Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 2 - Episode 21 with Yolanda Gray, Christian Life Coach

Transcript

The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 2 - Episode 21 with Yolanda Gray, Christian Life Coach · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

• 0:00
  Hi, this is Leslie and I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, Why Not Today?
• 0:10
  I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Cain, who often did say, Why Not Today?
• 0:15
  I am based in Reston, Virginia, a planned community right outside of Washington, D.C.
• 0:19
  Thanks for joining us today.
• 0:20
  So I'm excited about my guest today, Yolanda Gray, and we're going to talk about courage
• 0:25
  like we usually do in some of her courage stories, but she is going to share with us
• 0:29
  some training on the one word, which I talked about last year, but I figured I'd get another
• 0:33
  expert on it.
• 0:35
  And I always like to talk about where I met people and the connections.
• 0:40
  And one of my guests that I had on, gosh, over a year ago, Mary Foley, who's a good friend
• 0:44
  of mine, one day we were talking about our podcast and I said, I just feel like I need
• 0:48
  some help and I'm looking for, maybe I need a podcast coach.
• 0:52
  She's like, Are you asking me?
• 0:53
  I'm like, I don't know what I want.
• 0:55
  She goes, I have an idea.
• 0:56
  I've got some other friends who are starting businesses or doing shifts in their career
• 1:01
  and what about if we did a mastermind?
• 1:03
  So that's where I met Yolanda.
• 1:04
  She's in North Carolina and we actually met up in Asheville for a mastermind retreat and
• 1:11
  I guess the end of the summer.
• 1:14
  So that's how I know Yolanda.
• 1:15
  So you just never know who that person is that's going to connect you.
• 1:19
  And I saw the other day you posted that you're doing a one word workshop and so I'm like,
• 1:23
  we need to hear from you.
• 1:24
  So why don't you do a quick introduction, let everybody know who you are, a little bit
• 1:29
  about you and a quick fact and then we'll kind of get into the courage part and the
• 1:32
  one word obviously.
• 1:34
  Okay.
• 1:35
  Well, thank you so much for having me and yes, I am Yolanda Gray.
• 1:41
  I'm a certified life coach and I'm on a mission right now.
• 1:45
  I consider the work that I do missionary work for the Christian woman who's in midlife and
• 1:51
  beyond who is wondering like, what's next for me, you know, and overcome any obstacles
• 1:57
  that have held her back from designing a plan that is in alignment with her heart, God's
• 2:03
  heart and his plan.
• 2:06
  And we work together.
• 2:07
  I work together in different ways.
• 2:10
  But mostly I love to, I love communities.
• 2:13
  So I work a lot in groups and host retreats.
• 2:16
  But I know what keeps women from realizing their full potential in God because I live
• 2:25
  for so long, not realizing mine and it's never ending.
• 2:30
  I'm not done by any stretch of the imagination and it's a lifelong journey, but I've lived
• 2:37
  long enough to be able to, you know, work with women in midlife.
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  Most of my clients are midlife and beyond.
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  They're going in transition, you know, a lot of women right now in midlife are getting
• 2:47
  divorced and finding themselves alone.
• 2:51
  And not that it's so sad for them, but like, how do we, how do, then what's my purpose
• 2:56
  now?
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  How do I go on?
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  They're retiring from work.
• 2:59
  They're, they're caregiving.
• 3:02
  They're, you know, completely different places in life than maybe a 30 or a 40 year old.
• 3:08
  So that, that's usually.
• 3:09
  And that is kind of the niche audience that for this podcast I've found a lot of women
• 3:15
  are like, what's next?
• 3:17
  Yes.
• 3:18
  Really what I am trying to be able to supply and help women with is coaching on what's
• 3:24
  next and you know, between retirement and empty nesting and kids and parents needing
• 3:30
  help and just like, okay, like I think, I don't know if it's a combination of COVID or age
• 3:36
  that we're just kind of women or just looking at life and it's like, what's next?
• 3:41
  Kind of a stir in our soul.
• 3:43
  Like something's different.
• 3:45
  So give us a quick fun fact about you, Yolanda.
• 3:49
  Here's a fun fact.
• 3:50
  Okay.
• 3:53
  I received or I earned, I say my first degree at age 54.
• 4:00
  So I'm a late bloomer.
• 4:02
  I actually at 50, I'm sorry.
