What It Means to Be Crafted to Thrive

Welcome to She's Crafted to Thrive. I'm your host Nikita Williams, and this show is for all the ladies who are making and creating things that they love. You will hear conversations about the real everyday struggles of juggling life and business while trying to maintain passion and harmony. As women, we have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here where you'll see that you're not alone. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection. Fear and negative Thoughts and challenges are all a part of the journey, and on this podcast you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business that thrives. On this episode of She's Crafted to Thrive, you guys, I am of course doing another solo cast, and I am going to keep this sweet and to the point. Can you believe this, you guys? It has been a year since I started She's Crafted to Thrive, and I thought it was super appropriate that this episode talk all about what it actually means to be crafted to thrive. Like, what does that mean? I've had my husband ask me that over and over again multiple times, and so I thought I'd just do an episode on this because I'm super excited. If you're following me on the IG and the FB, you definitely want to check me out in August, um, especially mid-August, because I am going to be doing amazing giveaways and prizes and Excuse the noise, you guys. It has been thunderstorming in the evening, and this week has been cray cray for me and my family. We are getting ready to move cross-state. We're moving back to Atlanta to home, and we are closing in a week or so from now. And if whenever you're listening to this, we either have closed or we haven't, but we are officially ready to start that process of moving. And we all know how that can be all amongst this amazing accomplishment, I think, of doing this podcast show for a year. I can't believe it kind of snuck up on me because when I initially started the show, I wasn't really expecting for it to be such a thing, but I enjoyed it so much and I wanted to keep doing it. I continued to connect with so many women, and then I got so much good feedback from all of you guys who are my listeners of how inspiring and wonderful these tips and these journeys are of all these amazing women. So I'm going to back to the point of what does Crafted to Thrive mean. Okay, so Crafted to Thrive, really? So I end every episode with, yes, you are Crafted to Thrive, and I want you guys to be very clear on what that means. So what do I mean by this Crafted to Thrive? If we just break down the word crafted and think about that for a second, um, when someone makes something, um, or uniquely creates, um, a piece of jewelry or a scent in a candle or a lotion or a body scrub or a beautiful watercolor piece or captures a beautifully crafted moment in photography, um, whether it's building or making a beautiful shawl with your yarn, knitting or crocheting, whether it's creating a beautiful dessert or dinner Whatever the case may be, we know that you took time. You had to research. You probably had to get all the different tools. You may have had to test things here and there to see how it works and all that kind of thing. And then finally, when it gets to the end or finished product, you, you step back and you look at it and it's a beautifully crafted pound cake or a beautifully crafted art piece for your wall, or it's a beautifully crafted blanket that you can have at the end of your bed, or it's a beautifully captured moment that is now hanging in your client's wall of your engagement session, or whatever it is. Once you've gone and done all the work, all the prep, all the sweat, all the tears, all of the things,, and then you step back and look at that and you're like, man, that is beautiful, right? Man, I'm so happy. Your clients are excited. Your family wants to jump in and eat. They want to tell their friends about their engagement shoot. They want to, you know, buy or like, please make me that blanket. Whatever the case may be, it took you time. You had to think about the composition and you had to think about the color and the textures and all of those things. So imagine what it was like for God to create us. I mean, like, seriously, it kind of mind-boggles my mind, as you know, in general, just thinking about that. But that is why I truly believe that as humans, we are uniquely crafted to thrive. Um, and there's some things that obviously I think that allows us to thrive better. One of those things I believe is understanding our purpose in this world, in this life. But I also think that paying attention to, um, ways that you can give of your uniquely beautiful gifts to other people and serving others, and then also having a good, modest self-respect for yourself, allows this whole beautiful thing to be able to thrive, right? This human body that we have, this this, this ability to live and to grow and to learn and to thrive. And that is such a beautiful gift, you guys. You just— I don't think we understand that. And I think I appreciate it even more and more. I always tell Maurice, and I'm sure I've said in the show before, that despite being imperfect in this world that we live in right now, how is it possible that we haven't all just, just died over yet, right? I mean, we have seen women who have gone through cancer and breast cancer, and as the years go on, we see more and more chronic illnesses affecting us in different ways. And yet we are still doing things and moving forward and finding different ways to shift and to work and to— and just to thrive. Right. And I think that it is a beautiful thing. But I think what happens along the way is that the negativity, the bad things, not understanding what our real purpose is in life, not understanding that we have to be self-sacrificing in a lot of different ways, but also have self-love and self-respect for ourselves in order to really thrive as women. I think it's a balance of all of those things that sometimes we lose, lose sight that we are uniquely crafted to thrive as women. We are multifaceted, you guys. We have the ability to create humans, um, whether you are now or will later in the future when we have perfect bodies, whether you are dealing with a chronic illness like me, even with this negative not so great things, we are still able to accomplish a lot because our bodies are that strong. Um, you know, you guys know I'm a spiritual person. You guys know I love my God Jehovah. You guys know all this, right? So when I talk about it, I get really revved up and really excited because here's the thing. We, you know, people look at the Bible and think that, you know, we were created to serve men, all that kind of stuff, and That's not the case. There's so many, so many different things. I'm not going to go way into that. But I do want to bring out this point is that we were created to be helpers. And also, helpers is not a bad thing. Like, I don't get why helpers is a bad thing in this world. Like, we also have to be able to help