If you ever thought that something was just way too big of a goal, that you just couldn't get there like you thought, is it even worth starting to try because there's so much I don't know, and I just don't know what to do first. I get this stress paralyzation and I'm just kind of, well, stuck here not making any progress and not really feeling very fulfilled. But it is what it is. And then I go to sleep, wake up tomorrow hoping for something different, and the next thing you know, I've repeated that, and I've never gotten anywhere else. If that's you, I know that that's how we as humans are, right? I know that that's how it is.
I have been there, too, and I am there in other areas of my life, but I am going to share with you an area that I am actually successful in as far as this goes. That is my podcast! So, thank you, thank you, thank you. If you are a regular listener, thank you so much because you have been a help in what I'm about to share with you. We are about to have 200,000 downloads. 200,000 downloads! It sounds like a big number, and it is a big thing that I am thrilled that God has allowed to take place. And yet, I didn't do that. God did that, and yes, I did something, but I didn't do 200,000 downloads. I picked up my phone and having a voice recorder and speaking into it consistently. That's all I did. Then after I did that, I put in the music at the beginning or put in the notes and put it into the podcast host. After I did that, I let my assistant have the information so she could do a blog post. These are things that I just did consistently over time, one thing at a time, that led to the 200,000.
Now that's been an amazing journey, but it started with me at some point going, oh, I think God gave me a little bit of a feeling that I should podcast. It was April of the pandemic, so about four years ago, and I went, let's purchase this course and I'll take it. This was somebody I trusted who I was already doing business coaching with in another area, and I was like, okay, let's try this. So, I purchased his course and then with nothing else to do during the pandemic, I went ahead and completed the course and then decided, hey, maybe I should buy a microphone.
Okay, and how do I get this tech set up? Then this microphone. Oh, my goodness. I'm kind of scared to record. I shared this yesterday in the membership community about how it's this one thing done consistently, but when I first started, I was terrified to even record just sitting in my dining room. I remember sitting on my dining room carpet so that I would have good acoustics and trying this out, and I wasn't even going to share it anywhere. I was so nervous. I was like, oh, I could just play around with this, kind of have this feel good and try to just have fun, like when I was a kid with a microphone. But somehow being an adult, considering putting my thoughts and my voice out there didn't feel quite as light and fun as a kid who just, oh, a microphone. Let me try and sing, or, you know, do one of those things where you kind of make loud echo noises into the microphone, see how loud it can get. Those were things that I used to do, but when I realized that this would be used for a purpose and that it would go out there and the people, whether I knew them or didn't know them, might hear me. It made the stakes a lot higher, or so it seemed. In reality, yes, I've gotten feedback from putting these out there. But in reality, where I record these is usually alone, most of the time alone with my phone. And that's nothing scary. It's simply a phone and myself, and I think, and I talk, and I believe the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding me.
That's what I desire That's how I want to help you. But that's it; it's not a big deal thing. I will tell you that no matter who has built anything of any substance, they've done it one step at a time. Now, as they've done it, they may have hired other people or asked other people to do things one step at a time, and then they've built systems and they've leveraged things. That happens. But in reality, all we have is the present moment and we have the one step that we are taking consistently that is going to give us the biggest results.
Last week, I repeated this story three different times with three different of my private counseling clients, and these are people with different circumstances, but it was applicable for all three of them because we were talking about how this whole big broad picture of what they're trying to achieve really comes down to what is the thing right now that you will do consistently until it pays off and maybe add to as well.
So, what I started doing consistently was recording the podcast and putting it up weekly. Regularly. I actually did it more often than that because I was so abysmal at doing it weekly. I felt God was saying to do it daily, so for a while I put it up daily because I needed to get in the habits, and I wanted to obey God. So that's what I did. That consistency made it easier to dial back when it was time to do that. But I want you to know that it was something that I had to struggle with.
First, I had to struggle with the insecurity. Then, I had to struggle with the tech and the launch plan. Then, I had to struggle with the consistency. Then, I had to struggle with what now, what next, and how to? I just want to share with you that the whole big picture of where things are right now, four years later, I never thought I'd be here in four years talking to hundreds of people with each episode and having people tell me, thank you for doing what you're doing and how it's helped them in life in some way and also hearing about what God's doing in people's lives.