• 4:05
  My second degree, my grad degree was at age 60 and it is in the field of human development
• 4:14
  and human relations.
• 4:15
  However, the fun fact is that I worked in a men's prison in a uniform as a prison guard.
• 4:23
  And I like to say that I learned more about human behavior in that environment than, and
• 4:32
  then all the education I ever got.
• 4:34
  I bet.
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  And I feel like it was training.
• 4:38
  It was training for the work I'm doing now.
• 4:41
  It's interesting.
• 4:42
  Yeah.
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  There's nothing that we do in life good and bad that doesn't help us other places.
• 4:48
  Amen.
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  John Maxwell, who's a coach and trainer, he says, you know, if you fall down, get back
• 4:54
  up and pick the lesson up with you.
• 4:56
  Yeah.
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  That's good.
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  Nothing is for granted.
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  Like all the things and especially the things that we go through that think are really bad.
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  Like what good can come out of it?
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  It's always something good.
• 5:05
  Absolutely.
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  You have to get through it to see where it is.
• 5:08
  So what does courage mean to you?
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  So I thought this was a very good question, compelling, because we read a lot about courage.
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  And in the Bible talks a lot about courage.
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  I found so many scriptures that spoke on courage where God was telling somebody to have courage
• 5:26
  or be courageous.
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  And it came to me that courage was that essential, it's the essential element to overcoming fear.
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  A lot of times you hear, feel the fear and do it anyway.
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  But as Christians, we're not to feel the fear.
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  We're to reject the fear and take the gift is a gift of courage.
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  And I can point to a second Timothy 1, 7.
• 5:56
  Yeah, 1, 7 that says, I've not given you a spirit of fear.
• 6:00
  You know, but have a signed mind and power and we have that power.
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  And when we're afraid and have no courage, we stay in yesterday.
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  We stay in our past and we can't move forward.
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  And when we hear, as your question always asks, I love your question.
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  Why not today?
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  We come up with a million questions, a million reasons why not today.
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  Right?
• 6:26
  Wow.
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  So that's, and that's what I thought of.
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  When I thought of, you know, when God says, take courage, it was interesting that word
• 6:34
  take it's like it's a gift.
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  And in Psalm 2714 it says, this is my gift to you, my divine gift of strength to overcome
• 6:44
  fear and then to overcome fear, you take an action.
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  And that ties beautifully into why not today?
• 6:55
  Let's get up.
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  Let's move.
• 6:57
  Yep.
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  Yep.
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  And, you know, we talk on this podcast about big things people have done and starting businesses,
• 7:02
  quitting jobs, all the different things, but sometimes why not today is getting out
• 7:07
  of bed.
• 7:08
  Yeah, absolutely.
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  We're recording this in December.
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  It's a holiday season and it's a hard season for some people because of loss or life or
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  just things that have happened.
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  It's not always cheerful and joyful.
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  And so some days it is literally getting out of bed and, you know, one step in front of
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  the other.
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  So you just never know, you know, what that courage is for somebody.
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  So that's why I really try to encourage people with to be courageous and it doesn't have
• 7:36
  to be big.
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  It can be little.
• 7:38
  Yeah.
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  And interesting, there are, I found about 14 or 15 scriptures that said take courage.
• 7:45
  And then about 14 or 15 scriptures that said be courageous.
• 7:51
  So it is a state of being as we overcome the fear, you know, and yeah, I mean, when I,
• 7:58
  when I looked at that, it was like, oh, just like we can be fearful, we can be courageous.
• 8:04
  Exactly.
• 8:05
  It's interesting.
• 8:06
  I interviewed my brother on our first anniversary episode and he's the only one that said he
• 8:10
  pulled out a dictionary.
• 8:12
  Yeah, no, I, yeah.
• 8:17
  So I know you've done lots of courageous things in your life and we definitely want to talk
• 8:20
  about the one word.
• 8:22
  So but are there things that you've done that have taken courage that you want to share?
• 8:29
  Courageous things.
• 8:30
  I mean, going back to school at 50 something definitely was courageous.
• 8:36
  I think the most courageous thing I believe, and I thought about this for a long time.
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  And like you, we have done many courageous things that we can look back on.
• 8:49
  If you look back on and go, yeah, that took courage.
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  It took courage.
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  I needed to call, I call on God and say, give me the courage, make me brave in this thing.
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  So many things.
