From Stuck to Soaring: How to Propel Yourself Forward This Year

This podcast episode focuses on overcoming stagnation and finding motivation to achieve your goals as we begin a new year. Pastor Christine Desiree shares her personal struggles from the past year, including the loss of her father, and emphasizes the importance of not allowing life's challenges to hold you back. She presents seven practical strategies to help listeners break free from stagnation, such as setting clear goals, visualizing success, and engaging in positive self-talk. Additionally, she encourages the establishment of a buddy system for accountability and the management of stress and anxiety to maintain progress. With a spirit of encouragement, Pastor Christine inspires listeners to shake off stagnation and pursue the remarkable plans God has for them.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You are listening to Purposein Life podcast with Pastor Christine
Desiree.
We provide motivatingteachings that will help you understand
and apply biblical principlesto your life, show you how to overcome
obstacles and challenges, andinspire you to live a life on purpose.
Hello, this is PastorChristine Desiree, and I am so excited

(00:23):
to be back with my podcast listeners.
I'm telling you, I am excitedto be back with you all today on
this journey for 2024.
This is the first week of theyear, and we are here.
We made it through 2023despite the challenges, and I tell
you, that year was a difficult year.

(00:44):
I don't know about you, butfor me, 2023 was a very difficult
year.
I lost my precious, darling,sweet father, my spiritual mentor.
I lost him unexpectedly.
Yes, he was sick and for alittle while, but by the time that

(01:04):
we knew that he was terminal,it was took six weeks and he passed
away.
So that was very unexpectedfor us and for our family.
So very challenging.
I didn't think I would be ableto stand this soon after losing him
because he was my pillar, youknow, was that rock in my life.
But you know what?
God is good.

(01:25):
God is faithful.
We are here.
Satan thought he was going toknock us off our pedestal.
He thought he was going toerase us.
He thought he was going toremove us.
But guess what?
He didn't win.
And we are here.
This year, we're going to befilled with several podcast episodes.
The goal is to have one everyweek and to make them through for

(01:48):
you all, for my listeners.
And we're going to be touchingall types of topics this year.
But this week, our first weekback, this is the first week of the
year, and most of us have puttogether New Year's resolutions.
We've gotten out our books,and we have set our goals for the
year.
So now that we have our goals,what do we do?

(02:11):
How do we beat stagnation?
How do we beat stagnation?
That is the topic for today.
And so we're going to bereading From Deuteronomy, chapter
1, verses 6 through 8.
And after we finish thispodcast, I really believe that you
are going to feel motivated todo the things that you've always

(02:31):
wanted to do.
Like I said, we have thingswritten down that we want to do.
We have books, some of us,filled with things that we want to
do.
But how do you get motivated?
How do you feel motivated soyou can press through to do those
things that God wants you to do?
Well, that's what we're goingto be talking about today, we all
know that life can throw us curveballs.

(02:51):
I told you just a few minutesago about the big curve ball that
was thrown in my life.
So we've all been there, butit goes beyond that.
Sometimes we hold ourselveshostage because of the circumstances
that we go through.
Then we lose our motivationand eventually get stuck.
And then we don't know how toget out of that place.

(03:12):
And so we remain there, wehold ourselves captives and we just
stay in that place, sometimesfor days, sometimes weeks.
And most of the times we arestuck in that place of stagnation
for years.
I found a interestingscripture today that really excited
me for this podcast.

