← Miracle Mentality with Tim Storey (Motivation, Self Help, and Mental Health)
Miracle Mentality with Tim Storey (Motivation, Self Help, and Mental Health)
How Elizabeth Smart Discovered Her Purpose After Tragedy | Mindset | E16
00:45:11
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- [00:01]
A
Hello, my name is Tim Storey. Welcome to Miracle Mentality.
- [00:04]
B
Remember, rooftops drawing spaceships on the ground.
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A
It's for the dreamers, the doers, the believers in something greater. In each episode, I'll invite you to rise above the mundane, to push past the messy and learn to live boldly in the miraculous. Every episode will have practical wisdom, spiritual insight, and my guests will explore what it takes to activate your miracle mindset. Remember to subscribe, follow and and light. Welcome to the Miracle Mentality podcast. Thank you all for watching and listening. We continue to be in the top 10, both on Spotify and also on Apple and so many other platforms, usually at number four. So thank you for that, for liking subscribing and telling a friend. So, as you know, a miracle is something extraordinary, uncommon, not normal. I believe this. I think that miracles are either coming or going at all times. And today we're going to talk about a miraculous life of somebody that I truly respect. I'm going to read a little bit of what I wrote about her today on the Miracle Mentality podcast. I have the privilege sitting down with someone whose story has moved hearts all over the world, and that is Elizabeth Smart. Elizabeth's journey is one of the most powerful examples of resilience and faith. At just 14 years of old, she was abducted from her home, endured unthinkable trauma, and after nine months in captivity, found her way back, not just to freedom, but to purpose. And then I write. I followed Elizabeth's story for years, read her books, prayed for her many times. What moves me most about her is, is her strength and her grace. So let's welcome to the podcast Elizabeth Smart. Hi, Elizabeth.
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B
Hi. Thank you for having me.
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A
So let's just chat about life for a little bit. When you think about what you wanted to become when you were in elementary school, what were you thinking? What were you like at 6, 7, 8? Were you dancing and ballet? What were you up to?
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B
I started playing the harp just before I turned 6 years old. And so I was pretty excited about that. And if you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up at that age, I probably would have said, a mom and a harp teacher. Yeah, I mean, I think I had a very kind of simplistic mindset of how I thought my life would turn out, would go. And it just was like, yep, go to school, grow up, get married, have a family, teach harp. The end.
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A
So how did you choose the harp? Because I remember in third grade, they brought a lot of instruments into the classroom, and we had choices like you saw a saxophone, a harp. They may have even brought in a drum set. How did you decide you were going to play the harp?
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B
Probably my mom had a lot of influence on me. But also, I remember one year, my mom taking some of my siblings and I out Christmas shopping, and there was this huge Christmas tree in the downtown mall. And at the very top of the tree, there was an angel, and she was playing the harp. And I remember just looking up at this huge Christmas tree thinking, I want to be an angel on a Christmas tree. I guess the way for me to do that would be to learn to play the harp.
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A
I like that. So it was like a visual that you had.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And then how was your personality when you were really little? Were you funny? Were you happy? Were you an introvert? What kind of personality did you have?
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B
My childhood, looking back, I remember being very happy. I think when I meet new people. And honestly, probably still to this day, I'm a little bit reserved, a little bit introverted. But also, I mean, I had four brothers growing up, so I also felt very competitive. From as far back as I can remember, I didn't like the thought that my brother's got to go to boys camp. And, like, whenever there were girls activities, it was learning how to sew on a button. I really did not like that. I wanted to prove that I was just as tough and just as strong as all my brothers.
- [04:32]
A
I love that. As far as friendships go, when you were little, and I'm saying all these things about being younger on purpose when I interview guests, it's amazing how there's usually a line between the innocence of being young to the dreams that you're having today and all the people that you're helping. When you were little, did you used to have a heart for people? Did you find yourself caring for the underdog? What was your heart like towards people that were struggling?
- [05:03]
B
I remember my mom, she told me this story, and maybe she heard the story on Oprah. I can't even remember. I don't know where she heard it. But I remember she gave me this example that if you're riding on the bus and someone's bullying another kid on the bus, if you don't stand up for that person, then you are part of the bullying. And that example always stayed in my mind. So I always felt like if there was someone being left out, then I was going to be their friend because I didn't want to be a part of the problem.
