When you make up excuses for yourself, you hold yourself back by your own limiting beliefs. Host Dr. Kim Grimes summarizes the last six episodes by getting the best bits to help in moving beyond your excuses. You don’t have to live deceiving yourself any longer. There’s a way to be true to who you are, so you can reach your utmost potential. To be unapologetically yourself, you must come face to face with your true self. Tune in!
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Practical Tips On Moving Beyond Your Excuses: Summary Of The Last 6 Episodes
We are now in episode 14. We had some awesome guests come and share with us powerful stuff. They empowered us in a mighty way. The last several months have been amazing and I’m so grateful for our guests. I am so grateful to each of you for listening as well. Thank you so much for your comments, accolades and the love you are leaving. Thank you for sharing this show with your friends, family, community and tribe. We are here to empower you to be true to how you were created.
It’s about you not allowing people and their opinions to affect how you show up in life and not wasting time being intimidated by the presence of others while thinking so little of yourself. We are here. It’s about not allowing the world to dim our light and our glamour because you are you. When you show up being you, you will empower the people around you. You will shine your light. You will share your love. You will help others to tap into their greatness. We are here to encourage you to uncover your greatness, find your true identity, and own who God created you to be because you owe no one an apology for being your true self.
What won’t happen is that you won’t find anyone better at being you than you. I dare you to find someone. I hope you all have been tuning in to the last thirteen episodes and if not, you should because we have had some phenomenal guests. They showed up and they showed out. What you don’t want to do is jump in here because if you do, you’re missing out on all of the juicy and scrumptious information we have shared thus far.
Thank you for being here. I am humbled and grateful for you and for sharing this time with you. I’m so grateful for your time. I’m honored that you chose this show. In this episode, I want to review our last series. In the last six episodes, we talked about moving beyond excuses that hold you back. Unlike our first series, where I came in, prepped you and told you about what was coming, with this series, we just jumped right into the topic.
I want to provide a summary of what has been going on over the last six episodes. Over the last six episodes, I have said that the easiest person to deceive is the person in the mirror. Deceiving ourselves is another way of lying to ourselves. We probably are good at catching other people when they’re lying, but we’re not very good at catching ourselves when we’re lying. I believe one of the reasons why we’re so good at deceiving ourselves is we don’t call the lies that we tell ourselves lies. Instead, we make up excuses. We create excuses and reasons.
We disguise our excuses as reasons because we want to be reasonable. We dignify the lies we say to ourselves by calling them reasons. We can come up with a thousand reasons why we don’t want to do what we should do or why we behave the way that we do. We have reasons why we won’t encourage ourselves and why we don’t love ourselves or do not know our worth. What reasons are you telling yourself about your worth and values?
We find a dignified reason to stay stuck and stay right there where we are instead of being open and honest with ourselves. Reasons are masquerade excuses and excuses are limiting beliefs. That is what we talked about in the last six episodes. You heard from our guests share what their excuses were and what was keeping them from having a face-to-face with themselves.
Until you decide to love the skin you're in, you have not decided to be the captain of your ship. Click To TweetIt’s easy to find a reason or an excuse instead of telling ourselves the truth. That is why our discussion was all about excuses that we have in our lives. Have you identified those excuses that are keeping you from having a face-to-face with yourself? Those excuses are keeping you from moving forward in life and being who you were created to be. They are keeping you from moving forward in school and your career, from living your dream, and from moving forward. They are keeping you stuck in toxic relationships.
Are you still spitting out excuses in an attempt to save face and to shift blame even when you know better? Allow me to share a quick review of the last series of the last six episodes. It’s a quick review of our guests who came and shared their personal stories and gave you information on how you can move forward. In this episode, that’s exactly what I’m sharing. I want to bring it together and share the nuggets that our guests brought and how you can still move beyond the excuses that are holding you back.
Have you identified your reasons? Have you identified your masquerade excuses and your limiting beliefs? Have you identified them? If not, I hope you will by the end of this episode. I hope by the end of this episode, you will move forward. I prepared a nice little presentation called Bringing It All Together. I want to revisit our guests and share the nuggets. The words of encouragement. The empowering comments and words that they shared. Let’s jump right in. We have Dr. Virginia LeBlanc. Our series is Moving Beyond Excuses That Hold You Back. Her episode was on Loving The Skin You’re In. Let’s see what Dr. V had to share.
