The Secret to Success

Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning. Hope you're doing okay this morning. I'm gonna give a few more minutes for people to join us because I did things a little out of order today. Let me turn on my camera. So you can see me because that is important. That is definitely important. All right, so good morning, good morning. I am here with you, YouTube and Facebook, and I am here with you, Instagram. And I know I went live last week and I don't normally do that. I normally go live in the Inner Circle. Every Monday morning, and I'll get back to that soon after today. There's a couple of reasons that are timely that I wanted to go live this morning. So right now, wherever you are, if you know who I am and you know that what I'm going to share with you will be encouraging and it'll probably be good, go ahead and share this live right now. If you don't know who I am, my name is Chrystal Hurst, and I'm a writer and a speaker. And an encourager and a big sister and a mama and all the things. And what I like to do is to come on and just to share, um, a couple things that I think will help you to gain a new perspective on your life, your very unique one precious life, and to live with intentionality today. So, um, Inner Circle, if you're here, go ahead and give me a wave. I'd love to know that you're here. I'm excited that you're in the Inner Circle, and I hope that you have started your pathways. No judgment if you have not, and we'll be back to our private lives real soon. Um, and I would also like to know if you're here and you are under 35. If you're under 35, just give me a fist bump. So if you're in the Inner Circle, give me a wave. If you are, uh, under 35, give me a fist bump, only because I like to know that people who, uh, can benefit long term from the wisdom that they receive early on in life, that you're here. So I like to know those two things. Hey, Inner Circle, thanks for joining me today. I'm so glad to see you all. I didn't cut the music yet. Okay, there you go. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right, so I see my waves, my fist bumps. Um, some of us are giving waves and fist bumps. I see you, Amanda. So I'm so glad to be with you this morning for a couple of reasons. Number one, today is the last day that the Inner Circle will be open, and I want to make sure you hear that and you hear that live, because people will inevitably say to us, wait, I forgot, I didn't get a chance to do it, can you please let me in? So it's ChrystalEvansHurst.com/InnerCircle.. And I want to tell you about that real quick before I tell you what I am reminded about this weekend, about what the secret to success really is all about. The inner circle, um, has been my secret for success. I have had all of my life in different seasons different people who have formed a cocoon of friendship or accountability or partnership. And because of those connections, I've been able to move mountains in my life. And not because I have a bunch of muscle, it's because there have been people in my life who encouraged me, who were working with me, and that has changed in different seasons. And so when people ask me, Chrystal Hurst, how do you— that is the question I get about everything all the time— how do you— there are different answers to that question depending on what I'm being asked. How do you go live? How do you raise your kids? How do you study the word? How do you, uh, stay motivated? You know, how do you get things done? How do you write a book? Okay, those all have very specific helps. However, there is one thing that is always the same no matter what, and that is that there are people around me. Sometimes they're my friends, sometimes they're my church people, sometimes they are professional peers, sometimes they are paid coaches, but there are people around me who speak into my life, give me insight, give me direction, and keep me moving. And so what I decided to create, because people were asking me all the time, how do you, how do you, is to create the Inner Circle so that there's an opportunity to go deeper, to create community, to allow us to engage with one another. And we change up what we do in the Inner Circle to hit the different pain points. So during this month in April, we are on self-paced journeys, and I drop in. We will do our lives together, and I drop in and share some fun things here and there that are unique and special for the Inner Circle. But our pathways this month are finding emotional freedom, growing in your faith, and building strong relationships. We also in April have an Inner Circle Summit, basically a conference. We have a pajama party every night. That will be in April too, but it will only be for Inner Circle members, and Inner Circle members at the $25 level or up. And so for $25, y'all, it's a whole conference and a lot of community and fun. In May, we're going to join each other on a journey, a 21-day journey called Simplify, because you need to get simple in your head in the best of ways. You need to get simple in your