Chrystal Hurst talks about shifting your mindset and simplifying your life through small, intentional actions. She shares how a five-minute spin bike ride sparked a bigger change, and uses the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown to help realign body, mind, and spirit. She's opening enrollment for 90-day simplify sprints in her Inner Circle community.
Chapters
There we go. See, this is why going live is a whole situation, because you have to remember to turn off the mute button. So if you've been yelling at people and shouting to the rafters trying to give them reminders of what the scriptures are that you need to change your behavior right now, is you have to remember that that freedom to say whatever you want to say on mute has to be revoked by depressing the mute button so everybody else can hear you. Thank you for letting me know. I was saying hello to all of you all who have not been able to— the music is still going on because I don't know how to get the music There we go. How's that? Can you tell I haven't done this in a while? Anyway, I'm glad to be with you and I'm glad to, um, say hello to those of you who, um, are maybe watched me before live and, uh, maybe miss me. I miss you too, but I'm having a good time going live every Monday in the Inner Circle and I did not do that this Monday and I told all the girls in the Inner Circle that I'd be back live this week at some point to get that recording done. And so you are joining me here today for a little bit of live encouragement and a little bit of live foolery. Is it okay if I'm in a little bit of a silly mood today? Because I am. Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. I do have my coffee cup because we're still going to call this Coffee with Chrystal, even though it's in the middle of the day. But I have upgraded, y'all. I got a tea kettle back here. So this is hot, literally. See, can you see the steam coming off of that? I don't know if you can or not, but it is hot. And I'm gonna drink some peppermint tea, and I'm gonna sweeten with some Sweet Leaf sweetener because— there you go, y'all. I got dressed today. Aren't you proud of me? Look, I'm not ridiculously made up. We got an email today where somebody was like, why is Chrystal Hurst wearing so much makeup? Doesn't she know she doesn't need all that? Listen, you and I both know I don't need all that, nor do I want all that. And by need, meaning I cannot function. I would not be able to function in life if I had to get up every day and do all that. So really, I only do it when we have to do stuff behind the camera because your— the way you look on camera when you do your makeup and the way you look on camera when someone else does your makeup is totally different. And the cameras um, you, you just look like you're asleep if you don't have something that makes your eyes show up. So it's more of a functional thing than anything else. Um, so I hope that you are enjoying your lunch break, or that you're ignoring your kids, or that you are not not working, because I would never advise that in the middle of the day, if you're supposed to be working, that you not work. But for those of you all who get to make the decision as far as when you take your lunch or when you get your job done, I'm glad that you're here. So let's see. Oh good. There's a few of you on with me. So I would love to know, I know the Inner Circle girls have showed up cause I told them I was going to be live and I told them multiple times. I know. Hi, Reese. I miss you too. I actually have a proposition for you. So look at my hair. It's flying away. If you don't hear from me today, then, um, Text me, cause I have a whole situation. You see how my hair is like, girl, I have been in a pandemic. Don't you know that we don't curl anymore? Okay. So I think most of you can hear me. Mm-hmm. Hi there. Hi there. Hi, Vicki. Vicki Ennis. Yay. I'm glad y'all are here. Awesome. Okay. So here's what I'm here to talk about. Uh, if you saw the introductory graphic, it said, Shift and simplify. There's a couple of reasons why I want to talk about shift and simplify, but let's first of all start with shift because it's super important that you realize in your life when the seasons are changing and when it's time to do something different. Y'all, let's, let's be real. Unless it's a change that we have decided that we want to take, most changes, a lot of changes in our lives come uninvited. There are things that we have to pivot and do. Changes we have to make, shifts we have to embark upon because life demands it. Our kids grow up, and so we shift into empty nest syndrome, or we, uh, get married and we knew we wanted to get married, but we didn't know it was going to require all these adjustments. So we're shifting into being a compassionate spouse and into sharing our space, or we get a new job and we wanted the new job, but we didn't quite have a full awareness of everything that would be asked of us. And so we have to shift to accommodate the job that we wanted, or we lose a loved one. I talked about that on the live— not on the live, on the replay that premiered last Sunday. So if you haven't seen that, you can check that out. It's called Thoughts About Grief, Loss, and Hope. And we shift. We shift because that loved one held a space in our lives that we were grateful for. We shift because we have to deal with the waves of grief. We shift, y'all. Life, if it doesn't require anything else of you. Uh, life is going to require change, and change requires a shift. A shift in your perspective, a shift in how you approach your world, a shift in how you adjust to the people and the places that you now have to accommodate. That is how life is. And so if you're here and you are wondering about the shifts that have happened in your life and you think it's not fair and you're trying to figure out how you're going to adjust and how you're going to live— you will live and not die, let me just tell you that. But also, this is a part of living. I always love to know when are those who are online who are of millennial age. Millennial, zennial, um, I'll take Gen Z, anywhere in between. So if you are under the age of 35, I want to know that you're here so you can give me a thumbs up. Thumbs up or a fist bump, either one of those, I'll take them. Because I just want to know that somebody who needs the information before they know they need it is getting it. It motivates me. How about that? But the good news is, is you are never too old, nor is it ever too late to realize that it's time for you to pivot in your life. So shout out to Kennedy and Mariah and Naomi and PNM and Rebecca. Glad you're here. So you are a