Build on What You Already Know with Chrystal Evans Hurst

Have you ever felt like you need to make a decision and you don't know what decision to make?

Or you need to do something but you don't know what to do? Or you are trying to figure out going into 2024 how you're going to make 2024 a better year than 2023?

Well, I got something I want to say to you. Let's get this party started. Hello, my name is Chrystal Hurst, and if you're here for the first time, welcome. If you've been here before, this may look the same but a little bit different. I'm in my same spot, but I'm actually recording with my phone today. I have a light and I have a camera and I have a fancy computer, but the power keeps going out. I'm not even using my mic today, but I'm still here turning out the content because I really believe that if I can be helpful to you, then that is worth the effort of turning on the phone and filming with the phone if that's what I have to do. So here's what I want you to know. I recently went to the doctor because I try to go to the doctor once a year. I try to see my general physician and see my OB GYN once a year. So that way, if there's something that they need to notice, they can tell me. And what I have noticed is that every year there's something they want me to know. There's something in my blood work, even if it's good. They want me to know what my blood pressure is. They want me to know what my, my hemoglobin is. They want me to know what my iron levels are. They want to know what my vitamin D level is, like all these different things. And so they're checking my blood, they're checking my heart, they're looking in my throat, they're listening to my breathing to make sure I'm good. I go to the doctor not just to check something off the list, but because I actually want to know what they have to say so that if there's something that I need to adjust, I can hear it and receive their wise counsel, make adjustments in my life so I can live as healthy of a life as I possibly can. The same is true of my soul. I try to regularly do checkups. I may journal, I may read a book, I may talk to a friend, I may, you know, listen to a podcast. I'm constantly thinking, how's my brain, how's my soul? And when I realize that things are off-kilter, then I want to make adjustments so that I can be healthy over the long haul. One of the things though that happens is that I don't go see the doctor, or I don't do a brain and a heart check-in, a mind and a heart check-in, because it's time. I do it because my body is telling me something. Often you're going to go to the doctor because your body's telling you something. Something starts aching, or something starts going wrong, or blood is coming from places it shouldn't be coming from, or your energy is low. There's something wrong, and so you go to the doctor. The same is true for your mind and your heart. You feel like something's just not quite right, so you go to the doctor. I've I've been praying lately and asking that God would show me some things, that he would bring some clarity as it relates to home, as it relates to work, as it relates to decisions I need to make, some changes that I need to make. Then I'm looking for the answer, right? I'm looking for Dr. God to give me the answer. And sometimes he gives me the answer in my own mind, or he gives me the answer deep in my soul. Often the answer comes from external sources. It'll be in a sermon that I listen to, or it'll be in a book that I'm reading, or it'll be in a conversation with a friend, or it'll It'll just be a moment of revelation as I listen to something else. And recently, I've come to know what a lot of us come to know with our bodies, that if there is something that you're trying to fix, that there are lots of recommendations. You'll have one person recommend one drug. You have another person recommend this natural, naturopathic solution. You have another person tell you what to change with your food. I mean, there are sometimes lots of routes to get to the same destination. And so then you're trying to figure out, which route should I take? Often, that's what happens when I'm checking in on my mind and in my heart. It's like, which route do I take? Because different people have different suggestions. And even I will hear different things. So this weekend, I went to church. And I was listening to the sermon. And I was thinking, I think this is what the sermon is telling me. This is what God is telling me as I listen to the sermon. And then I came home. And I was sitting in my bed, just sitting in silence. And then something else came. And I was like, well, Lord, is this you talking to me? But they seem to be in diabolical opposition to each other. I want you to know that oftentimes the prescription for your life, the prescription for the next thing, the information that you receive might be conflicting. And that there are a couple of ways to address this. Okay. The first one is just pick. If you are getting conflicting information from good quality sources, just pick, because as long as you're alive, you get to course correct. So this is a part of making decisions and not taking too long to move the needle. You just pick. Take the prescription for a while, and if you don't like it, try the natural option. Okay, just pick. The sermon said this, but then I was listening to another sermon on the radio and it said that. Just pick, because you can course correct. Number 2 is just wait. Often it takes time for you to know in your knower what feels like the right move. Having walked with my mother through her cancer journey and knowing that oftentimes when people are dealing with a cancer diagnosis, they get all kinds of information. And even the doctor will give you options. We could go this route or we could go this route and you could go this way. And we have known outcomes for these things. Or there's this trial drug over here if you wanna do that. And you're sitting here going, well, what do I decide? And your life is hanging in the balance, right? But you still just have to pick. But sometimes in order to pick the thing that you're gonna feel the best about, you just wait. You wait until one seems better than the other. You wait until you feel better about one option than the other. You wait until you have clarity or until you have prayed or until you have had conversations with other people who share your story. You just Wait, because often it's in the waiting where you get clarity. So sometimes you just pick, sometimes you just wait, and sometimes you just do nothing.