space. You need to clean out the clutter in your heart. And so it'll be a multifaceted journey that we're going to take together. And then June, we've got some surprises to come as well. So we change it up all the time to keep it interesting for me and for you all. But if you are not in there and you need community, you need encouragement, you need direction, you need access, more access than what I do with the blogs and the podcasts, that's what the Inner Circle is for. And the reason why I wanted to go live is A, to remind you of that, but B, to tell you something else. Okay, let me make this smaller so it's not— so it's here so people don't have to ask me all the time. It's right there. So if anybody says, what is she talking about, y'all can point and y'all can help me on Instagram If somebody says, what is she talking about? Just drop it in there. ChrystalEvansHurst.com/innercircle. If I was really together, I'd know how to pin. I don't think I know how to pin on Instagram yet, but I'll figure it out soon. Okay. So basically, hey, good morning. Huh? I am live right now. You want to come say hi? Do it quick. Do it quick. Say hello. Hello. All right. Bye. Wait, where's your keys? I don't know. Go. Okay, so here's what I want to tell you. The secret to success, y'all. It's a secret, but it's not really. So here's what happened this weekend, okay? I took my son on a college visit in Virginia. That was not the plan. I asked him, did he want to go to college this year? He probably— I always give all my kids an option to do a gap year. You got to stay in school You can work, but hey, we have a family that travels a lot and most of my family, we work for ourselves. And so there's an opportunity for you to apprentice and learn some things and try some things out before you spend $1 million going to college. And I'm not against them going straight to college if they want to, but he was kind of, mm-hmm. And then through a series of events, he decided that he wanted to go to visit this college. In Virginia. First of all, Virginia. That's right, I gave it an extra syllable. Virginia. Because I'm like, maybe you're gonna go, you know, a couple of hours, 2 to 3 hours from home, somewhere I can easily drive to when you get homesick and you want to come home. Virginia. Okay, and y'all, this is my son who, um, who is extremely introverted. He really doesn't want to be around people that much. Uh, he wouldn't say— he has great grades, but he wouldn't say he loves school. Um, you know, he, he's a— he likes to be home. And I asked him before we started talking about the specific schools that we were going to apply to, I told him, I think you need to go away. Okay, I'm telling you a story and it's going somewhere. I think you need to go away. Like, let's find an art school in Georgia. Let's find a mechanical engineering school, you know, on the West Coast. Let me, let me broaden your horizons. Like, I've been working on him, you know. We've done the SAT studies. We've, uh, done the— we've— well, we haven't done any college visits. We have attempted to do some virtual college visits the last year and a half. Um, also, I have talked to him about getting 5 people in his life who he can ask questions which he's still going to have to do that. He made a list of the people he was going to talk to because I believe that a part of being prepared to go to school is doing your homework. It's not just about continuing to take classes, it's about doing your homework and thinking through what is important for you to know. What does this person like about their job? How did they get there? What does this person not like about their job? How are they going to work to change that? Like, think about these things before you get there. It's not just about the degree, it's about your life. So These are the things we've been talking about, and I've been pushing him and pushing him and trying to tell him, get out Dodge, dude, get out of Dodge. Okay, so this is what had happened though. What had happened though is his cousin— and I know, I know, I know how to speak good English, just in case you're wondering— but what had happened though is that his cousin is going to school in Virginia. And so, and we're like, well, you want to go on a college visit the same weekend we're gonna go? Sure, why not? So we all got our tails together and went to Virginia, and I'm kind of looking around like, oh, this is nice, this is great, maybe he'll come next year, maybe whatever. Okay, listen, y'all, I am not prepared. I have graduated two children. Okay, I'm getting to the secret of success, hold on just a second. I have graduated already 2 children from homeschool. I know how to do this. I know how to get them into college, no problem. I know how to make the transcript. I know how to fill— I know how to do all that stuff. Have I done one thing? No, nunca, nada, nincompoopness. I just made up the word, but the point is you get what I'm saying. Why? Because he said he didn't want to go anywhere, and in one weekend One weekend, one weekend, like 2 