wise woman for tuning in, because if you will listen to somebody that's a few years ahead of you all, listen, it can save you some drama. All right. Now I just want to give a shout out to those who are in the inner circle who are watching me, who get to watch me if they are available every Monday morning, go live. So if you can just give me a wave or a high five, I will take that so I know that you're here. I'm glad that you're here. So here's the thing I want to talk about, because y'all, let me tell you something, I went live like 3 times in 1 week a couple of weeks ago on Instagram, and it was so much foolery I had to take it down. Because y'all, when I really get really, really a little excited, um, See, I've been trying to like be a little bit more together, you know, a little bit more together and a little bit more, you know, like planned and ready. And so I do a little bit of foolery with the Inner Circle when we're live, and then I try to get my act together. But when I was going live often during the pandemic, I was totally foolery. It was just total foolery. Hi, Inner Circle! Hey, Emonique and Antoinette, Terrica, Melanie, Sherry, Jennifer, So glad y'all are here. Yay, yay, yay! Okay, so, uh, it was a little bit unscripted, and to be honest, I, I missed that. Y'all charged me up a little bit. So here's my version. Here's my— here's my 2020 version of today's live. I'm gonna do some together talking, but I'm also going to do a little bit of foolery. Just a little bit of foolery. So news has it— I don't know if y'all watch The Bachelor or not, but I did, and I never I hardly watch TV. I don't even think I've ever watched a whole season of The Bachelor. I just don't, you know, I, I, you know, I have my own situation in my home, my own love life, my own kids, my own situation. So I just don't need to get all caught up. Howsoever, I watched the whole season of The Bachelor, and, um, you know, we, we had, we had a lot of interesting things that happened. We had not just the love of this man and this woman, or this man looking for love in a woman, but we also had all this racial controversy, and then people getting fired, and Bachelor Nation is reeling. And now we got two Bachelorettes, and it's just a whole situation. But rumor has it— can I just spill a little tea? Now, y'all don't— y'all don't— I didn't say it, I didn't find it, I'm passing along a rumor. My hair is still like, girl, we want to stand up. I'm passing along a rumor, but if you Google #BachelorNation, you will find this to be true. All right, apparently Matt and Rachel have been seen in public in New York. Listen, it was floating all over the place. There's this guy named Reality Steve apparently who knows all the things that are happening for Bachelor Nation before everybody else knows they're happening for Bachelor Nation. Like, y'all, like 4 weeks before the final episode he said who was gonna be the main person left. And I messed around and, spoiler, figured that out. I was hoping he was wrong. But now Reality Steve is saying that they have been seen together. So I don't know, I don't know. But here's why this matters to you today. Now I watched After the Rose, which I didn't even know like AFTR was a whole hashtag until I was trying to watch the After the Rose show at the same time that I was trying to be on Twitter and keep up with all the comments about the After the Rose show. And I was just all here for Emmanuel Acho being the hostess with the mostest, okay? Or I guess you would say the host with the most. But the point is, Emmanuel Acho did that thing. I'm a proud big sister and a proud babysitter, I might say. Known his family for a long time. I was enjoying him. There was so many things happening. But what was very clear in that episode was that Matt James said he was done with Rachel. I don't know. Now, Reality Steve might be wrong. We could have had doppelgangers in New York. I don't know. But here's what I do know: if he changed his mind, do you know what that means he did? Let me tell you what he did. If he changed his mind, that means he has pivoted from what he told everybody he was going to do. That means he has embarked upon a shift in his life. Life. And you know what, I would venture to say that while, you know, he did give her a mighty cold shoulder on the show, what I can say for sure is that he has the right— I need to take another sip of tea before I say this right here. Nadia, don't worry, stick around for it. I'll get to the main point. This is just an introduction. Another sip of tea. Hi, Tiffany. He has the right to change his mind. He has the right to choose to shift. And even if I would say, Rachel, honey, now don't let that man change his mind and then change his mind again on you. Be smart, be wise, protect your heart. You know, love involves a risk, but you know, be wise. She has the right to shift too. Can somebody say amen? Listen, the greatest gift— okay, listen closely— the greatest gift that you have in your life is your ability to choose, to change your mind, to shift course, to realize that what you should have done is what you still can do, to realize that if you decide in a moment's notice to make a major change in your life, that you can do that. There is nobody, there is nothing, there is no situation that can keep you today from making your life what you want it to be. And might I, may I add, might I add, that there is nothing, no demon in hell, no Satan at the gates, that can stop you from choosing to believe what God says about you, to choose to do what God says you can do. It doesn't matter how far you've gone to the left or how far back you've gone at the end of the line. Today, if you decide to make a shift and a pivot in your life, you get to choose. If you've been watching me for any length of time, you will know this to be true. I've always said it, that Adam and Eve in the garden had the greatest gift of all, and that was God saying, listen, I love you, I created you, let us make man in our image, let them rule. Genesis chapter 3, I believe. And then he said Now choose. And they didn't choose him. They didn't choose to obey. But he gave them that gift. And what is he still giving? What is God still giving to us today? Every stinking day that we live, every single stinking minute, you get the opportunity to choose God again. What Adam and Eve did has no bearing on what you get to choose today. You get to choose whether you will believe him. You get to choose whether you will read your Bible. You get to choose whether or not you'll pray. You get to choose whether or not you will listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in your life and the intuition