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  But the biggest one was reaching out for help.
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  And it sounds so nondescript.
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  It sounds so like, okay, well, because it took courage for me, first I had to admit
• 9:17
  to myself I was, I had, I was in alcoholism.
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  That's one of the biggest ones, but there've been a lot of, a lot of other things that I've
• 9:25
  not let go of.
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  So it's holding onto the shame and the pain of addiction, and I could get it to God and
• 9:34
  ask him to help me.
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  But I didn't realize that what God was doing was pushing me out to ask for help.
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  Have you ever heard the story of the person?
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  I think they're in a storm and they're praying, God help me.
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  And they send somebody in a boat and then they rejected them.
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  I'm waiting for God and prayed again and they sent somebody else and kept sending somebody.
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  And finally God's like, I've sent all these people to you.
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  Yes, yes, yes, exactly.
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  But when we, and this is for most women, when we are hiding, when we're in shame, we, we
• 10:11
  don't want, you know, why not today?
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  Because today I'm feeling better.
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  So I'm not, maybe tomorrow, maybe, you know, when I, because now I'm feeling good.
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  And you know, those are the lies of the enemy that want to keep you stuck in whatever your
• 10:25
  stuckness is.
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  And so I think that reaching out for help, for allowing somebody else to know me and
• 10:32
  to become transparent is probably the most courageous work any of us could do.
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  Yeah.
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  And I, my mom is a giver and she loves to do everything for everybody, but doesn't want
• 10:44
  to ask for help for herself.
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  I often shared with people that do that and, you know, we're all guilty of it.
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  But when you don't ask for help and let somebody else help you, then you're blocking their
• 10:55
  blessings to be able to give back to you.
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  That's good.
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  That's good.
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  We want to help.
• 11:00
  And, you know, we want to be able to support.
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  And you just never know when there's something you ask for help that somebody else needs
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  help with or you actually helps them.
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  And I think that's one thing I've heard repeatedly from people listening to the podcast that they're
• 11:15
  hearing other people's stories and it gives them permission and gives them hope and to
• 11:20
  say, why not?
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  But yeah, asking for help is really hard.
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  And especially when you're down, you know, those are the times you don't need to have
• 11:29
  that tribe of friends that you literally can call at two in the morning if you need somebody.
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  Right.
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  Exactly.
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  And being there for your friends and the people, a good friend of mine this summer, we were
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  talking about getting together and she had a lot going on and she was thinking, you know,
• 11:48
  maybe it's too hard to get together and these are college friends, which we hadn't all seen
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  each other together in years and years.
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  And she said something profound that really stuck with me.
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  She said, another friend years ago was having a big birthday and it took a lot of, took
• 12:01
  money and time and effort to go see her for a birthday, but she asked herself the question,
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  would I spend the money and time and effort to go to her funeral?
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  And I would and I spend the money and effort and time to go see her alive.
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  That is so.
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  That's profound.
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  Yeah.
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  So, yeah, asking for help definitely is a big thing.
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  So the one word, I've done it for many years and we're going to have somebody actually
• 12:30
  on next week that's going to talk about she does some training on beacon and your intent
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  and had never heard the one word.
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  And I guess you can see behind me, joy is behind me.
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  And that was my word before it has been years, several years ago and I often do my word,
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  we paint it for an event and then I actually print out little pictures and put it all over
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  my house to remember my, remember my word.
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  So I know you've done training and things around this.
• 13:01
  So I'd love for you to share a little bit on how you come up with your word.
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  Anything you want to share on the one word?
• 13:10
  Well, yes, I've been, I've been hosting workshops around the word of the year, probably for
• 13:21
  three or maybe four or five years.
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  I went to a retreat in Asheville, actually a conference that was given by a well-known
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  coach and she talked about the word of the year.
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  And then I found out that other people were doing it, this word of the year.
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  And now I mean, we've seen it in the Christian community that, you know, everyone is, you
• 13:46
  know, a lot of people are writing the bandwagon for what we're doing here.
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  Do you know about the book, the one word?
• 13:51
  No.
• 13:52
  Okay, so there's a gentleman named John Gordon who wrote a book about the one word years
• 13:57
  ago.
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  He's been on the Today's Show, published all over the place and that's how I heard about
• 14:02
  it.
• 14:03
  So it's a good one for you.
• 14:04
  Oh, interesting.
• 14:05
  Yeah.