(03:33):
It comes from Deuteronomy,chapter 1, verses 6 through 8.
And it reads, the Lord our Godsaid to us in Horeb, you have stayed
long enough at this mountain.
Did you hear me?
You have stayed long enough atthis mountain.
Take and turn your journey andgo to the hill country and to the

(03:57):
lowlands and to the sea coastas far as the great river Euphrates.
See, I have set the landbefore you.
Did you hear me, somebody?
God has set the land before you.
Go in and take possession ofthe land that the Lord swore to your
fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac,and to Jacob to give to them and

(04:18):
to their offspring after them.
God is saying to you thismorning, you have stayed long enough
in this place.
Whoever's listening to me thismorning, you have stayed long enough
in this place, this place of stagnation.
You've got to get up.
The Lord is saying you need toshake yourself off and go and get

(04:39):
what he has for you.
And let me tell you, what hehas for you is great, it's marvelous.
But you've got to get up andpossess it.
That's what God is saying.
So I'm going to share with youseven strategies that you can use
to help beat stagnation.
Because believe me, thetemptation to be non motivated and

(05:01):
to be stagnant, it's coming.
It's coming.
First thing you want to do is,number one, set clear goals.
We talked about that at the beginning.
If you've ever tried to hit atarget with your eyes closed, you'll
know it's not an easy thing to do.
And it's the same thing for life.
The same goes for life.

(05:22):
If you don't know where you'reaiming for, you're likely to miss
it.
So the first step that youneed to do is to set clear goals.
What do you want?
Do you want a healthy lifestyle?
Do you want a promotion?
Do you need A clean house.
Do you need to lose weight orto start a new business?
Well, write it down.
Those of you who don't like towrite things down, I encourage you

(05:44):
today to write it down andthen put a time frame on it.
When I write out my goals forthe year, I always put a time frame
or a date that I want thatgoal to be completed by.
So write it down, make itclear and add a time frame, add a
date that you want that goalto be accomplished.

(06:05):
Number two, visualize your success.
The Bible says without avision, people perish.
So you need to see it.
You need to close your eyesand picture your success.
Picture your, your goals.
Picture yourself reaching your goals.
How does it look like?
How do you feel?
See, visualization is apowerful tool.

(06:27):
Vision is a powerful tool.
It's like that movie thrillerplaying over and over in your mind.
But this time it's not a movie thriller.
It's personal.
This has to do with yourfuture success.
So you've got to see it,you've got to believe in it, and
then get up and do it.
Number three, plot your course.

(06:48):
Okay, so write out your course.
Plot it out.
So not just write down yourgoal, but plot it out.
See, once you've got yourdestination, you need a roadmap,
okay?
And that roadmap is a plan of action.
So this is when you break downyour goals into bite sized pieces.
It's like eating a large cake.

(07:09):
And I know we love to eatcake, at least I love to.
And you have a large cake, butyou can't eat it all at once.
If you do that, it's going tonot be healthy for you.
So you have to take one biteat a time.
And that's a manageable way todo it.
That's safer and healthier for you.
So you take your goals and youbreak them down into smaller steps

(07:30):
that you are confident thatyou can achieve.
That's the goal right there.
That's the key.
Confident goals and littlesteps that you are confident that
you can achieve.
So for me, I write out mygoals, I have my action steps to
complete those goals.
And then as I go through myaction steps, I cross them out.
I cross them out.

(07:51):
And so I'm letting myself knowthat, hey, there's a process and
I've accomplished that process.
So it really helps in theprocess of completing my goals to
have my action steps.
And then for me, I crossedthem out as I go through.
Number four, positive self talk.
I know we've heard thisbecause it's a buzzword but it's

(08:11):
so easy to talk yourself outof something.
Believe me, I have been thereand I've tried to make excuses to
do a lot of even to do this podcast.
It's easy to revert back toour old habits and our old ways,
but today it's time to change that.
I'm telling you, you have tomake up your mind and it's time to
change that.
Start talking to yourself.

(08:32):
Start talking yourself into action.
That's what I want you to do.
Positive self talk is likehaving your own personal cheerleader
by your side already ready togive you that pep talk that you need.
You don't need anybody else.
You just need to speak thosethings into existence, into your
life.
Have that self talk withyourself and make it positive.

(08:52):
Turn the negative around andmake it positive.
Number five, have a buddy system.
Remember when you were a kidand your mom told you to hold hands
with your friend, with yourlittle buddy on field trips?
Or when you were in school andyou were going somewhere new?
Well, it's time to bring that back.
Bring that buddy system back.