that God gave women, because he gave us a little extra juice. Somebody say amen. You get to choose. So you get to choose a shift, y'all. I went to 24 Hour Fitness and I bought myself a bike because I taught spin, um, a few years ago. I love spin. You can— I basically— it was my ability to be a DJ without being a DJ. And then because I had to be the DJ and I had to direct the class class that even when I was out of breath— Spin Secret— I could get off my bike, walk around, and encourage everybody else and cheer them on. But really what I was doing was catching my breath as well as being an encourager. But in the spin class, I fell in love with the Schwinn bike. Now I know that everybody has a Peloton. I have nothing against a Peloton. It did, it did though take me for a loop. I know you can pay for the rest of your life to have a Peloton, but the bottom line is I was like, that's a lot, that's a very expensive— it's a lot of money to spend on a bike when I actually already know that the Schwinn bike I love and my 24 Hour Fitness, because of COVID-19, shut down. So I've been waiting for a year, y'all, to have them auction off or sell off their equipment so I could buy the bike that I already knew I loved. I got my spin, uh, certification on that bike. I taught on that bike. I loved it. Finally, after a year— it's been a year— they finally put their equipment on sale. I went and got my bike.. It was not as cheap as I wanted it to be, but it was still way cheaper than a Peloton and way cheaper than I could have bought that bike new, brought it home, put it outside. And I actually love riding outside, but when the weather got a little cray-cray, I pulled it indoors in my bedroom. Y'all, you know what has happened to the bike in the bedroom? Someone go on and tell me what has happened to the bike in the bedroom. Y'all know because some of y'all have bikes in your bedroom, or you have treadmills in your bedroom., or you have a bunch of things in your bedroom that are doing something other than what they were designed to do. I'll wait. Go ahead and tell me, what is that equipment doing in your bedroom for those of you all who have it in there? Mm-hmm. Here y'all come. It's a clothes hanger. It's a clothes rack. It hangs clothes. Clothes rack. The clothes on the bike. It's a makeshift chair. Clothes hanger. Clothes hanger. Sitting there. Clothes rack. Clothes hanger. The clothes are on it. Y'all know. Now I will say it didn't collect clothes because I was just like, I just got the doggone thing. I put a little towel. I had my Schwinn, my Schwinn towel from when I got Schwinn certified, and I folded it up and I laid it right there so it would be ready. And that towel just laid there for weeks. I have been waiting on this bike for a year. It just sat there looking at me and me looking at it. What is it about that, that we think we're gonna put the things we need in our immediate vicinity and it will solve all of our problems, and then it just sits there? You know, whatever you have. If you don't have a spin bike or a treadmill, if you've ever had a gym membership, that payment, that monthly deduction from your bank account just sits there coming out every month for not all of us, but many of us. So one morning I got up and I said, girl, you've got to shift the narrative. See how I use that word right there? You've got to shift the narrative. So I decided no matter what, no matter what, and no matter how long it took, I was going to get on that bike. And I did, y'all. I got on that bike for 5 stinking minutes. 5. Let me use my, let me not use my broken finger hand. 5. That's from the, that's from the fall in San Francisco. If you've read my book, She's Still There, you know about that fall. Shift the narrative. See, y'all are just so super churchy. I don't have to do much and then y'all just start losing it. Okay, my gosh. Tony on Instagram said, what it's doing is looking like a whole demon when you turn the lights off. Oh my goodness. Okay. I love churchy people. Okay, listen, shifting the narrative, y'all. It took me 5 minutes. Let me talk about somebody else right now. Now don't go look her up and then come back and tell me about her, but there's this lady I love. Her name is Mel Robbins. She's a motivational speaker. I'm telling you now, if you look her up, she's gonna cuss. So just don't do it, or at least don't do it with your kids around or on speaker. But she had this TED Talk that I ran into where she talked about this principle of trying to get out of the bed, where she was struggling in the middle of her life, and she was laying there and she said, okay, no matter what, when the alarm goes off, you're gonna change the narrative. You're gonna shift the narrative in your life. You're gonna look at the alarm clock, you're gonna count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and you're gonna get out of bed. You're gonna do it. The alarm clock went off. She said before she could think about it, before she could stop herself, before she could reason herself out of it, she said 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and she got up. And because she immediately got up, she shifted the narrative, because she didn't fall into the same patterns that she'd been into all of these months of her depression and job loss and all these things. So that TED Talk now has millions of views and now she's become a whole national speaker. But the, but the, but the basis of it is still 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Quit thinking so hard about it and just make the shift. I got up, y'all. I rode the bike for 5 minutes. Let me tell you what happened. And I shared this with my interns the other day. I said, or was it, I don't know who I shared this with. Was it the sister session? I don't even know. I'm always talking to somebody. But, um, y'all, I, I said when I rode the bike for 5 minutes, not only did I shift the narrative in my life, but I realigned the authority in my life. You, as in the soul of you, and you, as in your flesh, and you, as in your mind and your brain, and you, as in the spirit-led part of you. Okay, there's a whole war always going on, right? There's a whole war that says, get up and get up on time for work. There's a war that says, do I want to cook at home or do I want to eat out? There's a war that says, am I gonna study for my schooling right now? Am I gonna do this work? Am I gonna procrastinate? There's always this war in you. You know what you ought to do, the Bible says. And Paul said, why do I know what to do and then I don't do it? I know what to do and then my body is at war within me. It's a whole chapter in the Bible. Y'all, what chapter