• 14:06
  That's interesting.
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  So I see the word of the year as an expression of, well, number one, I see it as a setup
• 14:13
  for the theme of the year.
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  Even if you don't know it's going to be the theme of the year, God downloads that word.
• 14:20
  You know, he downloads a word or a thought.
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  I was working with a client who is coming along.
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  I mean, she is like awakening, right?
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  And she said, my word is discipline.
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  And when I thought, when I heard the word I said, well, that's just like to beat you
• 14:42
  up, beat yourself up with discipline, right?
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  What do you want from that word?
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  You know, what do you want?
• 14:47
  What do you think it's going to bring you?
• 14:49
  And I already had the word for it.
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  It was like, oh, she's blossoming, blossoming, blossoming.
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  Every time you see a flower, you think of blossoming.
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  I'm blossoming.
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  And so we sort of worked that around it.
• 15:01
  That became her word of the year.
• 15:03
  But it is intentional.
• 15:04
  It's an intention.
• 15:05
  You make the word either, I like to say, you make it an adjective or a verb, something
• 15:11
  that has action to it.
• 15:13
  Like, you know, and it's only one word.
• 15:18
  A verb or an adjective and a descriptor.
• 15:21
  And it's the word, the one word that's going to begin to bring clarity into the theme.
• 15:28
  So you're thinking of the word.
• 15:32
  And like I just took my client through it was like, what is that word mean to me?
• 15:38
  If she chose discipline, it was going to be another thing that she was going to beat herself
• 15:42
  up with, right?
• 15:43
  Because we aren't, we aren't all disciplined every single day.
• 15:47
  But if I'm blossoming, if I'm becoming, if God is pouring into me and, you know, making
• 15:53
  me to bloom, then how about that word, which was going to take some structure and discipline.
• 16:01
  But it's a better descriptor.
• 16:03
  It's something, you know, you can attain, you know, something that you can achieve.
• 16:10
  So yeah, now, so I've been doing this for five years.
• 16:13
  And at the end of the year, I can always reflect and see how it's manifested in my life.
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  And like you said, you know, you have it all over your house, you have it is in your heart
• 16:24
  and your thoughts.
• 16:25
  It's, you know, and it's what I'm doing right now.
• 16:28
  This is my question is always, is what I'm doing right now, bringing me closer to that
• 16:36
  theme for this year.
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  That word, is that word being manifested?
• 16:42
  Is it, is it, you know, is it growing in me?
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  Because you know, we can all have intentions, but we have to take the action, but we have
• 16:52
  to be aware.
• 16:54
  We have to be awake and aware to what, you know, when you see a little sign and I'll
• 17:01
  give you a hint.
• 17:02
  No, I'll give you, I'll just tell you, my word last year was rebuild.
• 17:06
  Rebuild.
• 17:07
  Okay.
• 17:08
  So I thought it meant my business.
• 17:09
  So I'm, you know, that sounds good to me because what I was doing wasn't working.
• 17:14
  So I'm going to be rebuilding halfway through the year.
• 17:20
  And this was through prayer, through meditation, through community, a lot of what we did at
• 17:28
  our retreat that you hosted for us so graciously turned something on in my mind.
• 17:37
  It wasn't rebuilding my career or my life.
• 17:41
  It was rebuilding myself.
• 17:44
  It was, it was, it was things that were still in my way that were blocking me to the full
• 17:50
  potential.
• 17:51
  See my, my mission is to help women achieve their full potential.
• 17:56
  We're always on, we're always on the journey, you know, it's never ended, but I was lacking
• 18:02
  this step that I needed to take to become rebuilt, to rebuild.
• 18:11
  And boy, it was powerful and it went on from, it started in April.
• 18:17
  It, we still talked about it in August at the retreat, but it was probably September,
• 18:23
  October, when it finally became very clear.
• 18:28
  And I began to live intentionally, more intentionally.
• 18:31
  And that's one of the things I love about the word and your theme is you have the intention
• 18:37
  when you start going one way.
• 18:40
  And God, you know, and what I was, the book that I've read talks about look, or look in
• 18:47
  to kind of think of your word, pray about it, look up and then look out, see where you see
• 18:52
  it.
• 18:53
  And so, so often I think it's one word and then I start doing that and it's totally different.
• 18:58
  And then the word can kind of take a whole different meaning in 2020.