and a half days, he's decided that he wants to go to school. Now I have no problem with this. Virginia's a little far. We— I had to have some real talks with him. I said, listen, I think this is great. It's going to explore your horizons and all that. Let me tell you about some things I want you to think about in advance. This is, this is what happens when you have the kind of mother like me, okay? All right, this is the first thing you need to think about in advance. Number one, numero uno, um, you need to realize that I can't drive up here and pick you up, bring you home. We are going to decide on predetermined times that I will plan to buy a plane ticket, um, because you're not coming home every weekend and you may not get homesick. But if you do, let me tell you what, let me, let me, because you didn't want to go to school, you didn't want to go out of the state, so Let me tell you what going out of the state means. Going out of the state, and I think it's wonderful, means you're not coming home every weekend. And if you get homesick, I'm going to talk to you, I'm going to FaceTime you, I'm going to send you some care packages, but I'm not paying $500 for a flight. Mm-mm, not doing it. So that's number one. Number two, because this is what happens when you have realistic mamas, number two, um, I told him that when you go to college out of state state, you totally increase the odds that you will marry somebody who is not from Texas, which is perfectly fine. I have no problem with that. And for a minute, you may live where you work, y'all may live where y'all work, she may live where, you know, y'all may live where she works maybe. But eventually, when y'all start having babies, y'all, these are the conversations that I'm having with my oldest son. Just because he's decided he wants to go to college out of state. When y'all decide that y'all want to have children, maybe not the first one, but maybe the second or the third, let me tell you what's going to happen. She's going to want to be around her mother, probably. Hi, April. He's going to want to be around— she's going to want to be around her mother. You know what that means? You may never come back to Texas and live next to your family again, which is okay. That's okay. I will live. But I just want you to know, here's what happens when you turn that wheel and you go to school, I don't know, 2,000, 1,800 miles from home. There are certain things that get moving in your life. These are the conversations that I'm having with him because I just hate it when people say, I just didn't think about that. Well, let me help you with all the things you need to think about. But all of this is neither here nor there. My son, who has not wanted to think about college, he has not wanted to talk about it. He was mad when I made him do the SATs. He has taken a whole bunch of dual credit hours, but he has been kicking and screaming the whole way. He is like, I hate school, how many— I don't want to go to college, I don't think it's for me, all of this stuff. And I was, you know, I didn't, I didn't, didn't get too riled up because this is what I wanted to say, son, You can do whatever you want. Howsomever, let me tell you who you are in this world, and let me tell you what this degree will do for you. It is a ticket. You may or may not use it. That's not the point. If you need it, you want to have that ticket in your back pocket. It's just a ticket. I will agree with you, half the stuff you will never use, but the skills, the interpersonal— like, we had all those conversations. But let me tell you why. Let me tell you why I'm all right. This is, this is, this is where it's about to get good. Let me tell you why I'm all right. Because out of 5 children so far, I can tell you for each child at least one thing that has worried me or still worries me. With each one. I can tell you something I didn't think was going to turn all the way over. I can tell you something that I didn't think was gonna bloom properly or on time. I can tell you thoughts that I had about what they're never going to get and how I'm always going to have to, and lo Lord, how are they ever going to stand on their own? Let me tell you this weekend what I realized. The seed is sprouting. That's what I realized. The seed is sprouting, and I don't even know why. Every single time I doubt that it will, or I wonder, or I question, or I get nervous, or I get all wigged out about things, I don't even know why. We're 3 for 3 now. Now, that does not mean that there's not trouble or struggles or lessons to learn. But what I'm telling you is that I looked at him this weekend and thought, oh, there you are, there you are, it's good to see you. I thought I lost you, you're coming back, this is amazing. And then I thought back to all the things that I have been planting and watering and nurturing and praying over and reading books about and seeking counsel and asking my inner circle to pray for me, intervene on for me, help me think this through, help listen to me talk it out. And I said, ah, there it is. Now