is that in the Bible? No, the one about Paul. Look it up for me, because if I was really loving Jesus, I'd know. Anyway, I know it's in there. I may have to work on my knowledge of the reference. Some of y'all probably can tell me. Is it Romans? What is it, Romans 7? Look at y'all, you see how the Holy Spirit brought it to remind before y'all told me? Look at that, look at Jesus. It's Romans 7. Some of y'all already knew, and y'all are for real lovers of the word. But anyway, Paul even said— and he wrote most of the New Testament— he said, there's a battle going on in me. Let me tell you what happens when you choose in 5 minutes, or in a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, in a moment, to make a different choice than the choice you've been making. You realign authority. Your brain, your your spirit, your soul starts telling your body what to do. And it's really simple. It may not be easy, but it's really simple. Let me tell you something. I look at one of my children who does not like vitamin D. He does not like sunshine. He's like an Eeyore. I'm just like, oh, you will go outside. I mean, we have these discussions all the time. I'm like, go outside. You need sun. And he goes for a walk and, you know, I make him go for a run and I tell him that you need to get your blood pumping and you need some vitamin D and all these different things. And he's like, I don't like it. And then he goes for a run or he goes for a walk. He just gets— goes outside, blows off some steam because we homeschool. And 18-year-old sons who are home with you, they need to be killing bulls. They need to be like pitching tents. They need to be like, you know, going to war. They need to be like doing things that make them feel like they're conquering the world. And when they're not conquering the world, they try to conquer their mother. So their mother in return lets them know that she is the authority. She realigns and sends them outside for a run. Sidebar, I'm coming back. The point is that I sent him outside and his spirit, y'all, it changes when he comes back. And he comes back a little sweaty and a little tired. He comes back and something is put to bed in him. The rrr is put to bed in him. The, you know, the chest out. If you ever, if you've ever had to deal with a young buck, because that's what it basically is, it's a young buck, and they need to buck up to something, right? And so if I'm around, then they try to buck up to me, and I try to let it go easy because I know it's hormones, and I know they're designed to be doing major things with their lives. And, you know, Western world says no, at 18 you still got to be at home and do what your parents tell you. But really You know, in another culture, in another time, I tell him all the time, you would have been married by now. Like, you would have, you know, you would have been like totally head of household. So it's in your DNA. So when he bucks up to me and, you know, they're not crazy now, but when he lets me know that he needs some authority in his life, then I make him go somewhere else to conquer himself so he can come back in the house and be realigned. There is something in you that wants to buck up. Up. That's the bottom line. That is your flesh, okay? That is your flesh, and it is designed to work against you, okay? The act of being disciplined is the act of telling what you feel like doing, what your tendencies are, what you may not be motivated to do but you know you should do. The discipline, the realignment, is the act of you, the soul of you, the core of you, the spirit of you, the God in you, telling your flesh what you are not going to do. And when you do that, even in a little bite-sized chunk— when you get on a bike for 5 minutes, when you count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and don't hit the alarm clock on snooze 7 times when you get out of bed, when you make a plan and you stick to it— I tell my children that they make a plan for their weeks. We have a weekly plan. I'm sitting here with my— right now I'm writing in composition book. It's all the drama in there. But when I write down what I'm gonna do, there is power in saying— and apart from things that, you know, need to shift your attention for valid reasons— there's a, there's, there's a power in saying, I decided that this is what I was going to do today. And barring my need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, barring my need to be flexible in life, because that's helpful too, these are the things that I'm going to do. I'm not going to get distracted by social media. I'm not going to get distracted by The Bachelor on TV or Chrystal Hurst talking about The Bachelor, because I'm distracted some of y'all right now. I'm not going to get distracted, but here's what I am going to do. I'm going to do what I plan to do, barring any reasonable distractions, reasonable needs for flexibility. And then I will realize that if I will commit to what I said I was going to do, that I am realigning authority in my life and everything in my life gets easier. There is a power that is at work in my life when I'm working out because I physically telling my body at the beginning of the day, because I usually work out early in the morning, what to do. And everything else just says, okay ma'am, we'll get in line. There's something in your life that's probably like that. I'd love for you to tell me what it is. What in your life, when you do this one thing, it's like the one domino that gets other things in your life to just be right? For some of y'all, it might be drinking water. For some of you all, it might be, uh, not hitting that alarm. For some of you, it might be working out. For some of you all, it might be studying the word. For some of you, it is the knowledge that no matter what he says, no matter what they say, no matter what the cray cray is on my job, I'm not going to open my mouth because if I do, foolishness will come out. And so it is the discipline of being in charge of your mouth. What is that one thing that if you do it, other things in your life just seem to align themselves? What is it? Okay. Reading my Bible. Somebody said walking. Someone said all of it. The word, working out, and water first thing. A regular devotional. Okay. Okay, I'm not mad at you. Lorraine Michelle said sewing and making wigs. Whatever it is, let it float your boat and get you going. Lisa said it's intercession, uh, sleeping on time. Lorene, I love it, said journaling. Uh-huh, love that, love that. Lorraine said praying with my husband, prayer. Uh, Shawna said you haven't found it yet. Girl, that's because your capacity is so high. I know who I'm talking to. Your