- [05:35]
A
So I'll tell you a story real quick about me. When I was a kid. The two fastest guys in elementary school were me and a guy named Don Passal Aqua. And he was tall and had the longest legs. And so in the sprinting, we were always neck and neck, and I would win about 50% of the time in the long distance runs, he would win, and I blamed it on his long legs that he had. But one day we were running what they call the 880. That's two times around the track. I was beating him, but I noticed this kid named Freddy, he had doubled over. He was kind of chubby, and he was having an asthma attack. And Elizabeth, in the middle of the race, I stopped and I was beating Don, and I wanted to beat him. And I came back to Freddy and I said, freddy, are you okay? He goes, no. He goes, I'm having an asthma attack. I go, what do we need to do? He goes, I need my inhaler. I remember stopping from winning the race because something in me just said, help, Freddie. And it's really weird. That's how I've always been, that I've looked out for the other person. So in reading your new book, Detours, by you, Elizabeth Smart. I like the title. Then it says, hope and Growth after Life's Hardest turns. So you obviously have compassion for people that have gone through difficulty.
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B
Absolutely. And haven't we all gone through difficulty? Everyone's difficulty looks different, but I don't know anyone who actually hasn't been through difficulty.
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A
Yes. So just to set the groundwork, I won't go too deep on certain things that happened to you, but just to set the groundwork, I write in this question. Elizabeth, so many people know your story of survival, but I want to begin with who you are now. When you look back, what do you see as a defining moment that turned your pain into purpose? And I don't really think sometimes it's one defining moment. But was there a time in your life after you went through your situation that was more than a situation that almost the lights came on and you went, huh? Somehow, some way, I'm going to help people with this. Do you remember a situation? You could have been sitting in church, you could have been walking one day. Is there a time that you can point to?
- [08:11]
B
Yes. Yes. First of all, I just want to say that I was very fortunate in that my dad, from even the time that I was gone. And then ever since then, whenever there's been a child who's been abducted or disappeared, he's always reaching out to the parents, trying to help, trying to make a difference. He's gone up to Capitol Hill and tried to work on passing legislature to help protect children and families. And he's just always been a role model. So I watched that. But I also remember after coming back thinking I didn't want to talk about what had happened to me. I wanted to go back to the life that I had prior to being kidnapped. I wanted just to pick back up from where I left off and everything that I felt had been taken from me. I wanted all of that back. And it wasn't until I actually had to testify during one of my captors trials and I spent a couple days up on the stand just being asked question after question. And I remember I really hadn't spoken about what had happened to me publicly before that. And I remember feeling like my story was just coming out as facts or like bullet points. And I remember thinking to myself, my story is more than just facts. It is a part of my life and it has shaped me to a degree of who I am today. And if all of this information that I never wanted put out there is going to be out there, there needs to be a purpose for it. Because my captors weren't sentenced until I had been home for the better part of a decade. And at that time, I had many people approach me and just share their stories with me. And because initially I felt like nobody else could understand what I'd been through. I didn't know anyone else who had been kidnapped. I didn't know anyone else who'd been raped or sexually abused or assaulted in any way. It just was not something that was talked about. So initially I felt very alone. And then over the years, that's when people started telling me and I finally felt like at the trial when all of this came out, that if all of it was out there, then there needed to be more. There needed to be more of a reason for it to be out there, not just for people's entertainment or curiosity.
- [10:48]
A
No, that makes sense. I think that with my pastoral background, I continue to speak in churches all over the world. I often have people talk to me about why do bad things happen to good people? And part of the challenge of being clergy is you hear so many stories that are terrible of maybe somebody hitting their child when they're backing out of the driveway or, you know, their children born with challenges that they seem to never get over. So there's a lot of horrific things that happen from growing up in faith like you have with a really good structure, foundation with your father and mother and your church. What was the process that helped you to realize that, yes, this horrific thing has happened, but God is still real. Tell me a little bit about that side and how you process it. I think that can help a lot of people that are listening, because, as you know, because you're out there too, like me, There's a lot of people that go through some things that they would never have ordered from Life's Diner.
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B
Yes. I think for me, it helped that I had been raised believing that God is our father and he loves us the same way any good father loves their children. And I still do have a really good father. And I never doubted his love for me. Or it was very briefly, maybe.