here's what I'm not going to tell you. I am not going to tell you that my kids are perfect. They're not. I'm not going to tell you that they get everything right. They do not. I'm not going to tell you that they don't make some dumb decisions. I believe between 15 and 25, most kids are dumb and they just don't know it. Their frontal lobe is not developed and they just don't think things through. But here's what I can tell you. What I can tell you is that the secret to success in getting your children to move forward in life— you can't control it. But there is something that you can do to put input into that direction, is to keep sowing seed. And the secret to your success in any way in your life is to keep sowing seed. If you're in the financial industry, you have heard, uh, the financial industry, you've heard of the rule of 72. It is a rule that describes— you should just look it up. I'm not going to get into the details, but I have a financial background, investment money manager, stock picker, analyst, all that. Listen, it is a rule that just basically gives you some quick math to figure out how long it's going to take you to double your money. But here's the assumption. The assumption is, is that if you keep investing, if you keep saving, if you, if you, if you put in and you don't take out, if you do it consistently— and some of you all have, you know this, you've got mutual funds on your job or you have, you've saved long enough to see the compounding value of interest or money management, or you've used dollar cost averaging to, to save slowly and you haven't jumped in and out of the, of the market. When you freak out, you just kept putting your money in, just kept putting your money in. You were smart about it. Then over time, you're, you know, you stop working for your money so hard and your money starts working for you. Okay, there's another rule. It's called the Rule of Seven. The Rule of Seven says that if I want you to see something, I need to market it to you at least 7 times. Now, that may have changed now. Some marketing people may say it's actually not 7, it's more like 17, because there's so much noise in the world. But here's the bottom line: if I want you to see it, if I want you to remember it, if I want you to take action on it as a marketer, I need you to see that thing 7 times, which means I need to give you a graphic. I mean, I need to send you an email. I need to do a story. I need to do all these different things, right? I need to text you. I need to whatever. And that's why you are getting barraged and Facebook is reading your mind, because marketers are like, we have to get in front of them, right? That's why Instagram's like, I was just talking about that, and then an ad shows up. It's really scary. But the reality is, is there's a rule, and the rule says if I just keep at it, if I just keep planting seed, if I just keep marketing the product, if I just keep marketing the content, if I just keep investing the money, if I just keep saving, if I just keep living on less than what I make, if I just stay faithful in my finances, if I just keep teaching my kids the word, if I just keep helping them with their homework, if I just keep being available when they need to talk to me, if I just keep making sure that they have what they need, if I just keep being an example with what I do, not just with what I say, if I just keep doing these things, there will be a harvest somewhere. Some of y'all are getting down in the mouth about whether or not you've been able to experience success in your life, and there are problems with that because, one, you either haven't sown any seed, two, you started and you stopped, or three, you, uh, you are doing it but you are not enjoying the process because you're worried and anxious the whole way. Let me just give you a tip. The secret— I hope I'm not talking too loud because I feel like I'm preaching and I feel like the Holy Ghost is coming on me and I feel like I have a fire shut up in my bones and I feel like I need to be careful about what I say because I'm on fire, y'all. This is what happens when I need to tell y'all something and there are no notes in front of me. It's just coming on out. Listen, when you realize that Betty Sue, okay, and Shaquita Monet, either one of them, that neither one of them have something that you don't have. They don't. They don't have an edge on you. Okay, sure, maybe somebody grew up on the other side of the town, of the town. All right, maybe generational income and generational wealth is a situation. It is okay. Yes, I understand, two-parent household or not. I got it. I understand that you didn't have people who modeled educational prowess in front of you. Nobody taught you about your money. You don't know how to raise your kids. You don't know how to be disciplined because nobody in your life was disciplined. I got it. But once you finish talking about all the reasons why you can't, let me tell you why you can, okay? Clear my throat. Let me tell you why you can. The reason why you can is because