capacity is so high, ma'am. You just need to pick something. Any of those things will do. If I do coaching again, you're going to come back. Maybe we need to finish. Okay. Brit said prepping my food. Ah, Nicole, I love that. Getting dressed. Something happens when you get dressed in the morning. It's true. So here's the deal. Think about that one thing that when you do it, the rest of the dominoes in your life line up, because when you shift small things, that one domino presents the force that the other dominoes need to lean in. Shift. It's important. It matters. All right. So here's the deal. When you think about driving a car, this is actually an illustration that Heather, one of our 2021 interns, shared with me earlier. She said, when I think about shifting, I think about a car, like a standard. Y'all, I begged my dad, to give me a, a standard stick shift car. The first car he bought me, y'all, with the first car he bought me, I was pregnant with my daughter Charis. He did not buy me a stick shift because he said, you don't know what you're asking for. I just, I just wanted to drive that. So I drove that car into the ground, and after that car, I bought my first car myself. It was a stick shift. I love that thing. I just felt like I was in control. It was a little Honda Civic, but I just love the roll back on the hill. I love the, the revving up and the shifting of gears. It was just so much fun to I feel like I need to in my life, like after my kids are grown and gone and I get rid of the minivan, maybe I'll buy myself a sports car because I think I like power like that. But here's the point, you know what you can also do if you're not careful when you're driving a stick shift? You can strip your gears if you don't know what you're doing. If you've ever watched Pretty Woman, it's one of my favorite movies of all times. I know, I know she was a— I know she, I know she was— I know what she was doing. It's still one of my favorite movies of all time. It is what it is. I love Julia Roberts. In my dreams, one day I'll meet her. Yeah, I'll tell her about Jesus too. But one of my favorites— my hair is talking to me again, y'all. It doesn't want to obey. It doesn't want to lay down and obey. Okay, so here's the deal. In that movie, you remember when Richard Gere is trying to drive the stick shift? Shift, and he doesn't know what he's doing, and he jumps in his friend's car, and his friend is like, oh, it's my baby, don't you know how to drive a stick? He's totally stripping the gears. And then Julia Roberts said— says to Richard Gere, do you know how— do you know what you're doing? Do you know how to drive this car? Because she knew what she was— she knew what she was doing with the car. Y'all, listen, if you don't know what you're doing with the car and you try to shift the gears and you don't shift them in correct order, or if you don't understand what you're doing, you will strip the car. That, like, there is this, this thing about knowing how to shift, when to shift, knowing that when— where the signs are, knowing when God is leading. See, here's the problem. Sometimes we shift because there is that one small thing. It's easy. There's— it's not right or wrong. It's just if we do it, it sets the mood and the motion for the rest of our day. That's one kind of shift. Then there are shifts that you don't make in the right time. Let me give you an example. You know you left that job too soon. You weren't patient waiting on God to bring the next opportunity. You were just ready to jump shift— ship, and you shifted without waiting on God. Some of y'all know you shifted way too fast into that relationship. Everybody was telling you, girl, he's no good, he's not for you, but you thought you knew what you were doing, and so you shifted into that relationship and you stripped all your gears, all your gears, just stripped up. I mean, what am I saying that y'all are laughing at? I don't, I don't like the fact that y'all are talking about me while I can hear you. They're just out there laughing at me. Send me a text, keep me in the loop, do something. So anyway, some of y'all know that you shifted and it wasn't the right shift. You bought that car because you wanted it instead of waiting until you did the work to save for it, and you shifted too fast, and now your finances are all stripped up because you had to have that thing and you weren't patient and you weren't honoring God in the stewardship of your finances. So you understand that shifts are important, but they have to be done in the right time. Somebody say amen. You weren't laughing at me, Shonda? Y'all were just laughing just to be laughing? Veronica said, oh Lord, stop looking at me, this is so me, I'm a stripper. See, somebody's gonna leave this live and they're gonna say, y'all, Chrystal was teaching, and after that live I found out I was a stripper. See, that's how rumors get started. Chrystal was teaching people how to strip. See, that's how rumors get started. I'm not teaching you how to strip. All right, thank you for the amen. It's very, very helpful. So yes, you need to strip, but, but, but no, no, not— you don't need to strip. You need to shift, but you need to shift in the right timing when we're talking about things. Because sometimes when I talk, I will see the comments and I'm looking at what people are saying and they're like, yeah, I need to shift out of this relationship, or I need to shift out of this marriage. Okay, see, wait, I— then I want to say no, you need wise counsel. It needs to be God's timing. It needs to be God's way. You need to have wisdom in your life. So I want to make sure you're understanding me clearly. Shifts are important. However, they need to be the right shifts at the right time for the right reason, and they need to be God-led when that is needed. Now, God doesn't need to lead you to go for a walk. You don't need to wait for God's leading to drink more water. You don't need to wait for the Holy Spirit to show up and motivate you to go do something to get you going when it's a basic sense. But when we're talking about major shifts, you need to be led by the Holy Spirit. You need to be led by the God in you. You need to pay attention and look at your life and look at how your decisions and your changes will affect the other people around you. But here's what I know to be true: when you take your power back— because that's what a shift will do— when you take your power back, it realigns everything else in your life. And you need— I need to always be living in alignment with authority. Yes, God as my head. Yes, because I'm a married woman, in alignment with my husband. Yes, if you're not, then in alignment