Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey friends, welcome
back to Entrusted to Lead.
I'm Danita Cummins and I'mreally glad you're here.
If this is your first timelistening, welcome to the
community.
But if you've been around for awhile, you already know that
this is a space where we talkabout leadership, purpose, faith
and how we show up for thepeople we have been entrusted to
lead, even if it's hard.
Today, I want to have a heartto heart with you about
(00:27):
something that's been on myspirit lately, which is success.
Because, let's be real, it issuper easy to get caught up
chasing a version of successthat looks good on the outside
but doesn't actually fulfill you.
You can be doing all the thingsbuilding the business, climbing
the ladder, serving the peopleand still feel like something's
missing.
Have you ever been there?
(00:49):
Today, we're going to talkabout why that happens and how
God is inviting us to redefinesuccess on His terms, not the
world's.
So grab your cup of coffee andlet's get started.
Leadership can feel really heavysometimes, especially when
you're carrying vision andpeople and purpose on your
(01:09):
shoulders all at the same time.
You have got a big mission, butthe strategy feels fuzzy and
your team is looking at you forclarity that you're not sure you
actually have.
I get it.
It's hard.
I'm Danita Cummins.
I help faith-driven leaderslike you find clarity, align
with your values and lead withconfidence, without burning out,
(01:30):
because that's never okay.
If you're ready to get unstuck,lead your team with courage and
to turn that God-given visioninto strategy that really works.
I want us to talk.
Take the free leadershipclarity quiz that I've created
today and I want you to scheduleyour no-pressure coaching call,
because together we can uncoverwhat's holding you back and how
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to move forward in faith andconfidence.
So here's a question I've hadto ask myself more than once
what version of success have Ibeen chasing?
If I'm honest, there are manytimes in my life where success
was all about achievement Hitthe next milestone, grow the
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audience, add another credentialand while none of that is
inherently bad, this is whatI've noticed the more I achieve,
the more pressure I felt andthe peace.
Well, that part started to slipaway.
You see, the world definessuccess by what you do, your
productivity, your influence andyour outcomes.
But what if success isn't aboutany of that?
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And then how do we look at thatfrom the lens of faith and talk
about our fruit and theproduction of fruit and not get
all that turned upside down.
Proverbs 16.3 says commit to theLord whatever you do and he
will establish your plans.
That verse doesn't say workhard and God will bless your
(02:57):
hustle.
It says commit to him, commitit all to him, and the word used
there means to roll it onto him, like literally like take the
heavy burden of performance offyour back and roll it onto God's
capable shoulders.
What does that look like?
Can you imagine?
(03:18):
How does that make you feel?
So let me ask you this what issomething that you're carrying
today that's heavy, not becauseit's from God, but because it's
rooted in pressure or fear.
We've talked a lot about fearthis summer.
We've dug into some limitingbeliefs and ungodly beliefs and
lies and pressure.
So maybe it's a number you feelthat you have to hit, maybe
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it's someone else's expectations, or maybe it's an internal
voice that says, if I don'taccomplish this, I am not enough
.
When my husband decided that hereally wanted to go after this
new business at the end of lastyear, when he was really felt
like the Lord was calling him tothis and this was the thing
that he wanted to put his handto, we had a very serious,
(04:04):
candid conversation sitting inmy office one night and I said
where are we going?
What is the point?
How do you define success?
Because as soon as you walk outthat door, life is going to hit
you really hard.
It's going to be hard to starta business from scratch in our
basement.
It's going to be hard tocompete on a market scale that
(04:27):
is competitive, highly advancedand, let's just be honest, very
expensive.
We're not building $12 shoes.
We're building $5,000, $6,000,$10,000 communication systems,
so we are walking into a marketthat's already established and
they're running really fast, andso there are a lot of
(04:49):
challenges that we're going tohave to overcome the minute we
decide we want to go after thisthing, and I think that's
important, because we can getreally frustrated or really
discouraged if the successmeasurement is about money or
metrics or numbers and those areall good things.