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A
Yes. Yeah.
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B
But far and away, I always believed that God was a loving, kind, merciful father. And during my captivity, my captors had used God to justify everything that they did. And they would pull examples from the scriptures, the Bible, how Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac. He used all sorts of examples like that. And then how he didn't want to kidnap me, but God commanded him to, so he had to follow through with God's commands. Really kind of sick and twisted. But my whole life I had never met a sick and twisted God that was not the God I knew. And so when my captors would say, well, God commanded me to do this. We don't actually want to do this, but God commanded me to do this, it just never made sense. It just never felt right to me. And on the other hand, as well, I mean, it was such a comfort believing that I wasn't totally alone, believing that there was a God who was all powerful and who was looking over me and knew where I was and was not ignorant to my situation or didn't care. That was such a comfort to believe in that, to believe in hope, that's very powerful.
- [13:59]
A
So you're familiar with the prayer of Jabez where he says, God, keep your hands on me. And there's something about knowing that God's hand is on us. So I'm going to teach you things that you already know. So as a parent and God as the good shepherd, he's supposed to guide us, guard us and govern us. So guide his direction, guard his protection, govern his administration. So he was guiding you through your parents because you're still young and now you're guiding your children because you have children. But the guardian side, I think it's something that we all get challenged with sometimes. So I do some work with people in war situations that have been in wars. I just did a big thing as soon as the Russian invaded Ukraine and so many of the Ukrainian people were saying to me, why would this happen? Where is God? And some of them were very faith oriented people. So this God that guides, guards and governs, did you still feel like his hand was on you? Even in the midst of the pain that you were going through in the ordeal for that many days, did you feel the hand of God on you? And if so, how so?
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B
Absolutely, I absolutely did. And I'm going to pull an example from a different book that I love quite a ways from the Bible, but Jane Eyre. And in that book, Mr. Rochester, there's a point in the book where he compares her to a bird and he talks about how he could break her cage, but he could never get at the bird inside. And for me, I guess that's how I felt, like God guarded me. My captors could hurt my body, they. They could hurt my physical cage, but they could never hurt my spirit. They could never destroy that. And so that's how I felt, like God guarded me.
- [16:06]
A
I think that's very, very powerful. And I think that it takes us to expand the way we look at how God should handle a situation. Right. Because I think that so many times we think that God's just going to instantly take us out of something. And in the book, you give a lot of good illustrations about how to work through that. So I'm going to read a question. During those months in captivity, what did hope look like to you? Was it a whisper, a thought, a prayer? What helped you to hold on when everything around you said let go? So I'm going to go back to a scripture real quick. In Zephaniah 3:16, it says, do not let your hands lose their grip. And I find that a lot of people when they're challenged, challenged, challenged and hit, they kind of lose their grip and they just give up. So what helped you? A whisper, a thought, a prayer? What helped you to hold on when everything may have said, elizabeth, maybe you should just let go?
- [17:13]
B
Honestly, it was all those things. It was a whisper, it was a prayer, it was a hand, it was everything. And I think it changed from day to day depending on where I was at and what I needed. I mean, I think for much of my experience, hope was just knowing, believing that my parents would still love me and that family was everything and that even if I died, my family would still be my family and they would still love me. That was a very powerful source of hope for me then. I feel like there were small miracles. Honestly, that happened probably every Single day that I was kidnapped. Things that you maybe would never think of. I mean, I remember at times being so hungry. I remember having the thought go through my head, like, I can't believe this. I've survived this long, and the thing that finally kills me is going to be starvation. Like, yeah, there's some irony somewhere in there. But then I remember my captor would maybe go out and then he would come back and he would have brought food, but it would be some food that maybe someone had thrown away and they didn't want anymore. And I definitely was raised like, you eat all of your dinner that's on your plate. You eat whatever's on your plate. And I just remember thinking, I'm so grateful that this person did not eat everything that was on their plate, because now I have something to eat.
- [18:47]
A
No, that's very powerful. And I remember from your first book where you wrote about being so thirsty and then somehow water showed up. And it's those things that I think most people would never relate to of when you're that thirsty and you don't know where a drink of water is going to come from. Right?
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Absolutely, yes.