you get to decide to get up every stinking day and either put a seed in the ground, weed out the stuff that wants to choke that seed out of the ground, or water it every stinking day. Every day. I have this great podcast coming up this week with Morgan Harper Nichols. So excited about that. I've had her on the podcast before. She's an awesome interview, a friend of mine. Let me tell you something, she has 1.6— I think she said— million followers on Instagram, okay? And followers are not the end-all be-all, but the point is, you want to know how she got famous? You want to know what happened? She was making art for her doggone self, for herself, and she was putting it on her blog so nobody could really see it. And then she started putting it on Pinterest because she just knew she was supposed to make art. She just kept making it, she just kept making it, she just kept making it. And then somebody one day said, oh wow, this is great, and they shared it, and somebody else shared it, and somebody else shared it, and somebody else shared it. And then she went to her blog and had hundreds and hundreds of thousands of hits, and her, her art had been shared over and over again. You want to know what she was doing the whole time? She wasn't paying attention to the wind and the waves. She wasn't paying attention to the rain. She wasn't paying attention to who was talking about her crop. She wasn't paying attention to who thought her seeds were small or big. She just said, I'm supposed to plant. It's what God has put in my hand. And I'm supposed to do something with it. And she did it consistently. And then when it was time to harvest that stuff, there was plenty of seeds sown and plenty of fruit grown. Ooh, I think I just said that on accident, but that was really good. Plenty of seeds sown and plenty of fruit grown. Somebody asked me on Instagram, the podcast, the podcast will come out this Wednesday. The way that you can easily be reminded about it is to go to my website, chrystalevanshurst.com, and subscribe to my email newsletter. Because I tell you when it comes out, or you can subscribe whatever podcast that you listen to, whether it's iTunes or Google Play or Stitcher or Spotify. Just look for Chrystal Hurst. I'll pop up and subscribe. And then every time an episode goes live, then you'll get it. But Morgan is coming out this Wednesday. Okay, y'all, I did an interview with another friend of mine, Jennifer Dukes Lee. She's literally, literally a farm girl. She was telling me about how small the corn seeds are, okay, seed of corn, and how long that seed takes to come up. Like, corn compared to other types of vegetation takes a lot longer to come up. But you want to know why? Because when it finally comes up— listen, somebody— when it finally comes up it grows really, really tall. And all that time that everybody was looking and saying, are you planting anything? When's it going to come up? Why is it taking so long? Look at our stuff in the other field. Look at our stuff on this other plain. Our stuff is coming up. We're already harvesting. And then the corn takes a while, but when it finally comes up, oh, it comes up. Here is, my dear, my friend, my love, my sister, here is the secret. Of your success in anything. Anything. It's simple, so it's really not a secret, but everybody thinks that, that if somebody else has been able to be successful in their marriage or with their kids or with their job or with their finances or with their gifting or with their passion, they got something I don't have. It just ain't true. The secret of success is Have good seed, consistently put it in the ground, consistently take away anything ruthlessly that's gonna keep it from growing, consistently water it and nurture it and watch over it. And the key is to do that consistently. Let me tell you, there have been times when I talk to my kids about the Bible and I am making them learn scripture and they're cutting up and doing weird things. And I just want to jump across the table and strangle them over Jesus. That's what I want to do. I want to jump across the table and literally blow their lights out because they won't listen to Jesus. It's just a whole disrespectful thing and they know how to push my buttons. And then you just think, is there any point to this? Really? Like, really? I've thought that as a homeschool mom. Really? I am doing doggone chemistry again for the 79th time. I know this. Why don't y'all? Have I done algebra yet again? I, I, I could— what do I need to open up a tutoring service? Like, what is happening here? And I'm doing it and they're struggling and they're, they're not focused. And, and, you know, I think about that with, with so many things. But practice really does make progress. Quit being addicted to perfection and just keep showing up and choosing progress. When I look back over the things that I'm seeing in my oldest son, and he's just getting going, and who knows, tomorrow he may change his mind, He's entitled. But the point is this, what I saw, I got a glimpse of something rising up. And