Hey there, friend, and welcome back to another episode of the God Empowered Podcast, which is your safe audio space where Jesus, mental health, and entrepreneurship intersect. Yes, we love all the three, all at the same time. So today's episode, I just want to get real, like, I wanted to talk about something that has been a frequent thought in my mind and has been in a lot of conversations that I've been having with friends and family members and even students of mine, where we're just talking about the very real feeling of not having it together. You have all these thoughts where you feel scattered. You feel like you're maybe not where you're supposed to be. You feel like you just can't get it right. And there could be so many reasons as to why we're having these thoughts or feeling these emotions. But before we kind of Dive into how to navigate that season where you just might feel like you just don't got it together. I want to give you some peace of mind that this is pretty normal Given the fact of us living in today's world today's economy, especially in the United States it's difficult to navigate the world that we're living in today And because it's difficult to navigate the world that we're living in today, it feels that much more complicated to navigate our own individual personal lives, our goals, our ambitions, where we have determination to want to be better, to want to get our stuff together, but we just feel delayed. We feel inconsistent. We feel scattered. We feel like we don't even have the time to try to get our stuff together, right? We get so busy and so overwhelmed, so we just feel like we don't have the time. And here's the thing, when it comes to feeling like you just don't got it together, This could mean a wide variety of things, right? So let me just let me say a couple of examples here and then I kind of want you to either take one of the examples that I'm about to mention in a bit or come up with an example of your own. As we go about the rest of this conversation in this episode, and I want you to hold on to that example or that idea of yours because I want that to be a focal point for you after this episode to lean in learning how to navigate that journey of feeling like you don't have it together in that area of your life and getting clarity on what to do in that specific area of your life where you just feel like you ain't got it together. All right, so. let's go through some examples here. First one, you might feel like you do not have it together when it comes to your career or the business that you either are currently running or desire to start running. Anything related to our career stuff. It's so difficult to go through that emotion of, Oh, I just can't get it together. Maybe it's a time management thing. Maybe it's a consistency thing. Which, by the way, if you're struggling with consistency, we had a great podcast episode of that last week, so definitely feel free to check that out. Maybe you struggle with balance and there's just way too many to do's when it comes to the current career role that you're in or the business that you're starting that it's too overwhelming. It's too much and you don't know how to balance it and therefore when everything feels like it's just everywhere all at once, you're just like, yeah, I can't, I don't got it together. Remember that movie? There's a specific movie called Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. It is a very odd movie, but when I tell you that movie was also one of the best films I've ever seen, Because there were just so many powerful messages that hit deep. If you haven't seen that movie, check it out. But I love the title of that movie and I feel like I relate it so much to my life when I feel like I just don't got it together. Why don't I have it together? Because everything is everywhere all at once. And it's just too much, so I don't got it together. Check that movie out when you get a chance. By the way, this was not a sponsorship, that was just me shouting it out. Okay, moving on. So, maybe that's one area of your life where you feel like you don't got it together. Another area of your life where you feel like you don't have it together is Your health when it comes to your consistency in working out or eating right, um, even health beyond the physical mental health. Maybe you feel like you don't have it together mentally. You're scattered. You are struggling with certain negative thought patterns. Maybe it's emotional health. And you're struggling with emotional maturity, emotional awareness, emotional understanding of your own feelings and navigating that. And there's also health when it comes to your spirituality. Maybe you feel like you don't have it together with God. Maybe you feel like you and God got some trust problems. All right. maybe you are struggling again with that consistency factor in your relationship with God. Another good example, your money, your finances, maybe you feel like you just don't got it together. Maybe you're struggling with even having enough money. Maybe you're struggling with financial management. maybe you feel like your money is scattered. You're not sure on how to budget. Um, maybe you're not very good at budgeting yet, right? Like there's so many things that we just feel like we don't got it together. So I wanted to give some examples there and feel free to either take one of the examples I just shared or to come up with one in your mind. Like just meditate on the simple question of what area of my life do I feel like I just don't have it together and I'm desperately trying to get it together, but man, I can't. Whatever that is for you in your mind right