• 19:01
  I think my word was connect and a good friend of mine was gather.
• 19:05
  And we know what happened in April of 2020.
• 19:08
  Like we had to learn how to connect and gather in a whole new way.
• 19:13
  Right.
• 19:14
  My word last year was going to be intention, which is silly because this what it's all
• 19:17
  about is intention.
• 19:18
  And I keep in my, one of my devotionals, I keep all, list all my words and I looked,
• 19:23
  I'm like, okay, I've used that a couple of times, something different.
• 19:26
  And the word space came to me, which, so that was my word for this year, which was interesting.
• 19:32
  One of the things is I cleared out some clutter and space.
• 19:35
  The wall behind me used to be pink and I totally cleaned out my office and redid things in my
• 19:40
  house.
• 19:42
  And so that was one part of the space.
• 19:43
  The other part was I really want to be more present with people and be in people's space
• 19:48
  intentionally and spend time and not just hurry through.
• 19:53
  And then this was not in my plan, but I guess God's plan was adding space in my life.
• 20:00
  And you know, I'm really talked a lot about on the podcast, but I lost a very close friend.
• 20:05
  And so that opened up a whole new space in my life.
• 20:08
  And I inherited his dog.
• 20:10
  So that put space.
• 20:12
  So you just never know where it's going to come from or how it's going to morph throughout
• 20:17
  the year.
• 20:18
  And like mine was in July, I had a major pivot and you said yours was like April through
• 20:23
  really October, you know, almost the whole year of living it.
• 20:27
  Another friend of mine that did the one word last year, she's like, I don't remember my
• 20:30
  word.
• 20:31
  I'm like, obviously you didn't live it then.
• 20:33
  So that's one of the reasons, you know, I try to keep it in front, but you know, I am
• 20:37
  so committed to the one word and I've done it probably seven or eight years now that
• 20:44
  I remember my word.
• 20:46
  Yes.
• 20:47
  Really try to live it.
• 20:48
  So any other tips and my suggestions on coming up with a one word?
• 20:53
  Well, yes.
• 20:54
  I, you know, we all do it in different ways.
• 20:58
  I don't know how you lead into the word, but some of the things that you already said,
• 21:03
  it was like, yeah, you look in, you look up, you, you, you know, pray, you can meditate.
• 21:15
  And one of the things that I do in my workshop is I lead a, a, a short meditation in the
• 21:21
  work, within the workshop.
• 21:23
  And it's like, you know, just getting very quiet and thinking about the past.
• 21:29
  We usually do it this time of year.
• 21:30
  So it's like the past nine, eight, nine months, nine, 10 months, you know, what was it that
• 21:36
  you were hoping for that either manifested didn't, you know, didn't happen?
• 21:44
  And what do you want more of less of and think of some words that are around those desires
• 21:52
  now and then pray.
• 21:55
  And what happens is, you know, usually it will come in this stillness, but for some,
• 22:04
  for a lot of us, it's like, well, one thing, some of us try to overthink it.
• 22:09
  And we've got to let that, we've got to let it go.
• 22:12
  We got to.
• 22:13
  And we just ask a few questions like, you know, what do I need?
• 22:17
  What do I need this coming year?
• 22:20
  What do I need?
• 22:21
  And then why is this important?
• 22:25
  If we reflect on the past year, we'll find out why is this important?
• 22:29
  Reflect on how we live the past year.
• 22:31
  Think about your word.
• 22:33
  And then what's it going to take?
• 22:36
  Not the perfect circumstances.
• 22:39
  Not, you know, why not today that revert sprite back to that?
• 22:42
  Not it's not ever going to be perfect timing.
• 22:45
  Wow.
• 22:46
  So it's not the perfect circumstances of when this happens or that happens.
• 22:52
  But inside of us, as the Holy Spirit leads us, what will it take to accomplish that word
• 22:59
  in my life?
• 23:02
  And then always, what do I need to let go of to get it?
• 23:06
  And then the word comes.
• 23:08
  It was interesting one year.
• 23:11
  I don't know where the word can somebody set up your tenacious, you know, a lot of people
• 23:15
  can take that mean Stummer and don't like all of or, you know, a dog with bone.
• 23:20
  But I got that word tenacity.
• 23:23
  Yes, I do have a tenacity.
• 23:26
  By the way, you need to be courageous and have release fear to be tenacious, right?