straight with God. But other Apart from that, you need to be aligned with yourself. You need to stop cheating yourself out of health— talking to me— cheating yourself out of your future, cheating yourself out of your finances, cheating yourself out of all of the things that you desire for your own life or that God has for you that you are too lazy to embark upon. And, uh, and often, y'all. We just have to make one little shift. And when I say lazy, I don't mean like, like a character flaw. I'm talking about like, you know, this one little thing. If you just do this one little thing, it'll, it'll change the narrative. Sometimes it's not laziness, it's fear. You're allowing fear to be the authority in your life, not God, not the desires that he's put in you. You're allowing your worry about the thing that may never happen to stop you from living your life. Well, ma'am, it's time to shift. Now let me take a left turn because I told you I was going to talk about shift and simplify. I can't stay on here with you today for 2 hours like I used to do. There's a couple of things I want to tell you about. The first one, I'm going to interrupt this episode before I switch to talking about simplifying because that's a shift that all of us need to make. I'm going to see if I can do this. Let me put my headphones on because, you know, it's been a while since I've been my own producer. So I wanted to make sure you all know about something. That is coming up because this episode— huh, I think we moved that till 2. Okay, because, uh, this episode is sponsored by the Sister Circle. Some of y'all already know what the Sister Circle is about, don't you? All right, let me put that on the screen. There you go. And the Inner Circle. Okay, so the Sister Circle, let me tell you what it is. Let me tell you what the Inner Circle So, so the Sister Circle is— everybody needs one. And I consider everybody that's on my email list or follows me on social media, if you are in any way connected with me, then yes, you are part of my Sister Circle. But there were people who asked me for more, more content, more access, more courses, more downloads, more tools. And I said, okay, so we put all that stuff into the Inner circle. And the inner circle only opens up every quarter for a few days, and then it closes again. So it's open now. Now you can join the inner circle and watch me live every Monday at any time. But right now we have all of the other levels open for those of you who are like, you know what, Chrystal Hurst, what you're saying to me today, it is like, I need to hear it and I need to hear more of this. I need to hear more from you. Well, that's what the inner circle is for. It's open right now. And I would love for you to take advantage of it.. But before I talk anymore about that and what you need to do about your inner circle, whether you join mine or not, I want to show you a video. Let me see if I can do this and do it right. Hold on a second. Here we go. Hopefully y'all can hear it. Hold on a minute. Let me make sure everything's turned up. So nothing's on mute. That's what happens when you're your own producer. Here we go. Sorry, I'm just a bit clumsy. Sorry. But Chrystal Hurst heard that I promised her a smoothie. That song makes me want to dance every single stinking time. So there you go. Sorry, I had to dance. I think y'all could see me dancing. So here's the deal, here's what an inner circle is. This is when you give permission to people in your life to speak into your life. And what we do in the inner circle is we have a team that's here, obviously, because I keep talking to them. We have interns, we have We have women who volunteer their time to, to, to produce content around all of the things that I talk about to help you work on you. And then we provide community as well. Right now that community is on Facebook. We're looking at fun ways to make that new and different going in the very near future. But the point is this, if you're like, you know what, I need encouragement. I need to hear more from Chrystal Hurst. I need to make sure that not only am I hearing more from Chrystal Hurst, but that I'm developing community and getting the tools I need to move my life forward, to focus on my life, then that's what the Inner Circle is all about. And because it's not always open, I wanted to make sure you know about it. So chrystalhurtz.com/innercircle. Now the reason why I bring the Inner Circle up right now is because the next thing that I want to talk about, which is, uh, simplify— I said I was going to talk about shift and simplify— is because we will be diving in to a lot of things that have to do with inviting simplicity into your life. Let me tell you why this is important. In Mark chapter 4, uh, the Bible talks about the parable, and there are 3 books of the Bible, 3 of the synoptic gospels, that teaches this, uh, principle of the seed. If you've been in church for any of your life, you've probably heard of this principle. And Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he says a farmer takes seed and he scatters it, and some of it lands on the roadside, not in the dirt. And so it just doesn't flourish. It didn't land in the dirt. Some of it lands in the dirt, but then it's among rocks, and so it's not able to put down roots. And some of it puts down roots, but then the thorns come up and get in the way of it developing growth. And then some of it sinks in, gets nurtured and watered, and then becomes what it was supposed to be. Here's the message for you: you need to commit yourself to becoming what whatever you are supposed to be. And it doesn't matter whether this is a believer talking about this, or somebody in the world talking about it, or somebody secular talking about it, and somebody New Age talking about it. Let me tell you why: because they're basically saying what God has already said. When Oprah says, listen, you need to become the highest version of you that you can be, you know what she's saying is that she wants you to do what Jesus already told you to do, and that's to maximize your talents and your giftings. That's what the parable of the, of the servants, that the master gave them the talents and one of them, uh, did not multiply their talents. And he said, you were worthless, you didn't do anything with what I gave you. And because you are a unique person in this world, on this earth, the unique combination of your gifts, your abilities, your interests, your passions, your personality, that combination with your experiences, with your story, with your future, that combination will never happen again. It is a once in a lifetime, once in a timeline, once in an eternity