Chrystal Evans Hurst defines your second quarter as ages 20 to 40, the critical window to invest in finances, health, relationships, and faith before it's too late. She uses the time value of money to argue against waiting, and says if you missed it, later quarters still let you mentor and contribute, like Moses did.
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Do you know what it means to live the second quarter of your life well? Well, I want to talk about that today. Let's learn together. Hi there. My name is Chrystal Evans Hurst, and this is the edited version of a weekly video that I do live in the Inner Circle. If you'd like to learn more about the Inner Circle, simply go to chrystalevanshurst.com/innercircle. Listen, I believe that the second quarter of your life is between the ages of 20 and 40. I want to tell you where I get that from in just a minute, but 20 to 40. And I want to share something with you about what it looks like to live 20 to 40 well, and then what it looks like to live the third and fourth quarter well if you didn't hit the second quarter. I was thinking about this as I watched basketball. We're in the middle of March Madness as this video is being recorded. In fact, I believe the championship game is tonight. But the second quarter, watching the game, um, and also I've noticed this at other times. I just came off of the homeschool basketball championships with my sons, and I watched the second quarter. I watched the same phenomenon every single time. Growing up, laying on the couch on Sunday afternoon next to my dad watching football, I had no idea what was going on, but the kitchen was smelling good and we had friends and family over, and I would plant myself on the couch right next to my dad. And the second quarter, it's the same phenomenon. What is that phenomenon? The middle phenomenon. The it doesn't really matter phenomenon. It's we're working hard, but if we don't get it in this season, it's okay, we have a third and a fourth left to go. There's a little bit of a lull, and that's what I would like to talk about— this lull that sometimes, if we're not careful, that we accept in the second quarter of our life, when actually this is the quarter where you get ahead. When I first went to work in my 20s for a mutual fund company, I was, uh, customer service, but I got my license, my Series 663, so I could talk, sell mutual funds, license Series 7, and do insurance, all these different things. I love that job. One of the things that I got a chance to talk about and got a chance to learn was about the time value of money. I remember learning a little bit about this, of course, when I took finance because I was a business major in school. And the time value of money, the idea that if if you start earlier and you do regular investments, even if they're small, just because you start earlier and the money has time to be invested, time to grow, time to develop into something that would not be the same if you start later, that you should start early, as early as you can, saving money because of the time value of money. It's the rule of 7, that something happens in your— with your money every 7 years that doesn't happen if you don't start early. I remember this, and I remember knowing in my 20s that I ought to save. Now, did I save? I did. Did I save as much as I could have? No. Did I save as much as I should have? Save as much as I should have? No. But I did a little bit. And with the things that I did start saving back then, I definitely see it. I see the time value of money. The problem is, between the ages of 20 and 40, many of us don't see the time value of investing in our future life because we figure we have time. The second quarter, basketball, football, whatever the ball is that you're tossing around, that is the lie that we often believe. Even we don't— we don't think we believe it. We will think we have time. This has shown up by the actions that we take because we push off things till later. Uh, you say, I'm going to get that master's degree later because you're sick of school with your bachelor's degree. And then halfway through your 30s and maybe into your early, early 40s, you didn't do it. We say we have time, and so we don't necessarily work to take care of our bodies because our bodies aren't telling us, demanding demanding that we care for them. And then by the time they demand it in our 40s and 50s, we realized we should have been taking care of it in our 20s and 30s. We think we have time to do better about diving into our learning of God or the scriptures because that's what older people do— study their Bible all the time. So you'll go to church, but you won't necessarily commit yourself to learning scriptures or diving deep into the Bible because you have time. You will think, I have friends, but I don't want to necessarily go deep with my friendships right now. They're busy, I'm busy, we're all busy, and because we have time, I'll do that later. And then you realize that the investment that you would have made in friendships in your 20s or 30s are the way you stay rock solid in your 40s and your 50s and your 60s and your 70s. There are things that you think in your 20s and your 30s that you have a lull of time. One of the reasons why I have the Inner Circle, amongst the many reasons I have the Inner Circle— you already know by now because I don't slobber and cry all over the place— that I believe in your freedom, and I'm committed to your freedom, and I'm committed to your freedom in whatever stage of the game you find yourself. But there are things