“The programming that we see in our socio-cultural environments, whether it’s television, social circles or that little bully kid in school who told you you’re too dark, all of those things, that’s all programming. It’s all going into your subconscious because at that age and until you decide to love the skin you’re in, you have not decided to be the captain of your ship. The crew is in control or the subconscious. Anything and everything you hear is going into your subconscious and you are making decisions. You are living life. Life is leading you. You are not leading life because of that subconscious programming.”
Are you the captain of your ship? Are you living and leading life and moving where you need to be? That’s the question. It’s important for you to know these things and to recognize how she’s talking about the programming. Where are you with that? Let’s see what else she had to share.
“Education teaches us to think outside the box but think about it. We’re still hovering around that box that society created that has limitations and limiting beliefs. When you get to a point where you can let that box go and be okay with letting that box go and think without a box, that’s when you can go to the next level. That’s when you up a level. That’s when you can become that divergent thinker and start allowing yourself to be exposed to life and all the wonders and all the beautiful people in it. That’s when you can be a divergent thinker. You start to see the unseeable, know the unknowable, and do the impossible.”
Are you a divergent thinker in a way where you are thinking and doing things outside of the box? If not, you need to go back and revisit it. Go back to episode eight. Revisit the episode and look for more of the tidbits that Dr. Virginia LeBlanc shared with us. Moving on, we had D’mon Reynolds. He came in and he shared how to own your differences because that’s important. We are different unique individuals and you have to own your differences. Let’s see a nugget that he shared.
“Time is a big one. I have encountered some people like you and mentors. It’s great having wise counsel around you, people who can see life and know you and learn from you, who might tell you some things that you want to hear and that you don’t want to hear. My wife has been a tremendous part of that when I’m asking this question, ‘Am I enough?’ I have to get up every single day with somebody who’s very confident and was born into her profession. She’s a doctor.”
“She’s constantly speaking to me about, ‘You need to do this. You are more than enough for this.’ That’s helped but the work has come when I have encountered certain opportunities. Now that I’ve gotten that advice going into overall projects that I have been to, like radio and TV, I was taking faith leaps. I said, ‘God, I’m going to trust you. I’m trusting the gifts you put inside of me, and I’m going to go take advantage of doing certain things.’”
We all have gifts and talents within us. Are you trusting your gifts and talents? Are you moving forward, uncovering them, and acknowledging what they are? If not, there’s an exercise that I provided on the website, Path To Greatness. Download that. Do that exercise. We’re here to serve and support you. We want you to own your difference. Let’s see what else D’mon had to share with us as well.
“Being me means I hold onto my values no matter who it affects, as long as I’m standing right with God in those situations. I hold onto my values, my characteristics and the decisions I make. All of those things that made me, I have to do it and it can’t compromise anything about who God has called me to be. That’s what it means to be you, even when it’s hard. People won’t encourage it.”
“If you have friends, those close relationships might be altered. At the end of the day, if something doesn’t sit right in your spirit and it goes against who you are completely and the values that you had, that’s the opposite of being you. You have to walk in and own yourself, own what you believe, own what you think, and own the perspectives, quirks and craziness that you have. That’s ultimately what makes you you.”
He’s giving us some information on what’s making us uniquely ourselves and owning it like you own the eyes in your head, the nose on your face and the ears. Own those. Own your idiosyncrasies. Own all of those things that make you uniquely you and if you don’t know, check in with D’mon and he’ll help you. That’s why we’re here. Moving into part three of this series. It was Kimberly Jordan Croslin. She came and shared with us about finding your voice and the beauty in your flaws. Do you see the beauty in your flaws? You should. Let’s see what Kim had to say.
“I found my voice. Now, it’s okay for me to be flawed and be in therapy. I’ve learned that. In the Black Community, we got to pray things away. There’s nothing wrong with praying. I’m a praying woman and prayer works. It gave me a voice. I don’t allow people to talk to me in any kind of way anymore. I advocate for myself and not from a place of anger.”
When you’re a divergent thinker, you start seeing the unseeable, knowing the unknowable, and doing the impossible. Click To TweetKim found her voice. Have you found your voice? Do you advocate for yourself? Do you stand up for yourself, for who you are, for your uniqueness, and for the beauty that is in your flaws? Let’s see what else Kim had to share.
“I am able to advocate for myself and my children. I want to continue to grow because I find that I am passionate about empowering women to find their voices. Another thing that helped me find my voice was also surrounding myself with people that spoke life into my situation. People who said, ‘Kimberly, you are beautiful and brilliant and your voice is amazing.’”