phenomenon. And if you don't take responsibility for maximizing what God put in you, no one else will. Sure, people in your life will come alongside and help. That's what I'm doing today. That's what I do in the Inner Circle. But ultimately, that job belongs to you. So what does that mean? And what does that have to do with the principle of the seed? I want to talk about that third seed for just 5 minutes. That third seed made it, y'all, into the soil. That seed made it. He landed, or she landed, exactly where she needed to be. The soil raised up around her. The rains came down. Basically, y'all, she was listening to podcasts, doing the Bible study, going to church on Sunday. She even had a Christian group of friends. Amen. Somebody say amen. Just let me know you're with me. But here's what happened. There were other things that were growing up around her that started sucking her dry. They started sucking the nutrients so that she was no longer getting the full throttle version of all the things that were supposed to help her grow. And you want to know what happened? She didn't grow. She started off strong. Strong. She didn't finish strong. You know what the weeds are? They are all those things that you know you need to shift from. You already know you spend too much time on social media. You already know that that relationship isn't good for you. You need to stop shacking. You already know that you need to get your hiney back in church and quit being lazy. And even if get back in church means watching on Sunday morning instead of at some lazy, lazy time during the week because you're not prioritizing it, right? You already know that you need to bring excellence on your job. You already know that you need to finish the degree. You already know that you need to prioritize your time in God's word and in Bible study. You already know that you need to take care of your health. You already know that you need to get dressed in the morning. You already know that you need to be kinder to your husband and make sure that your kids feel like they're they're a priority in your life. You already know this. I'm probably not telling you anything that you don't already know. But what are you doing about it? Because that seed could probably look around and see the other weeds cropping up around. The difference between the seed and you is that you can pull the weeds. Y'all know it was snowmageddon here not so long ago. I mean, just 5 minutes ago is what it feels like. I had no heat. I had no water. I couldn't find the water shutoff valve. We had snow everywhere. It was a hot disaster. I was cooking hot dogs over an open fire. It's a mess. It was kind of fun, but it was a mess. And here we are with all that water melting into my grass. And now it's rained a few times and y'all, the weeds are out of control because do you want to know what was happening at the same time my grass was getting water? So were those weeds. And in order for me to make sure that the weeds don't take over, you wanna know what I have to do? I have to pull 'em. They're all growing up together. But if I want the important thing, the beautiful thing, the significant thing in my life to flourish, I have to pull the things that are getting in the way. How do you do that? You have to simplify. We all have 24 hours in our day.. So what is crowding out your time? What is crowding out your peace? There was a video that I watched recently online, and she said it's the silent to-do list. I've fallen in love with the Minimalist Mom, maybe Inner Circle. I'll get a chance to bring her on. We're going to reach out to her. But she was talking about how all the things that are around your home, even if you're not paying attention to them, just the fact that there's stuff there, they're reminding you of what you haven't done. Their very presence, the dishes, the clothes that are sitting on your bike, the papers that you need to put away, the books that you need to put on the shelf, they are constant reminders that there's something that you need to do, which means that you don't feel free even when you have a day off because you're reminded of all the things that are there. So you do need to simplify. Yes to your surroundings and yes to tackling things on your to-do list and yes to social media and yes to paring back on all of your involvement. You need to simplify. Now, this isn't simple because if it were simple, a lot of us would have simplified all of our stuff a long time ago. The reason why I'm talking about this is because I'm so excited that in the Inner Circle, one of our projects in these next 90 days— because we do things in 90-day sprints— is to talk together about simplifying. Simplifying our heart, simplifying our mind, simplifying our space so that we can maximize our growth, maximize our potential, maximize our future, maximize our God-given potential. In the next 90 days, not only will we be talking about what it means to simplify, but we will also be having a special Inner Circle Summit, which is basically a conference that's just for us. I'm gonna have 5 friends show up for 5 nights in a week, and we're gonna basically have a pajama party every night that's just for the Inner Circle. We've created these pathways so you can discover how to grow your faith, how to build strong relationships, how to fuel your freedom, your emotional freedom. And we are simplifying by letting people do that at their own pace in April. And then we're gonna gather again in May and work on simplifying our lives together. Now y'all, you can Marie Kondo your own life. You don't have to join the inner circle in order to simplify. There's tons of videos online, tons of books, and I'm sure you have friends that keep their spaces in their minds and their hearts and physically super, super clean. But I just wanted you to know that that's what we'll be doing together in the Inner Circle because it's springtime and that's what we do is we clean things out. It's spring cleaning. If you feel like you need a connection, you don't have to have it, but if you need it, listen, I'm here for you. Our team is here for you. Our interns are here for you. And there's a whole, like, over 1,000 women who are committed to doing the work on them to maximize their potential. Do you need a shift in your life? Probably. And if you don't need it today, you'll need it tomorrow. Do you need to simplify in your life? Probably. And if you don't need to do it today, you'll probably need to do it tomorrow. Can you do these things on your own? Yes. And I wanna, I wanna encourage you to take the leap forward in your life with what you know you need to do, to put things in motion in your life