Once again, all because I put an app on my phone (because I gave up the actual physical microphone, in case you're wondering, long ago). I just use this app on my phone because I like to record while I'm thinking and, in my car, in my quiet space. That's what I do most of the time. That's how I'm consistent. It's the same thing. It's one small thing that will, over time, culminate in a new history. I wasn't consistent until I was.
Now I'm a consistent podcaster. When you look back on what you've done, one step at a time with consistency and what that leads to, you will see the power of one thing at a time. It's how I got my master's degree. One course at a time. I really did it. I stretched it out, made a two-year program, four years, because I was raising my kids who were very young at the time, and I was homeschooling while my husband worked. That's what I did. The kids went to school and then when I had time I went to school. So, one course at a time until eventually I graduated. Then it was 1 hour towards practicum or internship, well before graduation, 1 hour towards practicum and internship at a time. After graduation, 1 hour towards some extra pay for a stay-at-home mom. After that happened for a while, then it was 1 hour towards supervised licensure by having supervision. So, it was 3000 hours for supervision. Everything that got me to this point was painstakingly one step at a time. You might think, why would you want to take all of those steps? Because frankly, I am still building. I barely crack the starting line on what I believe God has for mental health for Christian women.
Yet, it is so far along from what I could have imagined. That's how God is. He's got a lot of good stuff for you that you can't even think or imagine, and yet He has it there and He will show you, but He may not show you the whole big picture with every single little step at a time. That's probably good, because if I had known how much work was going to go into everything for building a podcast, content membership, community, getting coaching, learning how to continue to grow and develop the business aspect of things, I may have just said, Lord, thank you so much for thinking of me, but I'm not sure that I have enough energy and I'm kind of tired. I know you love me. Anyhow, peace out, right? And that's not exactly going to get anywhere, especially when there are people that need you. Right? People need you. It's not like I thought that, oh, people need to hear my voice. I thought, everybody will be fine. The world will go on just fine. But God said, you're the one that I'm asking to do this piece of helping my people, and you're the one that I am trusting with this. Will you be obedient? Will you do it? And I said yes to the call. And He's working it. He's doing it. I'm not responsible for the outcome. I'm responsible for my stewardship of what He's called me to do.
So, whatever that is, that seems too big for you to do on your own, that's okay. God is there with you. Whatever steps you need to take, even if you don't feel equipped or they make you nervous or they're not something that you think really matters, God's directing you. It's worth it. Take that step. Just show up with the one thing God's entrusting to your care right now and then repeat as often as necessary until you get the result or until you build onto that. Whatever God's leading, He can be trusted. When we all do that in our own uniquely gifted ways, we help everyone in the kingdom of God.
We get fulfilled because we're doing what God uniquely made us to be and do, to serve Him and to help others. And you know what? There is so much joy and peace that comes from that. There are others who benefit because of it. I believe it makes God smile. So please don't discount yourself like I almost discounted myself. Please realize that what you have to offer somebody is likely praying for. They are likely out there praying for an answer to something that God has provided you as the provision of that answer for. That's His provision. His plan is through you to use what He's given you, what he's entrusted to you, and to steward it well.
So what's that thing you need to steward? Well, today? Is it your parenting? Is it your job? Is it your internship or your coursework at school? Whatever it is, God, if He's asking you, to steward it, He believes it's important and he's given you that call and only you can fulfill it the way that He has made for you to fulfill it.