• 23:32
  No, you know what you were called to Leslie.
• 23:35
  So you need to stay.
• 23:37
  You know, we need to be.
• 23:38
  You need I mean, need to be tenacious in in staying, standing on what God's given us to
• 23:45
  do.
• 23:47
  So I'm driving on a trip road trip.
• 23:50
  I'm thinking of tenacious.
• 23:52
  And all of a sudden, this big NASCAR truck goes by.
• 23:56
  I mean, you know, those big trailers that hold NASCAR, big truck semis, right?
• 24:02
  Painted purple.
• 24:03
  And it took a picture of it.
• 24:05
  Painted purple.
• 24:08
  And a big, bold, yellow lettering, it said tenacity.
• 24:13
  I go, mm hmm.
• 24:17
  That's my word right there.
• 24:18
  And that's, you know, that's what happens when you know the word, like intention was
• 24:23
  there and then I changed it to space.
• 24:24
  And I just saw it all over the place.
• 24:26
  I'm like, OK, I hear you.
• 24:29
  You know, you know, that's where you got to kind of sit with it and live with it.
• 24:34
  Yes.
• 24:35
  Because you will get confirmation.
• 24:37
  Yeah, it will be confirmed because I had a couple of things going, you know, going as
• 24:45
  I was leading these women in word of the year, my own word, because it hadn't really gelled
• 24:53
  yet.
• 24:54
  I was trying to close up some things from this year.
• 24:56
  So I had just been thinking about it as I'm getting ready to guide to lead this group.
• 25:05
  And so I started reflecting on last year and last year I told you it was rebuilt.
• 25:09
  OK, so now I'm in a space of rebuilding.
• 25:13
  I have this mission that God's given me and I've never in 30-something years ever been
• 25:18
  off the mission.
• 25:19
  I've only I'm doing it in a different way the last 10 years.
• 25:23
  I've been coaching and I say coaching.
• 25:28
  It can be mentoring, but I say coaching because I'm not a counselor.
• 25:32
  It's actually what I went to my grad school to become was a therapist.
• 25:38
  And I realized that a lot of us therapies good.
• 25:42
  But once you get dealt with a deal with your past, and she's so important, so important
• 25:49
  because we lose our identity if we don't deal with our past.
• 25:53
  We don't because we're living our past identity.
• 25:57
  Yeah.
• 25:58
  I decided to become a coach and really I'm more of a mentor, a spiritual mentor.
• 26:03
  I get women on the journey.
• 26:05
  They don't stay with me forever.
• 26:07
  However, they come to my retreats and they come to my workshops and things that as far
• 26:11
  as like really digging in and like looking at that.
• 26:15
  Seem, well, you know, that seam of your life comes came a lot from this word of the year.
• 26:25
  I'd like to share like a couple of things I found out about what it does for you when
• 26:30
  you get it.
• 26:31
  Right.
• 26:32
  Okay.
• 26:33
  So I started thinking about this.
• 26:35
  Somebody asked me, well, what is word of the year?
• 26:37
  I mean, how does it work?
• 26:38
  How does it work in your life?
• 26:39
  And I'm like, oh, that's a legitimate question.
• 26:41
  I didn't really have the answer to.
• 26:43
  So I started thinking about it and you've been doing this for longer than me.
• 26:46
  So like I found this one of some things I found.
• 26:51
  One that it guides you to create the habits and routines that you need.
• 26:57
  I agree.
• 26:59
  For that intention, for the momentum, for the motivation, for the movement.
• 27:05
  And it, how, how, how does that work?
• 27:07
  Well, when you think of your word rebuild, and I was thinking, of course, the beginning
• 27:10
  of the year, my business, it gave me like these feelings of success.
• 27:16
  Just triggered these little feelings of like, yeah, okay, this is really important, but
• 27:20
  what do I have to change?
• 27:21
  You know, what am I going to have to do to manifest that word?
• 27:26
  Right.
• 27:27
  Rebuild.
• 27:28
  And so you start setting routines, right?
• 27:31
  I start setting routines, start creating habits.
• 27:34
  And you start moving in the direction of that word.
• 27:39
  That in itself is a life changer.
• 27:42
  The second thing is it builds your faith.
• 27:44
  And as you said, and I shared that we, we know we're in alignment because we start seeing
• 27:50
  the word.
• 27:51
  It starts, you know, starts becoming real as we're marinating in like, what is this word?