so that you maximize your potential. That's why we do podcasts and videos and put all this content out and blogs and books and Bible studies. But if you're like, I don't want to do it by myself, I actually want to be with women who all love God, like we're on the same page and we're attacking practical things in life together, and Chrystal's there charging me up every once in a while, then I want to encourage you to join the Inner Circle because we'd love to have you. It brings me joy to see change when someone says, oh yeah, because the last 90 days we were working on our 90-day goals and we had some goal setting. It brings me joy to see people who actually did the thing. The girl who started the podcast, the girl who finished her book, the girl who cleaned out her— cleaned out the room in her house that needed to be dealt with, the one who moved things for— it brings me joy. And I would love for you to simplify your life and bring order to your life and be encouraged and also know that you're not doing it on your own and you're shifting things in your life. You don't have to do it, but we're here if you'd like to do it. So here's the message for today. Number 1: Shift something small. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 5 minutes. Make a move in your life so that you are maximizing your potential today. No stress. Something small. One step is the first step of the rest of the steps of your life. And every day, you know, I believe it has the potential to be day one. Didn't start yesterday, you can start today. Didn't start today, please start tomorrow. Then simplify. What is in your life that is crowding out your brain space, your thinking, your emotional space, or your physical space. Be ruthless with the things that will, that will stop you, that will stunt your growth. It's not worth it. You've got to be able to live with yourself and know that you did everything that you could to bring the best of you, the best that God has put in you, into this world. And that could just be being faithful with your 3, 2, and 1-year-old at home. It doesn't mean you have to do something being on the world stage. It means being faithful and content and settled, knowing that you're maximizing what God has put in your hands. And then the last thing, if you are so moved to join us in the Inner Circle, listen, it's open now. It closes next Monday, April 12th. So if that's something you've been thinking about, now's a good time because I want to help you shift. I want to help you simplify, and I want to help you be able to say, you know what, look at how things are shaping up in my life. Because I'm committed. That's chrystalevanshurst.com/innercircle if that's what you'd like to do. Now, if you're watching this and you're like, I don't even know who you are, you just went live, somebody told me about it, and I decided to join it, join the live, and I actually don't even know what you're about, you know what? Just go to chrystalevanshurst.com and there you'll find out. There's links to everything else there. I'm so grateful that you're here. If you've enjoyed this today, Um, share it because y'all know YouTube and Facebook, it helps when you share it. Instagram, I'll leave it here, it'll be live for 24 hours, you can share it too. But here's the bottom line: we need to pray for Matt and Rachel. That's really what I came here to say today. I want them to be happy. I want both of them in their own right, individually and together, to know that they're doing what they have been called to do. I believe they're both believers, so I really do want God to show up in their life. And I'm here for the wedding if they decide to keep it together. But here's what I also want them to know: that if they need to shift towards each other or away, that's okay. If they need to simplify— because that's what they're doing if they are really hiding out in New York— they simplified by saying maybe if we show up together and don't announce it, then we can figure out whether or not with all the noise this is really for us. And ultimately, that is the bottom line: to live their best lives so that they feel good about what they put into the world, whether apart or together. We need to learn something from Matt and Rachel. Shift and Simplify. And if you are so moved, I'd love to see you in the Inner Circle. All right, y'all. Those of y'all who are in the Inner Circle, I will see you on Monday morning live. Those of you who are not, just make sure you're subscribed to my email. That way you won't miss out on anything that I put out in the world thinking about you. I hope you've had fun. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna start the music again because I'm here and because I can, I think. Hold on a minute. You know, I can't self-produce without figuring out how to do things on the fly. Here it is. All right, here we go. Turn this down so I won't blast your ears out. Instagram, you're not going to hear it. There we go. Here comes the music. So we'll play it out. It was so good to be with you, Instagram. I hope you enjoyed this. Don't tell Matt and Rachel I talked about them, but it is what it is. All right, y'all, talk to you later. Bye, Instagram. Instagram. Yay! All right, YouTube and Facebook, don't forget to share because that'll be helpful. And obviously I don't need to go live all the time because if I do, then I talk about things I shouldn't be talking about, apparently. Hey Jasmine, did you give me that graphic? Ah, I'm gonna put up a graphic so that way anybody else who comes— and while I'm doing that, I'll read some of the comments. Yay, Angelique! She said, I'm on my— let me get rid of this— she said, I'm on my lunch break and this has been so much fun. Yay! Rita said, this has been great. Hi, Yolanda! You are so welcome. Noxolo, what a beautiful name. You said, use what God has put in your hands. Absolutely, that is what you should absolutely do. All right, let's see. You are welcome. Thanks for sharing, Lydia. I appreciate that. Let's see who else had something fun to say. I love all the emojis. Hi, Lisa Bartley, that is awesome. All right, let me see all the things that I'm trying to do while I'm sharing with you. Trying to find her. Love that every day has the potential to be day one. Hi, Angela Guerrero, I know that you love the Inner Circle. I'm So glad that you're around. We love having you in there. Yay! All right, let me put this in here. Yay! And then we bring this up here. Yay! There we go. I crave daily accomplishment. Me too, me too. I see you, Mariah. Physically Cleaning my mind has felt less cluttered. Seeing stuff clouds my mind. Me too. Yay, this was fun, y'all. Signing off.