now, hold tight to that. Cause I want to talk about how to navigate in that realm of feeling like it's not together. And the reason why this is so essential is because I have learned within my own patterns in my own life that anytime I feel like I just don't have it together, I am so. I'm scatterbrained. I'm overwhelmed. I get really disappointed in my own self. And that causes me to think so negatively about me, about the woman that God created, my, my very own self. And those negative feelings can lead me to, to depression. It could lead me to anxiety. It could lead me down a deep, dark rabbit hole of every single negative feeling that you could ever think of. All because of the starting point of me feeling like I just ain't got it together and I don't know how to get it together. Let's talk about how to navigate those seasons because that doesn't have to be your reality. You might not have it together in that area of your life. Guess what? It's okay. It is possible for you to get it together. You don't have to accept that as your forever reality. It's more so learning how to navigate your way through that so that you can take necessary action to one day get it together or make that area of your life better, more improved, more aligned with what God is calling you to do or who he's calling you to be all that stuff. Okay. So let's talk about it. But how do we navigate those seasons of feeling like we just ain't got it together? And how do we make sure that we keep ourselves from feeling disappointed, frustrated, sad, anxious, and even depressed when we feel like we don't have it together? All right. So first thing that I want to say, in seasons of your life where you feel like you just don't got it together. I want you to get good at intentionally enjoying what is working in that area of your life right now. Because when you're in that season of, Oh, I don't have it together. You are focused on things that are going wrong. things that are just not right. They're not where you want or where you need them to be. So your mind is focused on that. Your energy is going full force towards that. So we need to retrain our minds to take that energy and to focus it instead on what is working well. Psychologically, the brain is going to focus more on the negative versus the positive. And I'm not for the toxic positivity. I'm not for that. But what I am for is making sure that your brain is not tricking you into prioritizing all the negative stuff around you over the positive stuff. Because yeah, there is, there is going to be negative stuff happening, right? Problems, circumstances, uh, feeling like this is, this over here is just all over the place. But when we retrain our mind to say, you know what? This isn't working over here right now. I don't got my stuff together over here right now. But you know what is working well? This, that over there, this right here. And then you start thinking through just the things that are going well, the things that are. in fact, together. You feel like you got those together. And I think this could take some time to allow your brain to not just ponder on, but to kind of hold on to. So that anytime you have those thoughts of, Oh, I just don't got it together. You're more quickly to bounce back and say, you know what, even though this isn't all together right now, These over here are, and that's good enough for me at this moment. Right? So that's the first thing that I want to say, train your brain on what's working well, train your brain to focus on that. I'll give you an example. I had a moment and this is very recent. Like y'all know I'm vulnerable. I'm honest. Like I just like to keep it real. So this past week, okay, I'm not even talking a year ago, this past week I had such an overwhelming sensation of like, bruh, I don't got it together. And I'm so sick and tired of not having it together. And the area of my life where I was specifically feeling that way was when it came to financial management. Like, I just was so disappointed that, man, I, taxes, I should have this together over here. Why aren't I investing right here? Oh, budgeting. I forgot to budget in this area this month. Oh my gosh. Why don't I have that? Like, I just, when it came to financial management, I was really frustrated with myself this week. And then I had to pause and I had to say, you know what? What is working well in my finances right now? What am I grateful for in my finances right now? And how can I train my brain to focus on that instead? So then I started to think, well, I've been able to financially sustain my business. That's working well. Praise God for that. Well, I was able to finally get my taxes in order last year. I could have put that off, but I didn't. I got it together. That's starting to work well. So I just started thinking through thoughts like that. And that helped me to calm down and to retrain my brain to not be so heavily focused or heavily prioritize all the things that aren't working well above the things that actually are. It gave me the peace that I needed in that moment. So I want you to think about what that could be for you. That idea in your mind right now, that thought of what you feel like you just don't got it together in that area of your life, your business, your goals, your career, your family, yourself, whatever it is. I want you to ask yourself right here, right now, how can I retrain my brain in that area to celebrate, to appreciate, and to refocus on the things that are working well. Things that I did do right, things that I am working on. Think through that. And as you consistently do that more often, you'll find yourself feeling relieved, giving yourself