CA Sisterhood Sessions (00:01)
Welcome back to Challenge Accepted Sisterhood Sessions. I am your host, Samone, and I am so glad that you decided to tune in today.

Today, I just came to check on you. Yes, you.

But I need you to do me a favor. Yes. I need you to put that down.

I need you to put it down. I need you to put down fear, weary, frustration, unworthiness, heaviness, burdens. I need you to lay those down. It's okay. Put it down. You can release it.

It is okay. I need you to put it down because you made it this far.

Congratulations. You didn't give up. You didn't throw in the towel. You didn't turn around and walk back the other direction. You stuck with it.

you continued on the journey. I need you to put it down because somebody is watching your journey and they are building their faith based off of how you respond. Yeah.

Someone's watching how you deal with the things that unfold before you. They're watching how your temperament is when things don't necessarily go your way.

They're paying attention, and it may be from afar, but they're paying attention to your feedback, to every situation that you are faced with. They're paying attention and they're taking notes. Someone's continuing on their journey because you made the decision to keep walking forward.

Someone is being empowered and encouraged to continue climbing the ladder.

continuing to show up for others because they watched you square your shoulders. They watched you get knocked down and get back up. They've watched you continue to take responsibility and be accountable in situations. They've watched how you have humbly and gracefully have dealt with and navigated tough times or have

navigated challenging situations or have or have figured out how to overcome frustrating situation or you have figured out how to overcome obstacles. When things aren't favorable you find a way.

to find joy, you find a way to find something good in the moment. And they're watching, and they're taking notes. They're watching every video that you post. They are watching every time you exit your home.

and come into society. They're watching how you interact with others. They're watching you.

You have to put it down because somebody is waiting to hear your testimony. Yeah, yeah. Somebody is waiting and they're right on the edge of their breakthrough moment.

They're right on the edge of their yes moment. They're right on the edge of walking into their purpose. And they're waiting to hear your story. They're waiting to hear how you have overcome. They're waiting to hear why you didn't turn back. They're waiting to hear you unpack.

the start of your journey and everything in between and how it got you to this moment. They're waiting to be able to hear the testimony that you possess. Yeah.

If you haven't considered sharing your journey this far, I challenge you to begin to write it down.

Even those parts where you are unsure how others are going to receive it, write those down too. The beauty about your journey and your story and your walk is you get to tell it on your terms. You get to tell it when you're ready. You get to tell it when you have realized that there are some wins along the way.

You get to tell it when you realize that you have been forgiven, that you have received the grace, and that you are still here. You get to tell that story and that testimony when you become comfortable with the way your journey looks. And yes, yes, it is going to look different from everybody else.

It is not going to be identical. It may be similar in nature, but it's not going to be identical. And it is for good reason, because the people that your story is going to help heal, help deliver, help uplift, help bring to the realization that they possess everything that they need to continue going.

My story may not help those individuals, but your story will. Your journey and your testimony, yeah, it will. So you must, you must, must, must, put down the things that are not beneficial to the testimony. Put down the things that you carry around like an anchor.

It makes no sense in carrying it when you're not required to do so. Yeah, it's not a requirement to walk around with your head bowed down low. It's not a requirement to walk around in unworthiness. It's not a requirement for you to kick yourself when things don't go picture perfect. That's not a requirement. It's just something that we have grown accustomed to doing. It's something that we have watched.

our ancestors do it is something that we have watched the women around us do. It is something that we have become familiar with as a society and as women in our society. But it's not a requirement. It's not.

Try this on. Yeah, try this on. I'm gonna give you some other options. Try on peace today. Yeah.

to center yourself and where you are with the reality of knowing that you are here, you have life, you have your being, and that whatever, yeah, whatever you decide to do next,

it rests in your hands.

but you have to do something. Yeah, you have to do something. Maybe you want to try a little meditation. Meditating on the word of God.

focusing on the beauty of forgiveness and faithfulness and grace and joy and peace and wholeness and righteousness to meditate on those things so that your spirit is full of the true intentions of who we are in our existence. That we are able to rest assure

that we are to experience the goodness of God while we are here in the earth. That when the Bible says, as it is in heaven, so shall it be in the earth, that we really understand that a life of misery

is not the badge of honor or the flex that people say that it is or the flex that some people want us to believe that it is because there's no misery in heaven.

There's no misery there. And so if there is no misery there, why do we believe that we have to carry this burden or this weight of being something that others have told us we are?

being something that others have said that we are.