• 27:58
  You become very aware that you are in definite alignment.
• 28:03
  And so it's, well, how do you know that?
• 28:04
  And we'll stay with it, see what happens.
• 28:06
  You know, I don't know.
• 28:08
  But this is your word.
• 28:10
  And if you stay with it, just see what happens.
• 28:12
  Oh my gosh.
• 28:13
  Is it not every time we just stay with that word and something happens?
• 28:17
  Right.
• 28:18
  So the third one was that because, and a lot of what you said about, like, you know, you
• 28:23
  have your word all over the, as it becomes part of our everyday living, it's like, you
• 28:27
  know, it's every day, I'm rebuilding every day, I'm walking in joy every day.
• 28:31
  I'm, you know, doing what I need to do to get closer.
• 28:35
  It becomes a really deep spiritual connection to the word to God.
• 28:39
  He gave you that word.
• 28:40
  So you get very, very connected.
• 28:43
  And it also works to connect you in relationships.
• 28:47
  It's very interesting.
• 28:49
  Their whole rebuilding was, you know, a, a, something that had to change inside of me.
• 28:55
  I let go of so much that it changed the way I even looked at relationships.
• 29:03
  And I realized that there were some that I was holding onto that needed to go.
• 29:08
  Yeah.
• 29:09
  And that was really powerful.
• 29:13
  And then the fourth thing, the number four was it becomes a part of you.
• 29:17
  It's like second nature.
• 29:19
  Yes.
• 29:20
  Tenacious.
• 29:21
  Yes.
• 29:22
  Tenacity.
• 29:23
  Joy.
• 29:24
  Yes, I am joy.
• 29:25
  I'm exhibiting, you know, I'm inhabiting joy and I'm, you know, for you, you know, I'm exhibiting
• 29:27
  it because I'm inhabiting it.
• 29:30
  It's in me.
• 29:31
  It's in my spirit.
• 29:32
  And then the fifth one that I think is really important, it helps you to design your year.
• 29:37
  It helps you, you know, how I'm going to revolve my year around this word.
• 29:41
  It's different than goal setting.
• 29:43
  It's around, it's more around the vision of what that word invokes in your spirit.
• 29:49
  Right.
• 29:50
  Yeah.
• 29:51
  Love that.
• 29:52
  So, yes.
• 29:53
  So, so many things.
• 29:55
  Yeah.
• 29:56
  So, well, before we kind of wrap things up here, we actually have our first sponsor for
• 30:02
  the podcast, which I want to share a little bit about our first sponsor is Pino's Palette.
• 30:08
  It's owned by a close friend of mine and we do a lot of events there, but she says, you
• 30:13
  know, Pino's Palette, why not unleash your creativity and have a little fun at Pino's
• 30:17
  Palette in Herndon, Virginia, paint and sip while socializing with loved ones and discover
• 30:22
  your inner artists.
• 30:23
  No artistic ability required.
• 30:25
  The entertaining artists will guide you step by step for blank canvas to masterpiece.
• 30:30
  Why not paint and sip today?
• 30:32
  So she is our sponsor because she is sponsoring the Wine Women in One Word event we are holding
• 30:38
  in Herndon, Virginia on January 4th.
• 30:42
  And if you're not local and you want to maybe zoom in, we might be able to figure that out.
• 30:46
  But we are going to paint our word.
• 30:48
  So hopefully people will listen to this podcast prior to painting our word, but and do some
• 30:53
  sips while we're doing it and have a masterpiece to take home with you.
• 30:57
  So Pino's Palette, thank you for being our, why not today, sponsor today?
• 31:02
  That sounds fun today today.
• 31:03
  So, yes.
• 31:04
  So Yolanda, I know I always ask, how would you encourage somebody else with their word?
• 31:09
  But I think the five points you just shared really was encouraging.
• 31:14
  Is there anything else you'd like to share, encourage, talk about around the One Word
• 31:19
  to encourage for people?
• 31:21
  I would really like to share scripture around word because while I was, you know, getting
• 31:28
  these workshops together, I was looking for scripture because, you know, our words are
• 31:35
  so powerful, the words we speak, the words we read, the words we take in, the words we
• 31:39
  give out.
• 31:40
  But I found the scripture in Proverbs 2511.
• 31:48
  And this is from the message Bible, but it said, the right word at the right time is
• 31:54
  like a custom made piece of jewelry.