some peace of mind. You'll find that disappointment in yourself kind of starting to fade away because you're appreciating. You are taking the time to say, you know what? This over here is working well, and I'm going to allow my mind to prioritize that over the things that I feel like are not working well right now. That, my friend, is such a key factor to finding joy and peace in the midst of chaos, in the midst of feeling scatterbrained, in the midst of feeling like you just don't got it together. Okay, that's the first thing. Second thing. Value that you are a work in progress. Keyword there is value. I think a lot of times we know that we're a work in progress, right? Like we know, or we should know that a lot of things that we are chasing after, or we're trying to change, we're trying to transform, we're trying to achieve a lot of those things are not immediate, right? We know they're not immediate, but yet we find ourselves getting frustrated. That it's not immediate. Like, we just wish we could have it now. We wish we could look like this now, reach this goal now, have this success now, feel confident now. Like, we know that these things are not immediate, but yet we get frustrated that they're not immediate. So instead of being frustrated at the progress and the process of things, learn to value the timing within that process. You my friend are a work in progress. God is continually working on you in your life over and over and over again. It takes time to develop into who you are. God wants you to be into that future version of you. It takes genuine time. So why get so frustrated with yourself that you don't have this over here together, this over here together, this over here together, we get so mad that we're just not there rather than valuing the simple fact that, you know what, I'm a work in progress and that's okay. That is okay. Things take time. You, my friend take time. This is by no means saying that laziness is okay. Or, uh, we can just kind of pace around. We don't really know what's going on. Like that's by no means, that is not what I'm saying. What I'm talking about is the simple fact that you have to be patient with yourself. If God is patient with you, why aren't you patient with yourself? God knows that it's going to take you time to let go of old habits that have been so innate within you for so long. He knows it's going to take you time to let those bad habits go completely for good consistently. God knows it's going to take you time to let those bad habits go completely for good consistently. And to attach yourself to better, more godly habits for good consistently. You are a work in progress. So yes, put effort into your development, but also be patient with yourself as you progress through that development. So, in those areas of your life where you're like, I don't got it together over here. Be patient with yourself, put in the effort, try and try again. You are a work in progress. God is working on you every single day. And when you fall, when things feel hard, when you find yourself in the cycle of feeling like you're about to get it together and then you take three steps backwards and now you feel like you don't got it together. Take a deep breath. It's okay. You're a work in progress, value that process. All right. The third thing that I want to say when it comes to how you can really navigate those seasons of your life where you feel like you just don't got it together, recognize that this is a wake up call for your need for God. God wants to get our attention and sometimes. He will put or allow problems to take place, god gives us free will. You can decide if you want to take the steering wheel of your own life, or if you're going to allow God to finally take the steering wheel of your life while you sit in the passenger seat and trust him to drive, he gives you free will. And many times, myself included, we like to be in the driver's seat. We'll get in the driver's seat. We will steer our lives because we know what is best for us. We can just depend on our own selves. We don't need nobody. God will let you do that. You've got free will. But when you do that and you bump into roadblocks, you bump into circumstances, you bump into things feeling like they're overwhelming, scattered all over the place, and you just don't got it together, that, my friend, is your wake up call that you cannot, in fact, solely depend on yourself and that you desperately need to depend on God. It is a wake up call to lean on Him again, to come back to Him again. So in seasons of your life where you feel like you just don't got it together and you don't know how to get it together, everything is just way too much, it's too overwhelming. Look at this as a beautiful moment for you to realign yourself to God, reattach yourself to God. to give him the steering wheel of your life again. Because when he does, when you put trust in God to that degree, where you say, you know what you drive, that is when things start to fall into place. That is when things start to feel like, you know what, I actually am starting to get this together because you're allowing God to drive and you are allowing yourself to sit in the passenger seat. Now that doesn't mean you just sit and do nothing. People in the passenger seat have responsibilities too. This is just me simply saying, Hey, let God lead your life. Notice that this is your chance to depend on him again. And it's up to you to really fine tune how you need to depend on him again, right now in that area of your life, specifically where you feel like you just don't got it together. How can you depend on God when it comes to that? How can you do things more