(09:14):
Find an accountability partner.
Find someone who won't let youget off the hook.
Find that person who will keepyou on your toes, someone who will
hold you accountable toreaching your goals.
You don't want a yes person.
I know we love to have the yespeople in our lives, but this is
not a yes person.

(09:34):
This is somebody who's goingto hold you accountable and keep
you in, in that place ofmotivation so you will not be stagnant.
You need a partner who wantsto see you succeed, and that's important.
You can't just take anybody onthis journey with you.
It has to be somebody whowants to see you succeed and will
help put you on a track whenyou veer off course.

(09:56):
Because there are going to bethose times that are going to come
where you're going to try toget off course or life's going to
hit.
Life's going to bring challenges.
But that person will help youto stay on track.
Number six, deal with stressand anxiety.
And this is a big one.
Stress and anxiety can be likea heavy backpack weighing you down

(10:17):
and we all must deal with,especially in this world that we
live in today.
But you can learn to lightenthat load.
You can learn to deal withstress and those things that make
you anxious as you are tryingto unstuck yourself and trying to
beat stagnation.
I want you to identify thosestress points in your life and consciously

(10:38):
target them.
Did you hear me?
Consciously target them.
It's like a massage for your soul.
And what you're going to do isyou're going to relax those stressors.
Did you hear me, somebody?
You're going to relax those stressors.
You want to deal with thosepressure points before they deal
with you.
Because if you don't deal withthose stressors and those pressure
points, they are going to dealwith you.

(11:00):
When my father died, that wasa pressure point.
That was a stressor.
And if I did not put that inperspective, if I did not put that
in check, it was going to dealwith me.
If you don't hit them head on,they will hit you head on.
That's how life is.
So face them and don't ignore them.
You want to confront them anddeal with them.

(11:21):
Number seven.
And this is my last point for today.
You want to reward yourself.
Who doesn't like a good reward?
We all do.
Treat yourself.
When you hit those milestones,when you hit those action steps,
when you hit your goals, treat yourself.
It's not self bribery, but itkind of is.
It's a motivation.
Your reward may be that you'llbuy yourself something new.

(11:44):
You might treat yourself to ashort getaway trip, ladies.
You might get yourself a new purse.
This reminds me of a doctorwho I once heard and I actually got
this from him.
He, his goal was to workstraight, seven straight weeks.
And then he rewards himself bytaking an entire week off for rest
and relaxation.

(12:05):
So he works seven weeks nonstop.
And then that eighth week hetakes time and he goes on these elaborate
and exotic destinations liketo France or different places.
And then he relaxes and heplays hard for one entire week.
And he said that to me.
That's how he keeps himself going.

(12:25):
That's how he, he beats thelack of motivation.
That's how he beats thestressors in his life.
And I really love that system.
And so I adopted that and Iincorporated that into my life.
I worked extremely hard for aperiod of time and then I rest and
relax hard with no distractions.
And I mean no distractions.

(12:46):
I just don't do it.
That's how I reward myself.
And it really motivates me tobeat that feeling of stagnation as
we bring this episode to an end.
Remember, life is a journey.
It's not a sprint.
And like any journey, therewill be bumps in the roads, there
will be obstacles and times wefeel stuck and can't get ourselves

(13:09):
out of the rut.
But with these strategies thatI gave today in your hand, I pray
you'll be better equipped tonavigate those seasons that will
come to your life.
Remember, this podcast is tohelp you to not just survive, but
to thrive in life.
That's my goal here, is thatyou will thrive in life.

(13:31):
We all are surviving.
But I want you to go beyond that.
I want you to thrive.
So roll up your sleeves.
I want you to shake the dustoff of stagnation and unstuck yourself
today.
I know you're going to do it.
This is going to be an awesome year.
You are going to reach yourgoals in Jesus name.
Thank you for joining me onthis podcast episode today.

(13:52):
You can go to [e-mail] for
more information about me andabout this podcast ministry.
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