Like, you do the thing that you should have been doing in the first place.

You don't change anything. Sometimes the reason why we have a problem is because we stopped doing what we were supposed to be doing in the first place. For example, the doctor says, listen, your blood pressure is going up, or maybe your A1C is going up, or maybe, you know, just anything, your iron is going down. And you already knew that you should have been taking your vitamin D supplement or getting more sun. You already knew that you needed to quit driving through the fast food line. He's telling you to pick, pick, take some medicine or make some changes. You can just wait and figure out which one you want to do. But also, you can just do what you knew you were supposed to be doing in the first place. And this is where I want to camp out. Just pick, just wait, or just do what you already knew you were supposed to be doing. Because for many of us, we already know.

We already know.

We just don't have the discipline or the habit or the desire, or we're not making the time to do the thing that we already know we're supposed to do. So here's my question for you today. What do you already know you're supposed to do? You already knew what you were supposed to be doing this year. Have you done it? Have you done it? And why not? If you haven't, have you finished it? Should you have been able to finish it? And if you haven't, why didn't you? Cuz often we don't need a doctor to give us a prescription, and we don't need to go on a quiet retreat or a sabbatical to get the prescription. We just need to do what we already knew we were supposed to do. As we get to the end of this year, this is a time where I always encourage great reflection. One of the reasons why we always do a 90-day at the beginning of the year in the Inner Circle membership is because we realize that that's a crucial jumping point for the rest of the year. If you can get the first 90 days right, so much of your year, you'll have clarity and you'll have direction and you will have started it well. I understand that, you know, even when people do the Whole30 diet, right, they start out really, really stringently and then they kind of widen their palate because how you start matters. And I realize that, but this is the part of the year you can start and do whatever you want to do. First of all, because it's the end of the year, you don't have to not start, but also because it's the end of the year. This is the time of year where you ponder what you want to focus on in 2024, and you look at how you handled 2023 with the knowledge that you had, and what do you want to change, update, or do differently in the new year? This is the time for reflection. You will have more time, um, during the holidays if you play your cards right to think about what you want to do with the time that you have in the next year. What I want to challenge you to believe and understand is you already know many of the things that you need to know. This weekend I heard a sermon that I was shocked was so poignantly directed to a decision that I need to make. And then I came home and started reading something, totally different issue in my life that was poignantly connected to a decision I need to make. I was so shocked at how God works in my life, that when I am battling something, that he will show up and say, hey, sister, daughter, just in case you were wondering, 'Go this way.' And then I realized he had told me to go that way before. So this is just a reminder of what he already told me. With this difficult situation in my life, this is something I already knew. It was just a reminder to keep me on the straight and the narrow. There are so many things in life we don't know. One of the reasons why the Sister Circle is a thing, why there's a podcast, why there's all this free content, while there are events is because I do know that sometimes we don't know. We need somebody to tell us. And my goal is to be as practical as possible in teaching you things. Sometimes I get into my motivational inspirational voice, but I'm always called back down to the practical because I do know we need practical connection and practical information. But then there are times, y'all, when somebody already told us, we already read the book, we've already watched the video, we've already seen the podcast, we've already done all these things. And we just need reminders to tell us what we already know to do, because we already knew. What do you already know? For instance, I know that the only way that I'm going to be able to get my finances together is if I do something drastic. Like, I'm going to continue in the same cycle, and the only way that I could alleviate a major part of my bills is to shut my house down, sell my house, move in with somebody, get a second job. And what you told yourself is, that's just team too much, I'm not doing that. So when you're here at this point of the year and your finances are crushing you and you're frustrated because you can't get ahead, and now the price of milk is $52, you already knew. What you said is, I didn't want to do that. Okay, let me give you another one. You already knew that this relationship wasn't good. You already knew that you wanted more, but you don't want to be by yourself. And then you started questioning yourself. Are my expectations too much? You know, what did I do to contribute to this relationship not going the way I wanted it to go? And so here you are at the end of the year still with that person, but you already knew at the beginning of the year this wasn't supposed to move forward. You already knew that you were supposed to lose the weight, change your diet, start working out. You already knew it, and you may have done a couple of things throughout the year, but here you are at the end of the year not having moved the needle meaningfully with your numbers, whether that be your weight or your blood work, because you just didn't do what you were supposed to do. You already knew. And so this is the part of the year where you're going to be reminding yourself about what you already knew to do. But what you were telling yourself is, I didn't know, because the options that were available you didn't like. Now, if you really don't know, you seek the answer. You pray, you read, you ask for wise counsel. You, again, you go seek a therapist, you take a class. Like, growth is available. When you really don't know, when information comes at you and you're not sure what to do, you just pick, you just wait, or you just do what you already knew to do. I want to encourage you to do what you already knew to do. But for many of us, y'all, we already knew. When David in the Bible slept with Bathsheba and then killed Uriah, her husband, he already knew that was wrong. When Moses saw his brothers enslaved and being beaten by Egyptian slave masters and he committed murder, he already knew. When Moses struck the rock out of anger, he already knew he wasn't supposed to do that. When Eve bit the apple in the garden, she already knew wasn't supposed to do that. I mean, come on. When Peter denied Jesus 3 times, he already knew. Not only because he knew that was wrong, but Jesus himself had told Peter, this is what's gonna happen. Peter said, that's not gonna happen.