- [19:13]
A
Thank you for watching the Miracle Mentality podcast. So many of my friends are texting me, DMing me, speaking to me, and saying, tim, thank you for these great guests that you're bringing on. So share it with somebody, a friend, a family member, a colleague, and then make sure and reach out to us at Tim Tim Story Official and let us know that you love what we're doing. Thank you for being a part of this movement. Let's see what you would do with this before we get into the book. So when somebody is labeled, a label denotes your value, your usage, and the content. So let's say I have water here, and it's labeled. It says water on it, okay? So I know when I drink it, it's not 7 up. So a label denotes your value, your content, your usage. So when you saw yourself, you were labeled as this young lady who was abducted, and then these terrible things happened to you. So now as we saw you, it was like, oh, wow, look at her. Because we'd see it all over the news and everywhere else. How have you been able to work through the label that most people put on you for so, so, so many years? Because I think that you have risen above the labels, risen above the tags by becoming an excellent leader, an excellent wife, excellent mother, writing books. I've studied you a lot because I love a good comeback story. So how have you been able to Rise above the tags.
- [20:57]
B
I think tags are belittling, and I think they're limiting. And especially if you label yourself, which I feel like is all over. All over the world today, like, we just like to put labels on things, which I feel like is a shame, because I think it stops people from growing and becoming more. Or what's a mental block being like, okay, this is who I am, and that's it. And for me, there was probably that piece of competitiveness from my youth still at play, where I was like, yes, that was nine months of my life. Yes, that was very hard. It was miserable. I don't want to repeat it. But at the same time, that's not all of my life, and that's not all I ever want to be known for. I mean, I remember actually shortly after I was rescued, thinking, wow, if I died tomorrow, what would people have to say about me at my funeral? I bet 90% of it would be about my abduction. And that is not what I want my funeral to be about. And so I feel like that thought has always stayed in the back of my mind to the point where I thought, you know, when I eventually die, whenever that is, I don't even want that to be mentioned at my funeral. I mean, I hope. You know, I hope people say, like, I was a good friend. I was. Made mistakes, but kept trying. I don't know, I was funny or whatever. But not just, she survived a kidnapping.
- [22:28]
A
No, no. I mean, how much do I like that? But I didn't know you were that feisty. So I'm glad that you admitted that. So I'm going to give you a couple titles of your chapters. Meet and greet. Chapter one. Chapter Two, Waking Nightmares. Chapter Three, Bad Medicine. Chapter four, Slaying Dragons. Chapter five, face the Music. Chapter six, Complex and Complexes. Then the conclusion is Homecoming. Okay, so what was your thinking behind writing this book? Again, the title, Detours by Elizabeth Smart. Detours. What does detours mean to you?
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B
Well, I think everyone has been driving down the road, and, I mean, I don't know where you live, but without fail, I feel like everyone has hit a detour. When is there not road work being done somewhere? You don't plan for detours, they just happen. But you cannot go through the detour sign. There's a big hole on the other side or whatever. But you have to reroute your road, and that very same experience happened. It wasn't road work, but in my book, I talk about it, how I was trying to make it to the airport, and I have never Missed a flight in my life. I mean, that was my fault because I slept in or my alarm didn't go off or like, I have never missed a flight due to my fault. Bad weather, yes. My fault, no. And I had committed to be someone, you know, I just felt so obligated to go and hit traffic. There had been a landslide, and I didn't know how to get there. We ended up taking a detour. That made me think, oh, my gosh, this was a mistake. Why are we going this way? What was I thinking? Why did I decide to try this new path, this new road that I have never tried before? I. I've only heard about from other people. Why am I trying this? And ultimately, it did get me to the airport. I did actually catch my flight. But I was talking to my friend about this situation, and it was like, not on a higher level. It was very much in, like, the moment of frustration. And they just looked at me, and she was like, well, don't you kind of feel like that's a little bit like life? I mean, don't you, of all people, kind of feel like that's how your life has been? Has anyone ever pulled off the perfect event or had the perfect vacation? There's always some little hiccup along the way, and then. And then she's like, obviously life comes at you, and there's really big problems, like no one's life is perfect. And that just stuck like a little brain worm. And it just got me really thinking about, you know what? That is so true. I don't know anyone who's had a perfect life. I don't know anyone who has never cried because of disappointment or hurt feelings or anger or loss. And, you know, it often puts us on a different path, on a different trajectory than where we were headed before. And it can bring you to places that you never imagined, that you never dreamed of, that are even better than what you had originally thought for yourself. For me, pretty big detour happened in my life. I never planned on being kidnapped. I never planned on being held captive for nine months. And because of that, it put me on a whole different path than I would have otherwise gone on it. And who's to say had I not been kidnapped, that I would be where I am today, that I would have ended up with the husband that I have today, the children that I have today, the life that I have today? And, you know, it's completely different from what I thought as a little girl. I mean, I do not teach harpless. I've come to Realize I would have been a terrible heart teacher.