ourselves in order to help others. So first, it starts off with self-respect. Self-love and understanding that we have to take care of ourselves. We have to have self-care. We have to say no sometimes to people and to things. And sometimes we have to say no to ourselves when it comes to different things that we're doing in order to make room to be able to be better, to serve our own purposes and sharing what we need to share with others, all of that jazz. But as helpers, we are not just helping, you know, you know, make food. We are able to build strong communities and lift people up. Like, how much joy is there in lifting people up? I don't know if you've ever been around someone who's just been really down and you've been able to be there to help them to get through it. That's what we as women are capable of doing. And I love that about us. We are so many ways. We are able to do so many things. But the negative and the fear and just the day to day of living in this world with all the things, right, can bring us down. And so I just wanted you guys to know that no matter what's happening in your life, no matter what's going on, to take a moment, reflect on the beautiful gift that we all have, whether you're a man or a woman. We all have the beautiful gift to be living right now in this moment, especially if you're listening to the show this second. I want you to think about this, that you are alive and you're thinking about what you have. You have breath and air in your heart and your soul and your lungs. You have— you are living, you are breathing right now. And that is a gift that is truly unique. You know, it's one of those things that I've come to really appreciate that as humans, in general, we can thrive in multiple scenarios, right? So I think about Florida. My husband is like super bittersweet about us leaving Florida. And one of the reasons why he's bittersweet is because there aren't mango trees in Georgia, right? And he's trying to figure out a way for this to be possible, right? Like, how can he grow a mango tree in the backyard of our little wooded area in Georgia. And I keep cracking up at him like, well, mango trees are a tropical plant. Like, you have to do extra, extra, extra, extra, extra hard work in order to possibly have a relatively good crop, if you will, of mangoes in Georgia because it is not a tropical, like, hot, humid like all around, like all year round. And it made me start thinking, like, plants and animals and different things, a lot of them are really well in the area. They do really well in the area where they reside, right? So things change in their environment. A lot of things go extinct or they just go non-existent. And that happens with a lot of other things out there as far as creation is concerned. However, Humans are very different. You can put me, who loves the heat, into New York— which, mind you, I don't want to move to New York— in the freezing cold, and I will over time grow accustomed. I may not love it, but I can thrive there. It's kind of like our situations in life. I just think about sometimes it takes us a little time to work through the nooks and crannies of whatever is going on in our life, especially if it's a huge change, whether it's, you know, you're changing jobs or family situations are changing, whether it's your health, whatever the case may be. Sometimes we might feel like, oh my gosh, I'm never going to get through this. And then you look at it like a year or two or three years later and you're like, oh my goodness, look at how far I've come. That's the beauty of being humans. That's the beauty of being uniquely crafted. And that is what I truly believe that hearing these stories from all these different women in their business and in their life, in the sense that you can get that no matter what challenges you are experiencing, you are not alone, that whatever situation you're going through that's negative is temporary, and that there are tools and, um, things that you can do in order to continue to grow and move forward. There's a community of people there to support you, and that is what Crafted to Thrive is all about. And specifically for your business, you can move it around. You can adjust your business. You can shift your business around in order to really function in the best way that serves your life and your purpose of what you're trying to accomplish. And so that is why I always end the show with, yes, you are crafted to thrive, because it's a reminder, because I truly believe it's true. But we just need to be reminded. And that's why it's She's Crafted to Thrive because personally I think women are just like the bomb.com. I love men, obviously, I love all people, but this is really a show for women who are struggling with self-confidence, who are struggling with what to do next, or struggling with staying consistent, or struggling with dealing with a chronic illness, or struggling— just struggling with things. And I just think sometimes we need constant reminders and really inspiring stories and how-tos in order to see that we are on a path that could lead to wonderful things. So anyway, that's it for this show. Next week we'll have a chat with Christy from VA or Coffee with Christy or VA for a Day. Be sure to check that out if you're looking about— if you're looking into becoming a virtual assistant, or you're wondering how to best serve or start your clients or refresh your virtual assistant business, that is what this is called. Or if you're looking to hire one, this will kind of give you an idea of some things just to keep in mind while you're working with them. So that is it. And yes, I'm going to end this episode like I end every episode, but before I end it, I want you to guys just definitely be sure you're following me on Instagram and Facebook because I am going to be doing some giveaways, which are— I'm super excited because like most of the girls that have been on the show are giving things away, you guys, giving things away, which is amazing. That just proves a testament to how wonderful these ladies are and how giving and sharing they are. So be sure to be on my email list because they— you guys will definitely know firsthand when the giveaway starts. And if you're on my email list, you're getting an extra entry just because you're on the email list. So just know that. Okay. And thirdly, I don't know if I'm on thirdly or fourthly or whatever, because I'm just like really going super fast right now. But whatever the case may be, I want you guys to know that I just really appreciate you guys listening and sharing this show with your friends and your girlfriends and your family and everything. I can— I will continue to do this as long as I think I'll be able to do it. Some new things are happening with Crafted to Thrive, so be sure to stay tuned and listen in. But in the meantime, be sure to go to sheescrafted.com to like our posts, leave me comments or questions, and be sure to leave a review on iTunes. And that's it. And just remember, you guys, you are crafted to thrive.