God's way when it comes to that specifically? What does that look like for you? Think about that, my friend. Last but not least, the fourth thing that I want to say when it comes to navigating that season where you feel like you just don't got it together, take non delayed Action. In areas of your life where you feel like you don't have it together, a lot of times we're overly consumed with that feeling of disappointment. We're disappointed in ourselves that we just can't get it right. We want to get it right, but we just can't. Instead of allowing yourself to sit in that feeling of disappointment, you need to move, stop delaying, take action step by step, piece by piece to get it together, to take that specific area of your life, your business, your family, yourself, your health, your relationship with God from feeling scattered and not together to feeling stable and together. But in order to make that transition, you gotta move. I don't think we notice how often we freeze. We freeze from our own emotions, our own thoughts hitting us to the point where we freeze and we don't know what to do. We don't know how to get out of those emotions or those thoughts and therefore progress or improve within that certain area of our lives. We're just frozen. You have to unfreeze. If you want an area of your life to truly improve to the point where you feel like you got it together in that specific area, you have to consistently move and do the work that needs to be done to get your stuff together in that area of your life. Now let me say this because this is really important. There is never going to be a final destination of you feeling like all the areas of your life are fully together. You're just, you just got it right all the time. You are human. You're gonna fall sometimes. There's gonna be setbacks, circumstances that you're just not sure how to deal with. That's okay. You are human. But when we face those moments, We have to consistently move, so you don't just take non delayed action once to take your life from feeling not together to together. You have to remove over and over and over again. That is what I truly feel that God desires for us. He just wants us to keep walking. And yes. We're going to have moments of rest and that's okay. But ideally walk through the seasons of our life, finding a healthy pace and learning to just get our stuff together, to get right, to get improved, to get better, to master that skill, to upgrade that area of our life. Don't delay it. Don't allow yourself to be frozen for long periods of time. Allow yourself to feel in that moment. Bring those feelings to God. But then eventually, my friend, you've got to get up and you have to move. Do the work. Put in the effort to make the change so that step by step, piece by piece, you are, in fact, getting that area of your life together. You're becoming the woman that God is asking you to be. You're becoming the man that God is calling you to be. You have that area mastered or managed or balanced well in the way that God called you to do so. It's possible. But first, we just need to learn to navigate those areas of feeling like we don't got it together so that we don't stay frozen for so long. We don't feel stuck for so long. We're not sitting in these feelings of disappointment or regret or overwhelmed for so long. There's a solution to navigate your way out of that and to take necessary steps so that you, my friend, can feel free. Can work through the process of feeling like you don't have it together and setting that goal to reach that point of, okay, I'm starting to get it together and I'm going to progressively continue to get it together in all of these areas of my life with God right by my side. At the end of the day, I know that that feeling is just overwhelming. Like I said, I went through that this past week where I just was so frustrated with myself and feeling like I just didn't have it together. And then I was like, you know what? There's a solution to this. I don't have to allow these negative feelings to be my reality. I can move past this, I can work through this, and I can do it in a way that's actually bringing me joy and peace and understanding and patience rather than disappointment, frustration, stress, anxiety. I don't want that anymore. I want the good stuff. I want the good feelings. I want, I want what God wants for me. And man, what God wants for you is, it's nothing but good. Nothing but good. As we wrap up this episode, I just want to ask you for one quick favor. So as you know, if you've been listening in to the latest God Empowered podcast episodes, you should know that we are moving our episodes to be released every single week. I'm trying my best. I want to get these episodes out every single week, just for you. However, in order to help me do that for you, I would love some topic ideas. So if you can head to the number down below, you should see something that says, send us a text message. If you could send me a text message. Through our podcast, I would absolutely love to hear from you in regards to specific topics you'd love for me to talk about. And there is no shortage of topics, believe me. If you want to talk more on business stuff, mental health stuff, um, specific biblical things, maybe combining all the things, maybe you have specific questions, thoughts, concerns. I promise you there is no dumb topic. There is no, uh, topic that's, that's too much or too heavy. Feel free to drop us that. I would love to hear from you, my friend. And with that being said, we're out in this podcast episode, and we will see you in the next one that we'll release next week coming soon. See you later, friend.