that if you will listen in your 20s and listen in your 30s, you save so much time. You have so much of a better foundation in your 40s and 50s, your 60s, your 70s, your 80s, simply because you started earlier and you didn't use the second quarter as the opportunity to prepare for the third and the fourth quarter. You maximize the second quarter for all it's worth. Have you ever watched a game when there was such a big lead going into the second quarter that the losing team couldn't recover because the winning team took full advantage of the first and the second quarter. Everybody comes out in the first quarter wanting to win. Everybody in your, your elementary years, your high school years, even the beginning of your 20s, you have big dreams for your life. You go into the game thinking, I'm gonna win at this game. And then the time where it requires the work and you're starting to feel a little bit of the pressure or the tiredness from the work that you've done this far, and you have permission to step back a little bit because you know you have the third and fourth quarter to make up time, you forget that the second quarter is where you actually gain ground. You gain ground. When I was running a marathon— and I always say this, I ran one marathon. I'm almost tempted, y'all, to run another one this year. I was not gonna do it. I'm committed to running a half. I am committed. But I just was told that in Hawaii this year, that this is their 50th year of their marathon. And I'm like, am I about to do this to myself? Marathon training is gruesome. Half a marathon, not so much. But when you have to train on a Saturday for a 26.2 race, and in training you have to run 20 miles, that, you know, one week is 14, one week is 15, one week is like you have no Saturdays for weeks on end because you're running for 5 and 6 hours at a time because I'm slow. But I remember, um, running, and the— in the training they would say use the downhill to make up time. Use the downhill to not work as hard, but move faster. Let the downhill carry you so that you maximize your time and that you save your energy so that when the next hill comes, when the next uphill comes, you have— you are prepared, you are ready, your muscles are engaged and they were rested. That you don't have to work hard the whole race the same way because every time there's a certain terrain, you take advantage of the terrain. The second quarter is the time in your life when you take advantage of the terrain. And typically in the 20s and 30s, that's the opportunity that we have in the second quarter. That's your time to rack up the points. Now let me tell you what normally happens. What normally happens is people get to halftime, they go into the locker room— basketball, football, whatever kind of ball we're talking about— their coach charges them up and says, you're behind, or you gotta hold on to the win. And then they come out and magical things start happening in the third quarter. And they also happen in the fourth quarter, because in the fourth quarter the game is almost over. So whatever you're going to pull out of your backpack, whatever you're going to pull out of your— out of your inner self, your power, your mind, you know, you're frightened that the, the game is about to end, then you start pulling it out. You come out charged in the third quarter, and you come out knowing you have a deadline in the fourth quarter. The first quarter, you're energized because the game has just begun, and in the second quarter, you have a lull because you know the whole game still has to come. And you're running out of steam from the first quarter. The second quarter is where we have to be careful. So if you're here and you are a millennial, Gen Z, if you are a younger or older millennial, doesn't matter, in that 20 to 30, 35 on up to 40 age, I just want to say this to you: get a coach. And by that I mean talk to your mother, talk to your aunt, get in a small group Find a therapist, listen to your grandmother, seek out the wisdom in your life so that while you're in the second quarter, you are racking up the points. There is no need to wait until halftime and wait until you realize that you're behind. Wait until you realize that the game is too close. Wait until you realize that there is something that you have to recover from in the third quarter or the fourth quarter. Get the information now. Get the energy going now. Be focused now, because now the lull is the time— it's the best time for you to rack up the points so that you're playing ahead. The whole point of the Inner Circle is to help women wherever they are in the game play well. But if you're here and you're in that specific age group, my goal in the second quarter is for you to rack up the points. There is no need for you to wait to get the information or the charging up or the cheerleading or the excitement that you need later. Now, that said, what happens if you didn't play well in your second quarter? What if you're in the third quarter or the fourth quarter, or you're in overtime? Okay, and what if you didn't play well? Well, here's what I always say: if you are still breathing, you get to choose. There is never a time when you are still living on Earth that you should ever quit playing the game, that you should ever throw down the ball, that you should ever say, well, my time has passed. It has not passed if you're still here. One of the things for sure that you can do in the third and the fourth quarter, in overtime, and even if you are no longer even playing the game, you are in the stands, you can