- [26:41]
A
I'm glad you brought up you being a mother. What kind of mother are you? You lenient? Are you semi strict? Are you strict? What do you like? Elizabeth, please tell the people.
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B
Maybe a little bit of everything.
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A
Yes, depending on the situation. How many children do you have?
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B
I have three. If my kids ask questions sleepover, the answer is no. That answer will never change. The answer will always be no. No sleepovers.
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A
Are they allowed to have sugar?
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B
Yes.
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A
Whoa.
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B
I was just going to go to that example.
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A
You're a fun mother then, at least.
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B
Well, I mean, who wants to eat broccoli when life is really hard? Nobody wants to eat broccoli. You want to eat something that's comforting or tastes good. And you wanted a guaranteed. And typically sugar is a guarantee of what tastes good. And I'm not saying you should use it as a coping method. I'm just experience.
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A
I love that you're a fun mother because I had an experience not so long ago because my kids are older, they're in their 30s, and my son is taller than me. And we were walking through a mall and I. I just was walking, I had my mind on something else. And he goes, hey, dad, I'm going to go over there. And when he said, hey, dad, it was in such a strong voice. And I looked up and he was taller than me. I thought, oh, my God, how did I get a kid that tall calling me hey, dad? Is it kind of interesting sometimes to think, oh, my gosh, I'm a mother of three kids?
- [28:20]
B
Yeah. I was tucking my kids into bed last night, and my oldest, she's 10. I just remember, like, leaning over and like, giving her a hug good night. And she was hugging me back. And in my mind I was just thinking, how do I have a 10 year old? How am I a mom? Not that I think I'm irresponsible or untrustworthy, but at the same time, how did anyone trust me not just with one life, but with three other lives?
- [28:48]
A
Yes. Yes.
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B
I have never been a parent before. I'm still learning.
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A
Elizabeth, let's talk about purpose for a minute. That will lead to the book that you've written. So I personally believe that God has a plan for us, as you do too. So I call that a God idea. And then secondly, we should be obedient to that God idea. And thirdly, somebody is waiting for us on the other side of our obedience to the God idea. This God idea that you have now to write, to speak, to help people, to Mentor to teach. When did that God idea for your life start to evolve, where you realize this is part of what Elizabeth Smart wants to do? I want to help people talk to us about that.
- [29:38]
B
I think it did start, like, really start during the trial, after I gave my testimony. Then just as time went on, I don't know, it seemed to grow because I remember I decided that's when I'd start writing my first book, which is really the story of my abduction and survival.
- [29:57]
A
Yes. Which I read and gave to several people.
- [30:01]
B
And I remember after that, I was like, I'm done. I don't want to write another book. That was hard. It was emotional, it was time consuming. And so I remember thinking like, that's it. And what else would I write about? At the time, I mean, I didn't feel like I just had tons of things to say outside of my experience. And I feel like people are always like, write about what you know. And I was like, well, yeah, I know about my experience. I know about being a survivor, and I feel like I wrote it all down in this book. What more could I possibly say? So I feel like as I continued on in my life, there have been themes that have popped up or just messages that keep showing up in my life. So when it came time to write my second book, it was because I was going out and speaking. And as I'm sure you've experienced, you get a lot of Q&As, and a lot of the time, many of the questions are repeated from event to event to event. And that happened to me. I mean, I was getting the same questions at all these events, but by different people. And I remember thinking, wow, so many people are asking me these same questions, then there must be a need, an interest in answers, like learning, maybe for themselves. And so that's what started me on to my second book, and it was collecting the answers to those questions and then trying to make it all make sense. And that was hard. And I remember when I finished that one, I was like, oh, thank goodness. That was more work than the first book. The same thing has happened with this third book. So now it kind of makes me feel like I can't say I'm never going to do something again, because I feel like when I do that, I tempt fate or I tempt God or however. However you look at it. And so I feel like I'm very hesitant to make strong statements about never doing something again. And I just feel like as I've progressed, I mean, even in my foundation work, we start working on our projects, and the more we work on them, the more we see where the other gaps are and the other spaces we want to fill. So I just feel like the more I learn, the more I realize. I don't know.