He already knew.

Do you realize that the majority of the problems that we have are from places we haven't taken action? Where we already knew. And this is why it's so important for you to practice listening to the Holy Spirit and listening to the intuition that God gave you. Because 9 times out of 10, when you make a decision and you know it wasn't a good decision, you will think to yourself and you will even say to yourself, I knew I shouldn't have done that.

Because you already knew.

The question is, what do you know? And are you paying attention when the doctor speaks or when the pastor speaks, when your therapist speaks? Are you paying attention when your body speaks, when your heart speaks, when your mind speaks? You already knew. My job in this world, and honestly, the reason why most people get paid the big bucks for coaching is because they believe that you already know, but you may just have so much noise or so much pain or so many questions around it that you just need somebody to help lead you to to the knowledge you already have. And so coaches get paid all this money to ask you great questions, to see your limiting mindsets, to point out what you know that you're not acknowledging, but they help guide you to what you already know. Many people will say, Chrystal Hurst, you're a great coach. Y'all, I've never taken a coaching class. I've never gone to a coaching teaching. I've never whatever, but call it a gift. I can have a conversation with someone and I see the thing that they're not saying. And I see the question that I need to ask to pull out the thing that they already know. I can feel it in a room when the person that I'm interviewing, even if it's a virtual interview and they're talking about something, I can feel like I physically can feel the question that everybody has that no one is asking or that the person isn't answering. And so then I get up the courage to ask them the question. That nobody's going to ask them, or that maybe people aren't asking them. I will listen to interviews that they've done with other people, and I'll be thinking, well, that was safe.

They didn't answer nothing we want to know. And what do I do?

I ask the question. Because so much of the time, you know the answer. What I don't want is for you to regret— I don't want you to regret things happening in your life and you knew the answer, you just didn't activate based on that answer. 2024 needs to be a year of activation. For you. Not new knowledge. I'm not against growth. Not new information. You got too much. Not new situations. You don't handle in the situation you're in. It needs to be the year of activation, of you building your house, your mind, your body, your soul.

Because you are the one who has the power to do that.

You're the one who's with you all the time. And it's a year of activating what you know to build. It's, it's about building. It's, it's about ceasing the going in circles and building.