• 31:58
  Ooh, love that.
• 32:00
  And so it had me to think, I think I'm going to get a piece of jewelry that has that my
• 32:07
  word on it.
• 32:08
  Well, there is a company called My Intent.
• 32:10
  Do you know about them?
• 32:11
  Yes, I saw that.
• 32:12
  I meant to wear my bracelet because I have one that I have why not today on, but not
• 32:16
  my word.
• 32:17
  And it's interesting, just the words and power.
• 32:19
  I always wear bracelets.
• 32:21
  There's a story behind that.
• 32:23
  I don't go into that now, but I was sitting on a meeting the other day, a little board,
• 32:26
  I hate to say it, and I was looking at my bracelets.
• 32:28
  And one is, they're usually beach themes.
• 32:30
  And this one is an anchor.
• 32:32
  And it says, and I've hadn't even really paid attention to it, but it says, and I'm not
• 32:41
  going to be able to read it.
• 32:42
  It's too small, but it's about anchoring in the truth.
• 32:46
  Oh, I can't read it now.
• 32:50
  Words of life anchored to your truth is what it's like.
• 32:54
  And I'm like, I had never noticed that.
• 32:56
  So words are powerful.
• 32:58
  They are.
• 32:59
  I wear it every day and haven't looked at it.
• 33:01
  But yeah, words are powerful and anchor yourself to those words and just watch it unfold.
• 33:09
  Exactly.
• 33:10
  It will.
• 33:11
  It will.
• 33:12
  Absolutely will.
• 33:13
  Yep.
• 33:14
  You just never know where it's going to show up.
• 33:16
  So this has been so much fun.
• 33:17
  And thank you for being our guest today.
• 33:20
  And as I did mention, Pinot's Palette is our sponsor.
• 33:23
  We're going to do an event in January.
• 33:25
  And if people want to find you, Yolanda, where do they find you?
• 33:28
  Of course, I'll share all your contact information in the show notes, but is there anywhere,
• 33:31
  particularly your favorite place to connect with people?
• 33:35
  On Facebook, I'm Yolanda Gray.
• 33:37
  I have a Facebook group for women called hashtag take back your life.
• 33:43
  All one hashtag, take back your life.
• 33:47
  And I do, I do screening around that's not a public one because we share a lot of good
• 33:52
  things in there.
• 33:54
  And I would love to have more women within the group.
• 33:58
  They're lovely, lovely women.
• 34:00
  They're on a mission.
• 34:01
  They're on a mission too to, you know, achieve their full potential.
• 34:05
  And then I'm at Yolanda at Yolanda Gray.com is my email.
• 34:10
  And then Yolanda Gray.com is my website, which is currently.
• 34:16
  It's up, but it's going to be.
• 34:18
  Rebuilding.
• 34:19
  It's rebuilding.
• 34:20
  That definitely needs to be rebuilt.
• 34:24
  That definitely needs a rebuild.
• 34:25
  Yeah.
• 34:26
  So you can catch me in any of those places.
• 34:29
  And of course I'm a messenger, so you can message me, but I'll share all your contact
• 34:33
  information with the show notes for this.
• 34:35
  Okay.
• 34:36
  Thank you.
• 34:37
  Thank you for being our guests.
• 34:38
  And why not today?
• 34:39
  You can find us at whynottodaypodcast.com.
• 34:42
  We have Facebook page.
• 34:44
  You can on the site.
• 34:45
  You've got swag.
• 34:46
  So we have why not today cups?
• 34:49
  We have why not today T-shirts?
• 34:51
  I've got some Christmas ornaments and coffee cups.
• 34:53
  So really want people to remember to say why not today.
• 34:57
  And it doesn't have to be the big things.
• 34:59
  It can just be the little things.
• 35:00
  So thank you for Yolanda.
• 35:02
  Thank you everybody else for listening and watching and feel free to review us, share
• 35:06
  us.
• 35:07
  And if you know somebody else that has done something courageous, you think would be a
• 35:10
  good guest, always let me know.
• 35:12
  There's a form on the website.
• 35:14
  So thanks again.
• 35:16
  And I can't wait to hear everybody's one word, share it with, as a comment on the podcast.
• 35:22
  Thank you Leslie.
• 35:23
  Merry Christmas.
• 35:24
  And see you next time too.