(05:10):
I love metrics, I'm not opposedto making money.
I think these are all reallyimportant things.
Money is a resource Food,clothing, shelter.
The more money we make, themore people we can help, the
more our organizations can growand we can have a greater impact
in the world.
But that's not how God definessuccess.
So what does it truly mean tocommit our work to the Lord.
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What does that truly mean?
That's where this real shifthappens, when we move from
striving to surrender and I knowsurrender isn't sexy.
I've served in the military for30 years.
I know it's a word we don'tlike to use.
It doesn't look good on aresume and it clearly does not
sound powerful in a mission team.
I know I've been there.
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But can I tell you somethingSurrender is one of the
strongest decisions that you canmake as a leader.
I've had seasons where I washolding on so tightly to my plan
, trying to make every littlething line up every, every box,
every dot and it just keptfalling apart.
Or it was really really, reallyhard and super exhausting.
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I would tweak the strategy, I'dput in more hours over here,
I'd overthink the next move overhere and I would still feel
like I'm spinning my wheels.
I often tell markets like 10little piles are all burning at
the same time and I'm runningback and forth, back and forth,
back and forth making sure thatthey're all staying lit, all at
the same time.
It could be exhausting, but itwasn't until I prayed the simple
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but hard prayer that God gaveme clarity when I said God, I
give this back to you, whateveryou want to do with it.
I'm listening.
And then I felt something shift.
Peace entered the room, becauseGod's version of success starts
with obedience, not outcomes.
(06:58):
I love this part in thescripture in the Old Testament
and in the New Testament wherewe learn where God says I desire
mercy, not sacrifice.
That is rooted in faith, notformulas.
That doesn't mean we don't havea plan, because we do have a
plan, because I'm a planner andI like a plan.
I like a good plan and a goodchecklist and a good Excel
spreadsheet.
But it means that our plans areheld loosely and we offer them
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freely to the Lord.
So let me say this for someonewho needs to hear it today you
do not have to force what God isnot blessing.
You don't have to do that.
There is a difference betweenpersistence and striving.
One is rooted in trust and theother is rooted in fear.
So what did those look like foryou?
So let's get practical for aminute, because if we're going
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to redefine success, then weneed new metrics, right, new
ways to measure whether or notwe're on track and a new
perspective, realisticexpectations.
I like to say so here are threequestions that I am learning to
ask myself that I will sharewith you today because I love
you.
Number one do I feel peace inthis decision, even if it's
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scary?
Not for comfort, but for peace.
Peace be still.
Ever since I came back from mysabbatical last year, I say that
a lot.
I just close my eyes and I liftmy hands up and I say peace be
still, lord.
Just peace be still, the kindof peace that lets you sleep at
night, even when the outcome isunknown.
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That's the kind of peace we'relooking for.
Number two the question is am Iwalking in obedience, not just
productivity?
Because there have been a lot ofthings in this season that I
have learned that I'm notsupposed to continue to carry
anymore.
There are a lot of them, andthat's hard.
It's hard to lay things down,especially when you think am I
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failing?
Am I going backwards?
I built all these things.
I have teams, we have processes, we have a podcast, we have
books, we have these thingswe're doing now.
Is this all a waste of time?
Some of the most meaningfulthings that God has asked me to
do didn't make sense on paper,but they were the next right
step, like when we started thenonprofit, there was nothing on
(09:04):
paper.
I literally had a poster boardthat I got at Walmart.
I cut up a bunch of pieces ofconstruction paper, I wrote down
a bunch of words and I movedthem around at my kitchen table
about 1200 times and I cried alot.
It didn't make any sense to me.
And now here we are, all theseyears later, and we are making a
powerful difference in thecommunity every single day.
That didn't make sense at thetime.
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I didn't have any five-stepplan, but we just move forward
in faith.
And number three the question isam I being faithful to what is
in my hand, not what's on myvision board?
It's good to have a visionboard.