Hey there, it's Chrystal Hurst, and I hope you're enjoying this episode. If you've come this far, I hope you have a sense of my heart and the importance Uh, for me to know that you are getting content that you can use. I wanted to jump in here because there's something I wanna make sure you know about. If you are new here, welcome. I'm glad you're here. Um, I have a membership called Chrystal's Inner Circle. If you're not new here, you probably have heard me talk about it. It's that time of year where I'm making decisions about what I wanna focus on in 2024, and I hope you are too. I know that the holidays are busy and I know that there's lots of things going on, but this is actually the best time to decide who you're gonna be and what you're gonna do to support your growth and development in the new year. So I wanna invite you to join me in the Inner Circle. We have actually made some changes. We'll be rolling out some new and exciting things. Um, but there's some other changes that I wanna tell you about. The doors will close to the Inner Circle on January 8th.

Why, you ask?

Because it's a year to focus. And when we have, as we've had in the past, and we love doing it, when we have people in and out and joining this month, but then they're out next month and then they are joining this month or they want to change levels next month, that creates, uh, an administrative load and we're happy to do it. But this year we want to focus. Why? So that on January 8th, whoever is in the Ark is in in the ark, honey, and the door's gonna close. We actually have mapped out a path of growth and development for 2024, and we really wanna put our best efforts at focusing on that path instead of focusing on the administration and marketing or communication of the Inner Circle. If you've ever thought about joining, or if you're even curious about what it is, just go to chrystalevanshurst.com/innercircle. We have mapped out month-by-month sessions and teaching for the whole 2024. Because I really believe that if you want to build your life on a foundation, and I believe that that foundation includes faith, but if you want to build it in a practical way where you're talking about your physical health and your financial security and you're talking about your emotional well-being and your spiritual development, I believe that there are some key factors in that growth path.. And we wanna focus with you if that's what you wanna focus on. Not only are we gonna have focused teachings and amazing guests, but we're gonna create downloadable guides. Uh, it's like a Sister Circle toolkit so that if you're in the Inner Circle, you've got something tangible to use for your growth. And if you wanna develop your own Sister Circle, you've got something to use for it. So we're so excited about empowering those in the Inner Circle. Not only to grow personally, but to help them feed into their own circles of influence so that their, their groups and their girls are growing too. So many wonderful things. I'm only touching the surface. The important thing for you to know is that 2024 is going to be an amazing year. Amazing. And we're going to be talking about building your foundation brick by brick. I know I'm going to grow. I know you're going to grow if you're in there with me.

And I invite you to join us.

Simply go to chrystalevanshurst.com/innercircle. And because it's this time of the year, if you join and you commit for the year by paying via the annual rate, guess what you get? 3 months free and free planners too. So it's a great time to join. It's a great time to commit, and it's a great time to join Chrystal's Inner Circle. I also wanna tell you to put this on your calendar, January the 5th, 5th and 6th. More information coming about that soon. Just make sure you're on my email list and you won't miss the deets. All right, y'all, here we go.