this is what happens when you are, when you are sowing seed and being consistent. Sometimes you'll get a glimpse of something trying to rise up and you'll get excited. Listen, I grew tomatoes one time in my backyard. I literally hit some pipes because I'm in a suburban neighborhood and, you know, you're not supposed to dig that deep in a suburban neighborhood. But I was trying, and I had laid everything out and did all the things. And y'all, it was so much work, so much work to haul the dirt in and put the frame up with the brick and the cement blocks and buying the plant and amending the soil and doing all this stuff. But I want to tell you something, when I saw that first little green thing coming up I was so doggone excited, and I didn't even have fruit coming off of it yet. I didn't have the bell pepper yet. I didn't have the tomato yet. I did not have the jalapeños yet because I was going to make a salsa garden. I didn't have it. But you want to know what I did get excited about? Something. Something. You want to know what the other secret to your success is? Show up. Nurture that seed. And when you see anything, anything, you better smile about that thing. You better smile. You better celebrate. You better pat yourself on the back or, or acknowledge that you've done something good. You better sit at the end of the day and take your journal and write 2 or 3 sentences that says something good happened today in my life. Plant the seed, and when it starts to come up, celebrate the seed. And then listen, any person who has any kind of understanding about how vegetation and plantation stuff works— not plantation stuff, plants on the land— how that works because y'all, in this day and age, we just got to be so very careful about what we say. Lord have mercy. All right, the point is this: you know that when it grows, it bears new seed. So you want to plant it, nurture it, water it, be ruthless about whatever's around it. You want to celebrate whatever little thing you see coming up, because if you are going to berate the length of time that it's taken, or you're going to berate— oh, that's just a little thing, I've been working this hard— you will kill your seed. You will, you will debase the, the wonderful thing that's coming, and you will stop showing up for it, and you will kill it. See, people who are successful, they not only show up consistently, but they know how to celebrate the seed, the little bit of fruit they see coming up from the ground, okay? And then when that thing grows they know when to pick it. They know when to say, this is far enough. They know when to release it, because inside of the thing you've nurtured is more seed. More seed for you to share, more seed for you to put back. And it's a principle of multiplication. The secret of your success is showing up, being consistent, knowing when to hold them and when to fold them, knowing when to walk away and when to walk into, and then knowing that every time you level up, every time you see the fruit of your labor, every time you take something for yourself, that you plant a seed somewhere else. It's, it's a, it's a cycle. That is why I'm giving you this talk this morning. Because I have seed coming up. I looked at my son this weekend and thought, oh, there you are. And I needed to tell some of you who are currently right now, right now, not showing up consistently for your seed, not watering your seed, not weeding your seed. You are not, uh, you are not celebrating your seed. You're just berating how long it's taking, and you're comparing yourself to everybody else. You're killing your seed.. And then some of y'all who have been growing that thing, and it's time to move. It's time to move. It's time to shift locations. It's time to make some changes with the way you manage your finances. It's time to move. It's time to get some of that clutter out of your house. It's time to get some of that weight off of your body. It's time to move. It's time to, to take something that you know, you understand it, you've been dealing with it, and then say, okay, this is what I'm going to take to invest in me, and this is what I'm going to take and share with others to invest in them. The secret to success is to keep showing up, which brings me to this point. If you think that everything I've ever done to plant seeds for my kids has felt good, or that I've been excited about it, or that I have been, uh, feeling like this is the thing I ought to do today, if you think that it has been roses the whole way, You are so very wrong. I have looked at my kids many times and thought, oh my gosh, I'm screwing them up as a parent or as a homeschool mom, just as a Christian. Like, well, they didn't learn about Jesus from me today. Many times I've thought, oh, I'm, I'm not doing this right. Do you know that if you let weed come up around a seed, if you miss a day or two or three, it doesn't die immediately? It's when you don't come back. You have to talk yourself into coming back to the thing you left on the table. You've got to go back and finish that