Raw Podcast Episode Transcript -
Welcome, today we're talking about strong feelings strong feelings so many times Christian women are frayed to have their own strong feelings it's almost like everybody else in the world gets to think and feel the way that they think and feel but if we have strong feelings somehow we're sinning or somehow we're out of line or we shouldn't do that or we silence ourselves or we have a lot of shit around it and a lot of guilt or a lot of condemnation or a lot of putting ourselves down those kinds of things and I'm here today to tell you that strong feelings remind you actually because I've said this before but sometimes we need to be reminded of these truths strong feelings are not saying having strong feelings simply means that we are picking up on some thing That is not right something bothersome whether that's within ourselves or from others or from our environment we're picking up on something and it is impacting us with strong feelings and they're strong because they're trying to get our awareness that somethings up and so if you have that issue where you feel guilty for having strong feelings or for having a point of you I want to just challenge you to think about strong feelings as simply Physiological responses just like you know your temperature rises when you have a fever it's not saying that your temperature rises it's there to help you fight off the germs the fever helps fight off the germs the fever doesn't feel good the fever is intense the fever might make you sweat There are many different feelings some of them are for making us aware that we don't have enough space carved out for ourselves and we need more time to just take some time to regroup carving more time of space in our day so that we don't go to rage and anger with our kids are with our families Some of them are there because somebody did something really horrible to us and we shouldn't allow it it's OK in our anger do not sin right and when we are weak he is strong Jesus wept Jesus overturn the tables right feelings are not sin How we act with those feelings can be said or not Jesus I'm sure he did not sing because he was perfect so even turning over the tables I don't know that I'd be so bold to do that all the time but There are certain situations that might call for certain things as long as they're not sin and you are taking control of these responses this physiological feelings and deciding what they're telling you what infection so to speak they're trying to fight off for you Then you can decide what's needed what's appropriate the feelings are not a problem welcome them except them trust them as advisers That are telling you something needs to be looked at further don't let them overtake you such that they guide everything you do or lead you to negative choices or sin But view them as welcome indicators that help you regulate what you're doing what you're feeling what you're needing what you want to take action on these are the things that feelings are here to help us to they let us know when boundaries have been crossed they let us know when we've been sent against they let us know when we need to protect somebody else they let us know when we have to set boundaries when we have to say no I don't like this because And then figure out why figure out what it is that this feeling is responding to from your environment or from within you Notice what's happening and when you can realize why that's happening why did I just get this feeling right here like I remember this one conversation I had one time where somebody acted like they were having a nice conversation with me and they just slipped in something that was incredibly rude insulting and presumptuous and totally not me They were kind of questioning the motive of mine and that was not my motive and I got really angry really fast and some might think well why would you get angry if that wasn't your motive I got angry because I was being kind of underhandedly accused of doing something that I was not doing in fact I had gotten really angry because it was the exact opposite I was going to bat for this person and they were thinking that I wasn't going to bed enough for them And yet they have no idea behind the scenes how much I thought to go to bat for them and so in this circumstance I had righteous anger because I was being told that I was something I wasn't or that I was doing something I wasn't doing and that ticked me off because I wasn't and you know I could cave and go OK maybe I did they think so so no don't do that don't do that know yourself It What It doesn't mean you can't be wrong sometimes and apologize if you are but if you really don't suspect you're wrong somewhere start paying attention to that I'm not talking about false pride or anything like that but I'm talking about truth there are things that we can righteously get angry about and stand against and go no that is not OK with me that is not who I am that is not what I've done that is not OK with me I don't like how you're treating this person I don't like how you're treating me I need you to stop I need to get out of here whatever that sense of emotions are I know I'm talking more in the anger here and what to do with it and in that situation I said that makes me Angry That is not at all what I've been trying to do here and the person backpedaling so I'll never say that again I was like good and I do you know graciously gave them away to get out of this conversation but I would rather not ever have to have a confrontive experience I mean let's just be real ass not fun although some people thrive on that because they feel powerful that way I like to get along with everybody because I like to treat people fair and I like to believe they'll treat me fairly Is your friend says or that your spouses or that your kids do it may be time to speak up not deny the feelings not put them down not take blame for something that isn't yours if it is yours of course that's different you make amends repent and change and ask for forgiveness and all of that but I'm talking about those things that you're not doing anything wrong you're just having intense feelings and maybe somebody's wronged you it is totally OK To validate those feelings and go hey this is an indicator that somethings not OK with me here and then to do something about it set a boundary have that conversation a gentle answer turns away wrath it doesn't have to be a big deal a lot of people think that intense feelings mean arguments and fights They don't need to they can be handled with when this happened I feel this way Would Would you help me buy whatever or I'd really appreciate your help with this or if you could not say that that way that would mean a lot to me It depends on the situation of course but finding what you really need that your feelings are trying to tell you is OK it's OK to trust that you can have a self who has feelings and sometimes intense feelings and they're there is your friends To help you realize when something is needed or something is wrong So that you can tend to them so that you can live life more fully and informed and intentionally feelings are friends unless they take you into sin unless they get bottled down inside and don't get adequately addressed I often think though those Christian women we take our feelings and think that we need to tamp them down to be nice to be acceptable to not sin we can have our feelings and choose what to do with them and that choosing what to do with them is not sad songs we choose wise things to speak the truth and love a gentle answer turns away wrath Trust in the lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding those are the ways to deal with feelings for affectively I hope that encourages you and empowers you today take care.