My goal in that is to help you actively build your house, because if you have a house and you're not You're not owning it. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad to have been given life and not use it. It's sad to have been given a brain and to not develop it. It's sad to have the depth and the power that we have available to us in our soul and to not strengthen it. It's sad. We've all seen it. We've all seen Olympic athletes that, you know, in their heyday are doing amazing things. And then maybe, you know, they have a substance abuse problem or maybe they, you know, they get a sickness or, you know, we've watched people be on TV and then we've watched them live. And if they do not continue to take care of themselves, if they are stricken with some illness that, you know, they couldn't control, but when we can compare what they had with what they have now, we're like, oh, because we know what they were. But it's really disheartening when we know that they didn't have to be as bad off physically as they became if they hadn't stopped engaging with their life, if they hadn't stopped taking care of their body, if they hadn't slipped into patterns that were destructive. Because we know that you can continue to benefit from all of the work that you did early on if you keep operating on what you know. But when people sleep on what they know, they slip. So what do you already know? How do you need to engage with it and activate it? So this is me telling you to make a list of the things that you know, that whether it's what the doctor told you last, what your therapist told you last, what your boss told you last, what you last learned in that sermon or in that book, You know it. Make a list of the things you know. And I want you to decide that today, starting today, you have the power to engage and activate what you know and what that first step is going to be. But here's what I want you to know. When you activate and engage with the things that you know, it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. In the Bible, Joshua was told to go in and take the land, and the Israelites were like, "Are you serious?" Like, that's hard. Like, that's hard. What I heard in the sermon this weekend that I wasn't looking for— I didn't even pray and ask God for it— but what I heard in the sermon this weekend, we were talking about Peter casting his nets. He told Peter, go back and cast your nets. And Peter was like, we already did that. Like, we already did that. And he didn't want to do it, but God told him to do it, so he did it. But he felt stupid doing it. He felt like, this is dumb, I've already tried it. He was like, are you serious, God? Like, we fished all night, we're tired. And one of the things God was telling me is, I know you're tired, Chrystal Hurst, but I want you to do it again. I want you to do it this way. I want you to do it in this place, and I want you to do it at this time. And I'm looking at Jesus like, I don't want to. I've been fishing all night. When you do what you know you're supposed to do, it probably will feel like, I already tried it, do it again. When you do what you're supposed to do, you're going to feel like, I'm, I, I'm tired from doing it. Do it again. How many times have we heard the testimony or a story of someone who tried a million times to do something and they were rejected? The singer was rejected, the writer was rejected, the script was rejected, and then they kept pitching it until somebody said yes. Maybe the problem isn't that you're not activated. Maybe you just need encouragement today to stay activated because you're going to give up too early. And you just need to keep pitching it. The other thing that I was reading last night where God said, yeah, this is what I want you to do. I'm like, are you serious? That's painful. Engaging with this person in this way is painful. Are you serious right now? And he said, I know. I know, but it's right, and you will be better for doing what's right than avoiding the pain. I already knew. I already knew what I'd have to do and do again.

Do not let—

why am I telling you? Because I don't want you to let The fact that activating is hard, that it's uphill, that it's challenging, that you're tired, or that it hurts to stop you from doing what you already know. The measure of difficulty is not a measure of whether or not you should do it. The measure of hurt is not the measure of whether or not you should do it. In fact, it's because it's hard, it's because it hurts, it's because it's challenging. That's what's building your strength. And how do you know? All I know how to tell you is you got to know your knower. You got to know the voice of God. And you have to know that when God wants to tell you something, he will be clear. The sermon was clear. What I read last night was clear. I didn't like it, but I can choose, am I going to engage and activate with it or not? Because now I know. You are going to be held responsible for what you know. If you don't know, like my grandmother told me with raising kids, I said, is there anything else that you would do differently? And she said, you know, and she thought for a while, and then she said, you know, no.

And I'm thinking, really?

She said, because I did the best I had with the information that I had at the time. What else could you ask for? God, give me knowledge, increase my territory, teach me what I don't know. But once I know it, help me to activate it, help me to obey it, help me to do it or do it again. You don't need new information. Even if you need some new information, I can promise you that if you're listening or watching this You probably just need to do something with what you already know. You already know you're supposed to go back to school. Why are you waiting?

You already know you're supposed to apologize.

What's the issue? You already know that you're supposed to make that church your church home. Why are you dilly-dallying?

You already know.

You already know that you're supposed to apply for that job again, even though you're afraid of rejection. You already know. You already know that you're supposed to have that difficult conversation, that confrontational conversation with that person. You already know, and you've been avoiding it. Because you're avoiding it, you're actually shrinking back on your own life. You already know. So I don't know what you already know. That's your job to tell me. So make a list of the things you already know, and I want you to tell me in the comments, what is it that you already know you're supposed to do that you haven't been doing it? But it's time because y'all, we done been through a pandemic. The world is on the verge of war. 2024 is around the corner. What are you waiting on? And if you just needed somebody to give you a kick in the rear, in the derriere, to tell you, come on, let's do it. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? You get the information that you need and you just pick. You just wait, or you just do again what you knew to do last time. Because maybe the reason why you don't have anything new is because God hasn't been able to trust you. With the old thing he gave you last. So hope this is helpful. Y'all know where to find me. If you're not subscribed, subscribe. If this was helpful, share it, all the things. But you know I'll be here releasing videos every Sunday night, releasing interviews in the in-between. And then if you're in the Inner Circle, I'll see you next Monday.