degree. You've got to go back and forgive that person. You've got to go back and get back on that rhythm that you had when you were eating right and losing weight. You've got to go back and get in church, and not just online church. Now that churches are starting to go back, you need to go back and get engaged and involved. You quit that Bible study, you need to go back and do that again. You need to go back and honor your parents. You need to go back and start memorizing scripture again. You need to go back and apply yourself with excellence on the job because you got lazy. You need to go back and start doing what you knew to do in the first place. The only problem comes when you don't go back. Now, will it be more work when you go back? Oh yeah, cuz weeds that have grown up are a lot harder to pull than the ones that have been there for a while. But if you don't go back, you have no seed. If you have no seed, you have no success. So I would love for you to tell me in the comments, what is the thing that you need to be consistent with, pay attention to, celebrate, go back to, or share? You know what it is. Pick that one thing, because here's where the pedal meets the metal, okay? This is it right here. I need to know your one thing. What is that one thing that you need to stick with? You know, you know that, you know that the seed will come eventually, but you sure are tired. What is the thing you need to stick with, show up for, be consistent with? I want you to tell me because I'm going to call you out. Devotions with my kiddos, budgeting, my writing. There you go, there you go. My weight loss journey. Mm-hmm, I see another writing. Moving forward since my husband's death. Hi, I'm gonna buy Macy's, uh, Clinique. Thank you so much for telling me about the sales. And yes, take it slow, take it easy. They keep planting seed. Setting boundaries, my spiritual journey. Mm-hmm. Yes. Organizing my schedule, studying the word. Listen, Lucretia says, I, uh, need to— I was so discouraged with starting my lingerie business from so much stress with starting it. Let me tell you something, there is some woman in the world who needs you, ma'am. To get back to your lingerie business, because her husband will be very grateful that you do. When you plant seed and you show up and you decide to nurture the seed, guess what you're doing? What you're planting to harvest is not just for you. The secret is simple, y'all. Show up, keep showing up, and keep showing up again and again. That's it. That's it. It's do whatever you knew to do last until God tells you to do something else next. And until then, you keep showing up consistently as best you can. It doesn't mean you're perfect, but you are making progress. Decluttering again, my health, online Bible classes. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Y'all, if you keep showing up, you'll learn what works in your soil. Let me tell you what I didn't like about gardening, what I don't like about parenting. I wish I could have figured it out with the first one, and then we just, you know, we had it after that. But each one is different. Now I'm more confident in my parenting. I'm more confident in money management. I'm more confident in speaking to you live. I'm more confident in writing books. Well, maybe not this current one, but I'm gonna get there. I'm more confident in speaking on a stage. I'm more confident in leading, uh, women's ministry, leading business, leading a team. I'm getting more competent and comfortable in all of these things. But let me tell you what you do learn. You do kind of learn the lay of the land. It may not be exact, but you start seeing the patterns that show up over and over and over and over again. Listen, and when you learn it, it, then it's not as much work the next time around. One of the things I don't like about gardening is you have to learn your soil. Your soil. So I can talk to 5 and 6 and 7 different people about what they did in their soil in Virginia or California or 3 hours away from me in Texas, but what I need to know is what works in the soil I have in my backyard. And you want to know how I'm going to discover that? The only way I'm going to discover that is by planting stuff and seeing what sticks and seeing what works and seeing what yields the kind of fruit I'm looking forward to. I don't know, raising kids, what's gonna stick. Heck, half the time that I'm doing ministry stuff and business stuff, the girls can tell you, I'll just be throwing stuff at the wall. I'm like, I'm motivated to do this today. Let's, let's try this. In fact, the Inner Circle is one of those very things. We were like, let's try this. And here we are close to a couple thousand women in there. And this was me going, I think I'm supposed to plant a seed. Did I know what I was doing with the membership? Nope. Did I know what I was doing with going live? Nope. Did I know what I was doing with a lot of the things that I have going on? Nope. But let me tell you something, YouTube is good fertilizer. Coaches are wonderful inputs. Uh, wonderful