- [32:19]
A
Tell us a little more about your foundation and why you started it and what it's doing.
- [32:25]
B
So when I started my foundation, I guess I was really looking at myself and my own experience. I had felt like. Well, I knew I'd felt actually a lot of shame over what had happened during my captivity. I felt a lot of embarrassment even though I knew it wasn't my fault. I was at home, I was asleep in bed. There are so many victims who blame themselves for what happened. They get in their minds and like, oh, it's because I went to that bar by myself or it's because I wore this shirt or, you know, I put myself in that situation, which I wish nobody would do to themselves because the only person's fault is the perpetrators. I wanted to acknowledge that, but I couldn't even take responsibility for self blame because I was at home, I was asleep in my bed, the safest place in the world. And so I knew it wasn't my fault. But that just did not change the fact that I felt like I was damaged goods. And I was so embarrassed of that. And I just didn't want people to know what had happened to me, which was probably pretty naive of me to think because I today, I think when anyone sees that someone's been kidnapped or has disappeared and there's a suspect, you automatically jump to the conclusion that they've been sexually assaulted. But I thought I could keep it a secret. But I'd felt so much shame around that and so much embarrassment around that that when I started the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, I wanted to fight against that. I wanted survivors to know, no, this is not your fault. It doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter what you were doing. It doesn't matter if you went on the date, if you got into bed with them, and then at some point during the night, you said no. And they kept on going. Even that situation, that is not okay. And that's not your fault. You said no. Your body said no. However the situation came about, it's not your fault. And so that's what I really wanted the Elizabeth Smart foundation to focus on. And then during my speaking, after I'd speak, you know, you have meet and greets the way you do, and I had so many people come up to me and tell me things like, oh, Elizabeth, the same thing happened to me that happened to you or something similar happened to me. But I've never told anyone this because I was too scared. I wouldn't be believed. It was a family friend, it was someone that we knew. Or I tried to tell, but nobody believed me. We started a very specific campaign called we believe you. It's about giving survivors comfort knowing that there are people in this world who will believe them. We are working on trying to help communities understand what it's like to be a survivor, what it's like to be a victim, so that they know how to appropriately act, which I feel like is actually very much needed. I mean, even today when something like the loss of a loved one, if you go to a funeral, you're there to support them, but you can see they are grieving. They are so sad they've lost someone that they love. Who exactly knows what to do in that situation other than give them a hug and say something like, I'm so true, boss. They were so great. I'm so sorry. I'm so sad to lose them. Or we turn it around and be like, oh, well, at least they're free from pain right now. At least they're in a better place right now. All that may be true, but that doesn't necessarily fix the situation. That doesn't necessarily take away the loss. And so trying to help communities and really it's more than just trying to change communities. It's trying to change a culture to help them understand. No, we need you to leave survivors. Don't start questions with why didn't you? Because even if you're curious, it's okay to be curious. But when a victims hear why didn't you? They hear it more as you should have. You didn't try hard enough. It's almost like a very accusatory way to start a question anyway. So that is one of the things at least I feel very, very passionate about. And then we also want to give as many tools as we can to individuals so that it doesn't happen, so that people aren't sexually assaulted or raped or kidnapped. Dangerous situations.
- [36:45]
A
Can you tell us for people to find out more about your foundation?
- [36:50]
B
Yes, yes. Please engage with us. We are on social media. We have our website, which is Elizabeth smart foundation.org Please reach out to us. Please engage with us. Please be involved. Please help bring the conversation to your community.
