Speaker 1: 0:43

Hey guys, welcome back to the Fit Soul Podcast or the YouTube channel, and I'm so grateful that you are here Truly, truly, truly, I am, and this is episode number 125. And I've been doing a series on how to stop striving and start thriving. I have been walking through my own breakthrough over the last six months, just kind of a new level of thriving, and I want to share with you maybe a fresh perspective that has been so helpful to me. Okay, so if you're brand new to the podcast, welcome. My name is Amy Ramsey.

Speaker 1: 1:23

I am gonna come at you from a perspective that might be a little bit different. I am a certified high performance coach. I am an integrative nutrition health coach. I'm all about you being healthy and high performance, sustaining success over the long term in your life, in your health and wellness and in your relationships, and I believe this is so, so, so important. And today, what we're going to be sharing is really going to help, hopefully, to illuminate how important it is for you to stand in your identity and Jesus and to learn what it means to you. Don't have to prove, you don't have to strive, but are you? I want to share with you maybe a couple of different ways that you might be able to see yourself in this, and if you do, it's so powerful because then you have some awareness to go. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is not participating in all of the peace and the joy that Jesus promises me. I very much have a responsibility in how I'm living my life to access that full peace, that full joy, right? I'm living my life to access that full peace, that full joy, right? How we live our lives matters, how we think, our thoughts are things and what we focus on, focus on and think we become.

Speaker 1: 2:55

I was staying stuck in some form of low level Um, I hate to say burnout, because I hit clinical burnout one time, but some low level. I hate to say burnout, because I hit clinical burnout one time, but some low level of overworking, even when I was trying so hard not to overwork, when I was making efforts to not cram my schedule and not take on commitments that are just putting me in like my calendar in a tizzy. Do you know what I'm talking about? It was really. I've made strides in this area, but still I was finding myself in these patterns and by thinking about how to really access more of this joy and peace really helped me to realize the places where I had too much of a self-focus instead of an other's focus, and I want to explain that. Okay, when I started to figure out where I had self-protection and self-promotion, it really helped me to have a few unlocks, and neither one of self-protecting or self-promoting neither one of those sound like anything that anybody wants to say hey, I've had that.

Speaker 1: 4:26

But here's the thing if you can see where maybe this is manifesting in your own life, oh my gosh, I promise you, there is so much freedom in this and that's what I want to share with you today. I've been talking about this in episode 123 and in episode 124. That episode 123, I highly recommend. If you haven't listened to that, definitely go back and listen to that. So this is what I'm calling a transforming worldview and this is a truth, a transforming truth, and the more that we can understand how much our purpose, that we're called to live in purpose, we're called to walk in purpose, we're called to love others, love God and love others as ourself Like. There's this whole thing in our culture where so much of our focus is turned inward and some of them sound a little bit. They're sabotaging, but you may not see how this could relate to you. Does that make sense? Okay, I feel like I'm not getting my words out. Well, let me just move forward. Let me move forward.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Self-protection can sound like you don't want to put yourself out there. If you stay small, you won't be judged, you don't take any risks because you won't fail, right? If you'll just stay quiet, it'll be a little bit safer. And that feeling of not being enough, not being adequate to move forward, and what that does is it keeps you playing small. And here's the thing. That is self-protection.

Speaker 1: 6:09

I lived in self-protection. I was so scared to move forward and be activated. I was so I mean, I'm telling you unbelievably scared to step out at all and to use my voice at all. And I know that you might not believe it now that I'm, you knowcaster, a speaker, a coach to lots of women, and it doesn't sound like it now. But listen, I've got freedom from it. I have found freedom, and that freedom came from knowing who God was and knowing who I am in Him. It was so powerful to walk that out.

Speaker 1: 10:28

But playing small can show up in some really sneaky ways to avoid rejection. You don't want to be rejected. So let me just not try out, let me not put myself out there, let me not use my voice in any way, and it can also show up as hiding behind busyness or perfection. Perfectionism that one is a real tough one, and so in this stage of midlife, the more we can realize you know what I'm self-protecting again, let me get back out and put my focus off of, take the focus off of myself and put it on others.

Speaker 1: 11:02

Okay, here's, let's talk about self-promoting. I have some you probably do too. I have some people in mind that they are consistently promoting themselves, promoting their. Maybe it's looks like their business, but it's more about themselves and it just is off-putting. So I feel like we've got that level of self-promotion. Yes, yes, yes. But then there's the sneakier level that maybe we don't think that we're one more. I've got to do a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 11:40

Here was it is self-promotion. The needing to feel external validation, to feel secure, is self-promotion. The needing to feel needed to be worthy is self-promotion. The needing to feel like you have to succeed or you're a failure, that's self-promotion, and that is a very fine line. That's a very tricky place for, because we probably, if we're being honest, fall into some of that at any given day. Right, we want, if you want people to notice how capable you are, that is self-promotion. Feeling like you need to prove yourself for others to see or to belong. All of that is that self-promotion. And there's a place of when you are building something that you do promote but it's not about yourself, it's others focused. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 13:06

And Philippians 2, 3 says Do nothing out of self-ambition, but in humility, count others more significant than yourself. So when we are able to open up, it's like we've got our true self and we have our false self. And so this self-protecting and self-promoting is from your false self. It's from past trauma big T, little t. It's from your own ego. It's pride, it's sin, it's all different things that can be, but it's not based in love for others, it keeps the focus on ourself.

Speaker 1: 13:47

Even in business, I do some business coaching and sometimes some of my clients are fearful to move forward and put them like when you have a business, you got to put yourself out there and to put themselves out there and they feel nervous over that, they feel fearful over that. When it's, you know, I have to just remind them hey, this is this, this, this thing that you're feeling called to do. If you don't tell people you do it, then how are they going to know? It's not about you, it's about them. So how can we be in service to others, how can we stir up love and good works in others through our own lives and get the focus off of ourselves and our insecurities and our inadequacies to our pride and our ego and our self-protection and the self-promotion? When I was able to see those a little bit differently and how they're actually in my life now, it helped me to get free from that. It helped me to break free from the weight of both of those, because both of those end up keeping you in some sort of a low level, hiding, shrinking or striving, when God's like no, no, no, my beautiful child, I want you to, he wants us activated, he wants us living our lives for his glory and freedom. And I'm telling you, freedom is on the other side. Freedom is liberty and freedom are on the other side of this. But there is that if the more you can step into, okay, where am I at in this? Where is this in me? I'm telling you you're going to get some freedom, you're going to get freed up, loosen up. It's so powerful.

Speaker 1: 15:43

I know that this was a short podcast. I hope it was helpful. Please download, save this, share it with a friend and go walk, worthy of the calling for which you're called. Every day is a gift. Every day is a gift. You're called and there's purpose for you. God's got a plan. His plan is good. His mercy is chasing after you. He wants you activated. He wants all of us activated. So go, go, go, go, go, go and be loved, go and share your gifts with the world. The best of you Continue to contend and fight for her to come out, but you hiding, shrinking and striving will not produce the best of you. All right, my friend, I hope this was helpful and I'm grateful for you. And all right, I'm out. Have a great day. Bye.