people who love me and pray for me are good nurturers, but I still have to show up and learn my soil. But here's the great thing: the more I show up to plant seed in my soil consistently with a celebrative attitude, pulling up what I see when it's ready for me, the more I show up and do that, I learned the rhythm. I learn my playing field. I learn my personality. I learn my passion. I learn my playbook. I learn about the problems that God wants me to solve, the projects that he wants me to embark upon, and the solutions, the, the, the pathways that he wants me to provide for other people, for me and for others. And I only learn that when I show up and till my soil.. And when I go to Home Depot or I go to the gardener, the nursery, and I tell them about my soil, they say, well, you might try a little bit of this, or you might try a little bit of this, or you might try a little bit— here's some things you can try. Because they don't have my soil. Nobody has your secret. Nobody has your recipe. Nobody has it. You want to know why? Because it's your soil. So you have to show up and plant certain things that you know are right. You know you need to get an education. You know you need to study God's word. You know you need to pray with your kids. You know you need to honor your husband. You know you need to get to work on time. You know you need to put down that french fry— put down those french fries. You know you need to do some things. Those are your seeds. But your rhythm and how you move through your field will be determined by your soil. And the more you show up for your life The better you will get at tilling your soil, and people will say, how in the world have you grown such a great garden? How in the world have you experienced such a great marriage? How in the world did you have such a great career? How in the world have you been faithful in your ministry, in your neighborhood, or at your church for 30 years? How in the world have you memorized so much scripture? How in the world have you been so positive for so long? Or kept your weight off long-term? How in the world have you been able to have such great success in this area of your life? And you're gonna tell them the same thing I'm telling you, because y'all, there's nothing new under the sun, and Google tells us all the things. You're gonna tell them, well, here's what worked for me. I'm gonna give them some ideas, but the bottom line is you're gonna say, and then this is what I did consistently, and I stopped treating myself like I was my enemy. I started treating myself like I was my own best friend. I started celebrating my wins, and then I started recognizing when something was done and I needed to move into a new season. I started moving forward in my life one step at a time. So the secret of success, my friend, is do you consistently do the hard thing consistently. Show up consistently, even if the weather is bad, consistently. When you don't feel like it, consistently. When people talk about you, consistently. When you're looking across the other fields and see what's going on over there, don't pay attention, consistently. Show up and then celebrate and watch your seed grow. And know that you won't know your soil really well the first time. You're gonna be out there figuring it out, and that's okay. In hindsight, everything's clear. 20/20 gives you great vision, but when you're moving forward, you just do what you can with the seed that's in your hand. I think I just rhymed again. Anyway, you all, I hope this has blessed you. Inner Circle, I will see you next Monday, just us. If you would like to have more information about me or the Inner Circle, go to chrystalevanshurst.com/innercircle. I would love to have you join us. Today is the last day. You have to sign up for the coaching level or above to join us for any of our pathways, to join us for our, uh, our Inner Circle only event, to join us for our 21 Days to Simplifying, to have access to me and my team, to have great community, and to invest in you. We'd love to see you in You have everything that you need to live the life that God has planned for you to live. And when you do the small things, planting them in the soil of your life, here's what I believe. In fact, here's what I know to be true. You will find success. The Bible says, "Seek and you will find." He didn't say, "Know the answers and you will find." He didn't say, "Be the best and you will find." He said, "Show up and seek." And if you do what you can with what you have in your hand, That's exactly what you're doing. All right, y'all, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. That way you'll know whenever I do anything else. Subscribe to my Facebook page or follow me on my Facebook page, but better yet, make sure you're on my email list and then that covers all your bases. I love you with my life. Y'all have a great day. Get to work now. Talk to you later. Bye. That's what I do to my kids. They're like, Mom, stop. They hate it when I do that, and I like to make them mad. That's what parents do.