- [37:06]
A
Of course. Okay, so I'm going to change. It's like if you're listening to one good song, we're going to Change songs. Okay, tell me about the future for you, but not the future. As far as you being the humanitarian, life changer that you are. Do you ever think about writing children's books? Do you think about creating other things? Do you think about having your own store? What are some fun things that most people would not know that are in you? Because I have my own view of you, that you are a creative. So I've seen you on a lot of interviews and I think a lot of the interviews, they want to just go down a certain track about the life interruption that happened to you that was so horrific. But I've also seen these little sides of you. When you smile, when you smirk, when you're funny, when you have this energy, even this sense of humor that usually is a sign there's a creative hiding in there. So any creative ideas you have for the future? Give me an exclusive. Elizabeth, give me an exclusive.
- [38:20]
B
My first thought was, I just need to survive this book release. But you know, you've done all of the things. I mean, you pour so much of your heart or your soul into something and you just want it to be well received. So part of me, like I, I need to make it through that.
- [38:41]
A
Okay, so we're going to help you with that. So people like myself care about you. So we're going to push this book Big Detours by Elizabeth Smart. So I want everybody that is listening and watching to buy two of these books. Buy one for yourself and one for others. As I told Elizabeth, her first book, I bought one for many, many people because of people that I know that are female, that had experienced setbacks. So get this. But at the same time as God prospering your book, which he's going to do, Elizabeth, you gotta give me one creative idea. You have. Come on. They're in you.
- [39:21]
B
Well, I don't know if I. I don't know. I don't know. But I would actually love to go to culinary school.
- [39:31]
A
Oh, I know I'd get something.
- [39:33]
B
I love food. I love good food. I don't need bad food.
- [39:39]
A
I'm getting something. I promise you I'm getting something. Elizabeth, you don't know this about me. You got to study me. I am a great life coach. I know how to pull something out of them. So I do this project called Discover the Hidden you. The word hidden means concealed or covered. And many times the hidden you is covered and concealed because we've been so busy doing other things. So I believe that there are sides of you that have been hidden and covered. They're going to come out. This culinary idea could get super interesting. My goodness, you might be the next Rachael Ray.
- [40:20]
B
Oh, I don't know about that, but I like eating good food, and it's like a necessity of life. So if it's a necessity of life, you might as well enjoy it.
- [40:30]
A
I like the culinary idea. For instance, I'm over here minding my own business, being this life coach to entertainers. I have a mattress coming out. I'm in the mattress business. I've created the Miracle Mattress by Tim Storey, where they have all these components in this mattress, and I'm working with the top mattress companies. How did that come about? It happened to be where people that are in that business, they knew who I was, and they said, what ideas would you add? And I started in this thing, and now I've taken off in the mattress world.
- [41:04]
B
That's amazing.
- [41:04]
A
You never know about life. You never know about life. Right? All right, so, Elizabeth, I like you. I'm proud of you. Tell your husband I said hi. You're a good mother. You're smart. Her book is called Detours, Hope and Growth After Life's Hardest Terms. I want you to buy two of these. One for you and one for somebody that needs to turn their setback into a comeback. So, Elizabeth, any final words? Anything you're feeling, anything you want to say to people that are listening or watching.
- [41:40]
B
I think I would just want everyone to know that whatever your pain is, is valid. Whatever your experience is, is valid. Don't compare it to other people's. That does absolutely no good for anyone. Comparison is death, but it doesn't need to be the end. You can still go have the life that you want. You are still deserving of love and joy and happiness. And don't give up on yourself. You deserve so much more.
- [42:14]
A
I love it. Elizabeth, thank you for being a guest on this program and for being so nice to people. All right, so thank you all for watching. Miracle mentality. What an episode. I love her resilience and the way she thinks, and it's all a mindset. And really where she sets her spirit connected to God, alignment to God's assignment. But don't forget, your mindset is yours to set. So she's talking a lot about mindset mentality of working her way through things. And once again, get her new book, Detours, by Elizabeth Smart. This book's going to help you. We have a big following, so. Big following. Get this book, okay? And then let me just part with this. You may not be what you want to be, but thank God you're not what you used to be. So just get up one more time. Keep going. God has a plan for your life. Make sure to continue to, like, subscribe and keep telling people about this podcast. Life is good. We'll see you soon. Thank you for sharing space with me on this episode of Miracle Mentality with Tim Story. If today sparked your courage or helped you understand why you're created for success, I invite you to carry that miracle mentality forward. Visit me@tim story.com that story with an ey on the end. Until next time, walk by faith, embrace possibility, and create your own comeback. Story.