, so I want to thank you for making this something because I literally in March said I want to be helpful and I want to be encouraging, and I just accidentally went live every day for almost 3 months. That was an accident. It wasn't the plan. And then I went off and y'all said, where'd you go? And then I was like, I can't do every day, but I can do once a week. So came back and did once a week. But, um, this— Priscilla called me the other day and said— I said to her, can you believe I have been going live for a whole stinking year? Almost. When you add up the dailies, it's been a year. A year's worth of material. Let me tell you why this is so important. Because one of the reasons I started a podcast 6 years ago, 7 years ago almost now, is because I don't want to do video. You want to know why I didn't want to do video? Because I didn't want to have to look right. And I didn't want to have to figure out how to clean up and have a pristine area of my home to show, you know, my, my life and to talk. I didn't want to have to think about what to talk all the time about. And here for almost a year, I've been showing up in my closet, rolling out of the bed, brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, throwing on a sweater and sitting here and just talking without getting ready, without all the things. And here's why. Uh, I see you, Candy. I have my Clubhouse. I have it. I have it. I've been sitting there. Trying to decide if I'm gonna jump in there and do the thing. I can't jump off of this and go to Clubhouse. But anyway, Clubhouse is the latest and greatest thing in case y'all didn't know. Anyway, here's, here's, here's, here's what I'm going to say about that. This is what Priscilla said to me. She said, anybody who does anything for a year, has moved the needle. She said it's a big deal to do anything. Hi, Melinda Turner. For a year, that's a big deal, and it was an accident. You want to know why I kept doing it? It takes me back to where we started because I had a why. I disappeared and you all said, my Monday mornings aren't the same. I really, really, you know, your encouragement really helped me. I've had so many people say, I made it. I met you during the pandemic and you helped me every week to face the hard stuff. And you were and are my why. I didn't show up every week after I went quiet for a while. I didn't show up every week because I was trying to build a YouTube audience. Listen, if I was trying to build a YouTube audience, there are all kinds of crazy things people do and the optics and the photos and the, you know, and I mean, I wouldn't be this, you know, you, yeah. If I was really trying to do it, and I'm not saying I'm not trying to build, I am trying to build. Build. But that was not my reason for— if that was my reason for showing up, I would have done things a lot cleaner and more pretty than I did them. But you were my why. So when I tell you that you got to start with your why, that, that determines things, and that when I tell you you've got to get rid of the weights and you've got to figure out what you have to get rid of in order to show up. And when I tell you that you have to do things slowly and do them bit by bit as you can. And when I tell you that you can be consistent even if you're just taking it one step at a time. And when I tell you that when you fall off, and you will, that you just have to figure out what your script is and get back up. So when I tell you these things, I'm telling you because I know. Tamika Walden said, you helped me start my business this year. That makes me really, really happy. I'm happy for you. So, okay, TT said, what days do you do the Inner Circle? The Inner Circle is an ongoing platform for access to extra content, tools, community, accountability for you making major changes in your life. The Faith Gateway Bible Study for 28 Days of Prayer starts January the 18th. Coffee with Chrystal Hurst is this Saturday. Friday. I don't even know what time it is, but I know it's in the morning. So if you sign up, you'll get all the information. It's great. Right now in the Inner Circle, we have been dousing you all with content because y'all get the free content before we make it available to everybody else in 2021. And, um, that's what's happening in the Inner Circle right now. So that's, it's a kind of an ongoing thing. Shawna said, you helped me to start my ministry. Monica said, you helped me get the sewing machine and make the quilts. That makes me really happy. And guess what you all made me do? You made me get on video, like live video. Video, like consistent video. Oh, y'all are telling me the time. Is it 8 PM? Maybe it is. The point is, sign up. Doesn't matter, because if you can make it live, then awesome. But if you can't, the replay will be in full effect anyway. Can you please put up the written script for yourself? Yeah, I need to, I need to figure out what my script is. So I need to write it. Vanessa Snyder said, this year I made progress with my doctorate. Darlene said, you helped me to take a true look at me. Louise said, I found you and then I was able to follow your church services on Sunday. Ah, you're trying to give me an idea for a shirt, Lisa. The geeky girls. I'm a geeky girl. Lucy, you made me start BSF and start crocheting earrings, scarves, and blankets. I love that. That makes me so happy. Yay. Awesome. You purchased a home. Good for you, Mary. Mamrie, Mary. Okay, y'all. So it is 9:30. Monifa, you started homeschooling your children. Now y'all are going to make me cry. Okay. It's 9:30 Central, 10:30 Eastern, 8:30 Pacific Mountain, or maybe it's 7:30. Here's the thing. This is your life. You are still here. You still have breath, which means each and every day you get to choose. You get to choose who you're going to be. You get to choose how you're going to pivot. You get to choose to change if that's what's required. And every day that you're still alive, you can choose. And the choices that you've made up to this time, up to this point, while they do matter because they have influenced who you are today, right? You get to choose whether or not you keep making those choices or not. You get to choose. In the Garden of Eden, that's what God gave Adam and Eve. He could have made them love him. He could have forced them to obey. He could have totally blocked off any chance that they had of choosing anything other than him. And you want to know what he gave them? He gave them the ability to choose. That is your superpower. You don't have to believe what they told you. You don't have to believe where you've been. You don't have to believe your history as a definition of who you are. You get to choose every single stinking day. So if you don't do anything else, choose to show up for your life. And everything that, that I'm doing, all it is, is trying to help you do just that. Okay, so join the Bible study, faithgateway.com/obs. Join me on Saturday for Coffee with Chrystal, chrystalevanshurst.com/coffeewithchrystal. If you wanna keep getting QCs, which we'll call it something else in the new year, join the Inner Circle. If you wanna do the 90-day journey, we'll open that up on January 1st. Y'all have been hearing me talk about all the things. If you're like, I don't wanna do it by myself, then get a friend to come do it with you. So I want to make sure I at least know one other person doing this 90-day journey thing. Okay, grab a friend, y'all. Come on and come on, and we'll be there. We'll be there. Okay, so have a great day. Enjoy your life today. Find at least one thing, at least one thing about your life today— that's good and celebrate that. You want to know what's good about my day today? Christmas is over. I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas. Lord Jesus, help me. Okay, insert chair dance. Every year I'm just like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to make it. Like I literally this year thought, I think I'm going to tell my kids we're not doing gifts at all. I resign, I'm done. And then I remembered that I have a 12-year-old and that really, that would have really been sad for him. My teenagers could have handled that, but my 12-year-old wouldn't have been able to handle that. Oh goodness. Okay. So last thought I will leave you with, because I see all the questions, y'all. I see all the questions. Here's the thing. If you don't do not one thing, somebody said, wow, you still here? Yes. I'm about to get off though. Go to my website, chrystalhurst.com and sign up for my email list. If you can't remember, if you're like, all these things, just sign up for the email list because we always send out emails that have all the things in it. There you go. The end. Hopefully that'll help you out. All right, y'all. Y'all, like my daddy always says, I love you with my life. Have a great week. It's the last week of the year. We are headed out of 2020 and into 2021. And you want to know what? It might've been a, it might be a hard thing depending on what you're leaving behind, but life is always good. So happy New Year, and I will see you on Saturday for Coffee with Chrystal Hurst. Okay, bye.