always retire and coach. The bottom line is, y'all, we need each other. Here's the good news. Moses, in his second quarter, in his second quarter, Prince of Egypt, right? He ends his second quarter with murdering somebody else. So he ruined everything, seemingly so, in the second quarter because he committed murder. And then the man who had raised him in his own home, Pharaoh, chased him down. He goes into the desert, he becomes a shepherd, he takes on a Hebrew occupation, he marries a Hebrew woman. And for 40 years, for 40 years, for his third and going into this fourth quarter, nobody knows anything about Moses. In the fourth quarter, he was 80 years old, and God said, now I want you to let my people go. Exodus 3:10. Now that you've learned some lessons, now that you have some wisdom, now that you know how to hear my voice, now that you know how to shepherd sheep, Now is when I need you to actually do the thing that you were always created to do. And you needed the lessons of the second quarter, the lessons of the third quarter, and the lessons of the fourth quarter to make you a good leader, to make you a good coach, to make you a good person who actually had compassion for people who weren't living their second quarters well. What am I trying to tell you? It doesn't matter what quarter of the game you've played or are playing. It doesn't matter what quarter of the game that you have played well or played not so well. Everybody has the opportunity to encourage someone else from the stands— or better yet, if you've lived a few quarters in a suit— to then stand on the sidelines and coach some people. We are— and I always say this— we are better together. I want to encourage you, if you are in your 20s or 30s though, not to wait until you become that lady to actually live your life well. Not to wait until you need the coaching desperately, need the mentoring desperately, to wait to get it. Now is the time. Just like your physical body needs your investment, just like your mental self needs the investment, just like the soul of you needs the investment. Now is the time to invest in your life. And if you don't have the information, or you're not— you're not committed to getting it from the places that you have in your life to get it to, that's a reason— that's a part of the reason why the Inner Circle exists. I want to help women who feel like they passed it and realize that halftime, the game is not over. The third and the fourth quarter are still here. I want to realize that women who thought that their season was over Nope, let me call you out of the bleachers. You need to coach. You have information you need to share. But I also want to say to women who are in the second quarter, girl, now is the time to rack up the points. Now is the time to get wisdom. Now is the time to learn scripture. Now is the time to have community. Now is the time to make decisions. Now is the time to live under a budget. Now is the time to exercise discipline. Now is the time. And then you'll realize later that you racked up the points. It doesn't feel necessary all the time to play with the hardest that you have in the second quarter. But what I'm telling you is that when the things happen in your life that you can't control in the third and the fourth quarter, when there's an injury that you didn't plan on, when they put in some other players that you didn't know existed, when there are harder things, when the weather changes and you did not know that those changes were coming, that you entered those seasons ahead. It does not matter what quarter you're in. You need to choose to play your quarter well. But if you're in the second, it's a little tempting to think You have time, and time is not promised to you. It's just not. So here's the deal. I want you, wherever you are in your real life, to have a circle of friends. It doesn't matter to me if they're from your church, if they're from your place of work. It doesn't matter if you walk with these women in your neighborhood every week. It doesn't matter if these are the women that are in your family. It doesn't matter if these are women who you've known for a long time and you're always saying, we should get together. We should get together. We should get together. You be the one to get them together. And I don't care what you do. I don't care if you pray together, study the Bible together, read a book together, go for a walk together, sit in a circle and sing Kumbaya, take trips together. I don't care if you learn together. I don't care what you do. But to have a group of women where you say, I'm committed to you, I'm committed to learning from you, to teaching you, to praying for you, to being honest with you, to being open with you, to being vulnerable with you— get those people in your life. Because your life will be better for it. And if you need mentoring or coaching from other women specifically for things in life that Chrystal Hurst— this Chrystal Hurst— has decided that I think women should know this, then that's what the Inner Circle is for. This is me telling you, go get your girls. This is me telling you, play the game no matter what quarter you're in. This is me telling you, get a coach, get some wisdom. This is me telling you, don't Wait. Wait on what? Why would you wait? Every stinking day that you get to live, you get to choose to live well. And if you're not going to choose today, what are you waiting on? Because every day is a gift. I hope that what I've shared today has been a gift to you. And if it has, be sure and share it. And I'll see you next week.
