B (3:28)

Do you think that some people, this will be a question, I guess, for people that are very religious. Do you think that sometimes you see people using religion as a crutch as opposed to having all of those other components in navigating hard times? You think that there has to be this beautiful balance of both?

C (3:46)

I think it has. That's a great question. I think it has to be a beautiful balance. And when I hear you say the word crutch, I would summarize it by saying that I think that there are some folks who use their relationship with God as a way of not having to show up for themselves, right? So it's like, hey, God, I'll give an example. There's a miracle in the Bible, man, that's been laying on the bed for 38 years. There are some who would use their relationship with God to say, hey, God, come and pick me up off of this bed. I've been here for 38 years. But the story says that Jesus tells the man, pick up your bed and walk. Human responsibility. So even though God was there, God didn't pick him up, nor did he pick up the bed. He told him to pick up the bed because God has to make sure that we have the faith, the drive, the resilience, and the purpose to, to continue to move even in moments where we cannot feel him. So, yes, I think a lot of folks will use their relationship with God to be an end all, be all but. And I know it'll be a controversial statement, but I can go through, Scott, I can go through every miracle in the Bible and prove that human responsibility was necessary. Okay, let's take the one that everybody knows. Jesus turns water to wine, but what does he tell them? He says, go and bring the water pots to me. Human responsibility. He didn't bring the water pots to the. You go bring the water Pots to me, and then I'll do it. The man who was blind, God tells him, you have to go wash your eyes in the pool. The man who had the hand that was atrophy, God says, you got to stretch forth your hand. The woman who had the issue of blood, she went 12 years trusting doctors until she got to Jesus. And he says to her, hey, do you want to be Mayo? She says to herself, if I could just touch the hem of his garment and see human responsibility. If I could touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made. So there is a human component. No matter what your faith is to all transition, resilience, breakthrough and purpose, there is always a human component that's necessary.

B (5:54)

I love that. I think that's such an important message, too. I think that before we even get further, what we were even just talking about before we press record, you know, you mentioned that this book, the Shift, this is a re release of a book that you put out, he said, four years ago. And you've written other. I mean, you've written other books since. And I thought that was an interesting story, how, you know, people will bring you some of the other books that you've written, or they'll go to a book signing for one of the other books, but then they'll bring you this book and they'll be like, this changed my life. Like, please sign this. You know, this has been incredible. So I think that it's interesting to touch on sort of the anatomy of what a shift is, why it's so important, why this idea resonates with so many people. I'm sure you have. I'm sure you have a couple thoughts, because there's something about the idea of a shift, of going through these massive transformative moments in your life that is so powerful, that literally, out of all the incredible work you do, people are still saying, hey, this was the book that had the most impact on my life. Why do you think that is?

C (6:57)

Yeah, because I think that the one thing that is inevitable in all of our lives, we won't all be rich, we won't all be poor, we won't all be born black, we won't all be born white, we won't all be affluent, we won't all be struggling. Everybody won't be fit, Everybody won't be not fit. But we all will go through a transition. I don't. I don't care what spectrum you fall on. You. You could live in the hills of Hollywood, or you can live on the streets of Gary, Indiana, where I came from. You're going to go through a shift. So embracing change as opposed to resisting change is the emphasis that the books put on. Because change is inevitable. But not only is it inevitable, it's necessary. It's necessary. The tree can't stay a seed forever, right? The oak tree can't stay in acorn forever. If you stay in the original form of which you were planted, you'll never flourish into what you were meant to be. So in this book, I'm encouraging the readers to lean into the shift rather than to resist it. One of my mentors tells me a story about his brother who, when he was younger, used to ride motorcycles and his wife used to ride motorcycles with him. And you probably know this, Scott, is like, when you are on the back of a bike or motorcycle with somebody, you have to lean the same direction as them. You know, my wife and I will go jet skiing and she don't really like the water, so I'm going left and she's leaning right. And I'm like, no, baby, you got to lean with me this way. Because if you don't lean with the turn, you'll tip it. It's the same way with life. If you don't lean into the change, if you don't lean into the turn, then you're going to tip the boat. And you have to trust that every season has a purpose and you got to lean into.

B (8:57)

Makes sense. It's very scary when you're living it. What. What do people. Why do people not lean into it? You've like, this is a. This is a. I love this idea. This, you know, the. Get out of your comfort zone. You have to go through these. These hard periods of your life to get on the other. Everything worth doing is on the other side of a, you know, hard work, hard conversation. Some. All these ideas are so powerful, yet people still shy away from them their entire life. So these ideas, these ideas, people know them. They know that there's going to be change and shifts in their life, but for some reason, we negotiate with ourselves. We negotiate with ourselves until we die. So there is a huge mental block when somebody stays in a job or a relationship or in a circumstance that does not serve them quite literally until they're no longer on this earth. What is this block? What's going on?

C (9:57)

Yeah, I think there are several blocks. That's a question that I can see a Lego amount of Legos. It could be the block of imposter syndrome. It could be the block of inadequacy and insecurity. It can be the block of character versus personality. So none of us have the same block. But here's the deal. I get that question all the time. People say, yeah, but it's hard. It was hard for the person who did is hard. And that's why everybody doesn't do it. It is hard and that's why everybody doesn't reach it. It is hard. Which is why there are all stars in basketball and people who sit at the end of the bench and have to cheer. We all are born with an incredible amount of talent, right? For those of us. And I'm not talking about people who were born with and God bless them with the severity of a handicap. Right. Or something that holds them back. I'm talking about folks who can actually function psychologically in their everyday life without the assistance of medical attention. Obviously, we understand that there are some folks in life who have been disadvantaged. But if you and everybody's watching social media now, there are folks who were born disadvantaged, who've gotten the slight edge on folks who don't have disadvantages. I mean, I can't think of the guy's name. He spoke for me one time. I wish I could think of him. He has no legs. Nick.

B (11:32)

Nick Santa Nastasia.

C (11:34)

Nick spoke for me at a conference.

B (11:37)

And literally he's from Florida. I know him.

C (11:39)

Wow.

B (11:40)

Incredible.

C (11:41)

He inspired me so much. Nick. I never met Nick. I just saw him online and had our team to reach out to him. This guy is an itinerant speaker. Like he's everywhere around the world. He somehow thought it kind enough to come to our church and spoke, sat on the edge of a step at our stage with no legs, a partial arm and tore the room upside down and is quite honestly making huge amounts of money right now, speaking all over the world, who literally could have said I have no legs, no arms and so I'm not going to do anything. That's what I mean by leaning into the ship. He took what he had, he leaned into it and he made something of himself. Folks, listening today, I understand it as hard and I don't think Scott nor I are saying that it is easy. But what we are saying is you can do it. And how we know you can do it is because somebody with the same set of circumstances or the lack thereof that you have, they did it.

A (12:57)

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.