How about we stand in the wins How about we embrace the wins How about we recognize that we are capable, that we are designed for this moment, that we were handcrafted and picked?

for this existence? Yeah, like it's not by mistake.

that you were born in this time frame. It's not by mistake or happenstance that you were born into your family or you went to that school or you had that job or that career or that you were able to walk through certain experiences in your life. It's not by happenstance.

It was intentional. It was intentional, whether it was to grow you, whether it was to create a voice of advocacy, whether it was to create something that didn't exist, whether it was to share experiences and connectivity.

whether it was to be present and whole, whether it was to find our full authentic selves and weighing what society continues to push to us in our subconscious, being able to separate.

the things that are an opinion, from the things that are fact, to the things that are a requirement of how you want to experience life. And the beauty.

of everyone's journey being different and only being similar is that when you are going through a win, somebody may be going through growth, but they are able to look at your win and see you standing in your win and say that, ⁓ I know it's close. I know that my time is coming. I can see it because it's ahead of me.

I can see it because it's right in front of me. I can see it because I'm watching my sister celebrate. I'm watching my friends celebrate. I'm watching family members and relatives celebrate and prosper and grow and be successful in their own right, by their own definitions We're watching it unfold before our eyes. And I know, I know.

that when I obtain the growth, and when I walk through on the other side there is peace and joy and fulfillment of purpose. comfortable

with our willingness to keep going. Yeah, try it on.

Because if you haven't given up now, there's no need to start.

You've come too far to start quitting now. You've come too far to give up. You've come too far to let go. You've come too far to throw that idea in the trash. You've come too far to not take the next test. You've come too far not to put the deposit on the rental property. You've come too far to not invest in that business. You've come too far not to build your networking skills or capability. You've come too far.

and your willingness to continue to move forward with purpose, it's meaningful.

It's meaningful not just for you as the individual who is experiencing it and walking through it. It is meaningful to our society. It is meaningful to those that you come in contact with. It is meaningful to the next generation that they know that they come from a lineage and a bloodline that has the capacity to keep going, that they come from

a strong, beautiful ancestry that continues to birth goodness. That they come from a lineage that is blessed. That they come from a lineage that is problem solving.

that they come from a lineage that could figure out and was able to think beyond the moment. Our capacity to keep going is our ability to think beyond the moment, to think beyond how the emotional weight impacts us.

is to think beyond any lack or any perception of lack.

It is to move beyond and transition ourselves from it has always been this way. I watched my mother respond this way. I watched my sisters and my aunts respond this way. So I must respond this way. It is having the courage to break beyond what has been the condition of what we call normal or what we have accepted as being normal.

You must be willing to be comfortable with continuing to move forward. Yeah, you have to. Here's some food for thought.

It was necessary.

It was necessary for your journey. It was necessary for your growth. Putting down the things that offer you no path forward.

putting down the things that are just a weight, dead weight, putting down the things that are just anchoring us to an experience or to our past, putting down the weight of you will never be, you could never become, you could, putting down the weight.

of the thought processes that we have that we discount ourselves, putting those things down is necessary for the journey. Yeah, because somebody is going to cross your path along the way. Somebody is going to cross your path and they're going to need to hear your story. They're going to ask you about your story.

They're going to say, I see you walking around here with a smile on your face. And it might just be me, but how did you become so positive? How did you become so uplifting? How did you become who you are today? Somebody's going to ask you. And ask yourself, what will your response be?

When somebody comes up to you and they are feeling heavy, but you've overcome, but they are feeling heavy, and they come to you and you are watching them kick themselves in real time, you're watching them discredit everything that they have invested in themselves.

You're watching them discredit their ability. You're watching them discredit the things that have worked. You're watching them discredit it in real time. What would your response be?

When someone crosses your path and they need a little uplift, are you ready? Are you prepared? Do you have something positive to say about the journey? Or are you just going to be an additional weight that they carry as evidence that they must continue in how it has always been?

Are you going to be the additional anchor in their journey and in their story? Or are you going to show them that there is another way? Because there is. There is another way.

And nothing requires us to stay where we are. Nothing requires us to continue our lives and not expand our understanding, not expand our ability or capacity to learn. Nothing requires us to just go on through life in a mundane way, just walking through and breathing air.

We don't have to just be a shell of an existence. You can be creative. You can have those ideas and try those ideas. And if nothing else, be able to say, I tried it.

It was fun, I liked this, I learned this about myself. I figured out I was good at this. I learned that this is gonna require me to do a little additional training. I came to the realization that, hmm.

It was fun, but now I see something else. Now I see a new opportunity, and I'm going to take this path. I'm going to readjust my plan. I'm going to reposition myself on my journey so that I can go in this direction, because I've done these things.