I like vision dreams.
All those things are greatgoals, but your faithfulness
today is the soil that God willuse to grow fruit tomorrow.
(09:48):
It really truly is friend.
So maybe success isn't about howbig the platform gets, but how
steady your soul stays.
And what is the soul Like?
Can we just be honest for asecond?
If you know, you could drop,like a note, a comment in the
DMs, you could send me a socialmedia message or, I don't know,
you could call me, becauseprobably half of you have my
(10:10):
phone number Like what is thesoul?
Where does it come from?
Where does it go?
How does it move and shape andgrow as the seasons of our life
change?
I have all these questions.
And how do we steady our soulright?
It's so big.
I think it's a lot lesscomplicated, though, than we
really give ourselves credit for, but that's a different day.
(10:31):
So maybe success is not aboutgetting more done I don't think
that it ever is actually butabout being more available to
God and to the people around you, and in this season of my life
that is so super important to me.
We talked a little bit lastmonth about margin.
We didn't really dig into itvery much last month about
margin, we didn't really diginto it very much, but there is
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a huge lesson to be learnedabout.
How do you make emotional,spiritual, physical, financial,
intellectual margin right?
How do I hold space for thosepeople that are super important
in my life to make sure that Ihave the time when they need me,
that I have the money ifsomething comes up, that I have
the emotional capacity to takeon hard things, or when my mom
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gets sick or when my friend hascancer Like we have to make
margin in our life for thethings that really truly matter,
and so maybe the win isn't thispublic recognition Most of the
time it's not, but it's more soa private obedience, and that
can be hard too, friend, I knowI get it.
So what does this actually looklike in real life?
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Here's what it looks like to me.
It looks like choosing to sayno to something that would
elevate your status because itdoesn't align with your calling.
Okay, and you can measure that.
Does this align with the valuesthat I have?
Yes or no?
Number two, it looks likelaunching something imperfect,
like a podcast or a book or acourse, not because it's
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polished, but because God toldyou to move forward.
And it looks like trusting thatGod can do more with your
surrendered little than youcould ever do in your own
strength with a lot, and thathas been very true.
For me, surrender isn't quitting.
It's trusting and it's gettingto the end of your ability and
saying, okay, god, I'm going tokeep walking, but you, you're
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going to have to lead.
It's releasing the need to beimpressive and choosing instead
to be intentional, and thoselook like two completely
different things.
And, lastly, it's letting Goddefine what the win is, even if
it looks different than what youexpected.
So, friend, if you're in aseason of questioning or
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reevaluating, if your version ofsuccess feels heavy or if your
spirit is craving somethingdeeper, then I want you to lean
into this.
Number one commit your work tothe Lord.
Number two trust him to to theLord.
Number two trust him toestablish the plan, because he
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already has.
And number three redefinesuccess as obedience, peace and
faithfulness.
Let God take the pressure off,because he never asked you to
perform.
He only asked you to walk withhim.
So here's the reflectionquestion for you today what
success have I been chasing thatmight not be from God?
Where do I need to surrenderthe outcome and trust his
process, and how might God beinviting me to redefine the win
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in this season?
Thanks for spending the timewith me today.
I hope this episode encouragedyou to breathe a little deeper
and remember you don't have tohave it all figured out, okay.
You just have to keep showingup with open hands and a willing
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heart.
And if this resonated with you,would you do me a favor?
Can you share it with a friend?
Tag me on social and let meknow what part spoke to you,
because I'd love to hear yourstories.
And if you haven't already, canyou subscribe to the Interested
to Lead newsletter, where Isend tools and prompts and
encouragement straight to yourinbox, because I really do wanna
help you grow in your faith andin your leadership journey.
(14:08):
All right, friend, until nexttime, keep leading with courage
and remember your worth isn't inwhat you accomplish, but it is
in who you belong to.
So keep showing up every day,even when it hurts, because you
matter.
All right, friend, I'll see youlater.
Have an amazing day.
Bye.