I've experienced these things and they were good for the moment. I have to say, like, as I've gone through my journey, I was an individual who believed that I was always going to be.

the one who galvanized people, who was always bringing people together

And I didn't realize that as I was growing, so did my purpose.

And as I was growing, so did my desires, responsibilities, and the things that I enjoyed. They evolved with every moment of growth I evolved. But a piece of me wanted to continue to hold on to what I was good at when I was growing. It wanted to hold on to

the things that I was comfortable with doing and it didn't really require any effort on my end because I was good at it. And I'm still pretty good at it. But I didn't understand that

Growth required me to step outside of myself. It required me to step outside of comfort. It required me to step outside of my normal practice and routine. That growth required me to put myself in a position of exposure. That it required me to do something that I would have never done.

And in those moments, It was easier to battle with the things that were contrary to the growth process. It was easier to hold on to who I have always been or who I had always been.

and fight to stay relevant in that space versus growing to an unknown space an unknown moment and opportunity with an unknown outcome. That required me to just keep going. And I am still going.

I'm still going, I'm still growing, I'm still learning, I am still.

embracing moments of peace, embracing moments of success, embracing moments of being confident in my ability, being okay with how my life has transitioned, being okay with the space that I am in right now, understanding that it looks different and it may seem foreign to me.

And it may be a space that I have never occupied before, but it is necessary for my journey. It is necessary for where God wants me to be. It is necessary for the people that are going to cross my path.

It is necessary for my existence. It is necessary for ⁓ our lineage. is necessary for the generations that are going to come after me. It is necessary.

It's necessary. And only you know what your journey looks like. And only you know what the thing is that you're holding onto because it makes you important, and it makes you relevant, and it doesn't require any effort on your part. It doesn't require any work that you were just naturally good at it. And that thing, that comfortability, that...

just being okay and existing with where you are, maybe that's the anchor. And in this moment and in this time, I am here to challenge you to take the next step. Yeah. Take the next step.

It's OK. It's going to feel foreign. It's going to feel like you are learning how to walk all over again. It is going to feel like you are starting from the bottom, but you are not. It is going to feel like you have a mountain to climb.

But your experiences have prepared you for the moment and have prepared you for the climb and have prepared you to face the obstacles and have positioned you for the moments and opportunities and doors that are going to open because you have challenged yourself to take the next step. That is what I hear today. Take the next step. Yeah.

You've been talking about it for years, planning it for years, analyzing it for years, writing it down on vision boards for years. You have been praying about it for years. You have been tiding to it for years. You have been investing in it for years. Take the next step. It's OK. It's OK.

and it's not going to look like every other place that you have been. And it's not going to be the most comfortable experience. you may not get it right or get it perfect. Let me say that, you may not get it perfect.

But keep going.

You may not.

understand every aspect of it right now. You may not understand every intricate detail of it right now. That's okay. Take the next step. You've planned. You're prepared. You've prayed. You're prepared.

You've fasted, you've tied, you've done all of these things for the investment in it. Now take the next step.

I'm just here. I just came to check on you. That's all I'm doing. I just came to check on you and tell you that it's OK to put some things down so that you are able to take the next step, so that you are not weighted down or that you are a little bit freer to take the next step.

that you have laid down some baggage so that you can take the next step. And you got to leave the baggage there. Yeah, and don't pick it back up. Leave it right there. And it's fine. It doesn't have your name on it anymore. It doesn't. Because you're so in tune and in line and positioned for the next step that that baggage doesn't even matter.

It doesn't matter.

It's so interesting, how people want to grow forward

also want to keep the baggage.

It's not a requirement. You can leave the baggage there. The problem, the worry, the past, the sin, the frustration, the disappointment, the hurt, the envy, the lies, the jealousy, the whatever it is. You can leave that there, and you're not required to drag it along with you like a ball and chain around your ankle.

in every phase of your life. No, you don't have to. You don't have to do that. I don't know who told us that, but you don't have to do that. You don't.

just a little food for thought

I'll just leave you with this.

Be okay with taking the next step in your journey.

Challenge Accepted Sisterhood Sessions (31:04)
You've been listening to another episode of Challenge Accepted Sisterhood Sessions. Follow for more thought-provoking content on social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. You can also follow and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. To be a guest on the podcast, email the host, that's S-A-M-O-N-E, at casisterhoodsessions.com. That is Samone

samone@casisterhoodsessions.com. Thank you for listening and until next time remember this is more than just a sisterhood it's a lifeline.