Who do you surround yourself with? Are you surrounding yourself with people who support you and encourage you? Are you surrounding yourself with people that empower you and that speak life into you? If not, check yourself. Identify those people that are around you. Are they speaking into you or are they pulling from you? When I say speaking into you, are they speaking positive things into you? Are they edifying you?
When someone speaks negatively to you, that’s not edifying you. That’s not supporting you. That’s not serving you. Find your voice. Advocate for yourself. Surround yourself with those people who will speak life into you and your situations and who will see your flaws as you do beautifully. Our next guest was Sayyam Shahzad. What Sayyam bought forth was realizing that you are good enough. That’s the thing. Sometimes we don’t realize that we’re good enough. Do you believe that you’re good enough because you’re good enough? Let’s see what Sayyam had to share. This is some juicy stuff.
“It was not that long ago that I realized I had a soul and I existed. It was not long ago that I ritually valued or started to respect myself because all my life, I have been people-pleasing and going through a hard life personally. I was always taught that I was nothing but an entity, a cog in the system, worthless and all sorts of stuff. I never had the right to be myself in the life I was living. Until one day, when I had enough, I had to look in the mirror and realize that what I needed was myself. I did exist and saw myself. In these last couple of years, I have grown in eternity in terms of the wiseness and not relying on other people’s opinions to define me.”
Do you believe that you are enough? Do you see yourself as being enough? Because that’s important. You have to see yourself as being enough. You have to know that you exist. You have to value yourself. You have to know that you matter, that you are important and valuable. Sayyam shared some good tidbits and nuggets about realizing that he is enough. Let’s see what else he had to share.
“Everyone has a place and a duty on this planet. We want to please people because we want to make them happy, but we have to change pleasing into serving and know how to serve. That is all we need to do. At the end of the day, life tells us everything. It dictates how we move and walk. It teaches us to become employees or be cogs. When you go in machinery, there are cogs. We are all cogs in a machine. That is what we are. No one goes to a person and says, ‘You matter. You are worth something.’”
You are worth something. You matter. It is exactly what I say. You exist for a reason. You exist to serve. It’s not about pleasing people at all. It’s not about pleasing people. It’s about serving and when you change your mindset to serving others, you will then begin to know how valuable you are in this world. You will begin to recognize that people need your gifts and talents. They need what it is that you have to offer.
Let’s start looking at ourselves and know that not only are we good enough but we are also good enough. People need us because we’re here to serve and not to please people. In part five, we had a magnificent guest, Mary Henderson. Sayyam was from London and Mary was from Australia. We’re bringing in people from across the globe. It’s important for you to know that. Mary talked about the evolution of our values. We evolve because of our values. You want to go back and check out her episode. Let’s see what she shared.
“I ask myself, ‘What can I do naturally with ease and grace that is my gift? What is my talent? What can I do that is easy, that I love, that lights me up, that is my natural talent?’ I need to merge all of that together to understand what my true core purpose is. When I can live from that space of being truthfully myself, then I can be unapologetically myself because then I can see that there’s nothing outside of me that I can compete with. The only thing I can compete with is myself. That is my version of being unapologetically myself.”
What is your version of being unapologetically you? You want to be who you were created to be and Mary said it. She said, “You have to be true to yourself.” The only person that you’re competing with is you. You have to be truthful, talk and be in that place of truth. You know the cliché, “The truth will set you free.” Allow the truth to set you free because of who you are and be truthful. As I said, the easiest person to deceive is the person in the mirror. Stop deceiving yourself and start from a place of truth. Tell yourself the truth. Let’s see what else Mary has to say or what she shared.
“I always relate to being unapologetically myself back to my purpose. I think we have to go one step beyond before being unapologetically ourselves. To be unapologetically yourself, you must come face-to-face with your true self. Otherwise, how can you be unapologetically yourself? For me, it is understanding what the true meaning of purpose is. Most people see purpose as something out there. I’m chasing something. I’m looking for my purpose. I want to find my purpose. For me, purpose is an accumulation of your learned knowledge and skillset that is experienced that becomes your wisdom combined with your natural gifts, natural talents and value system.”
She hit the nail on the head. We’re always looking out trying to find our purpose. We’re trying to find, “Why are we here? Who should we serve and what should we do?” She said that it’s a combination of your knowledge, experience and values. It’s a combination of all of that along with your gifts and your talents and your skills. Put all of that together and your purpose will reveal itself right before your eyes. Let’s start looking at our gifts and talents so that we can hone in on our true purpose.
Part six and this was the last episode in this series, Moving Beyond Excuses That Hold You Back. We talked with Dennis Yu and Alex Carl. Dennis was at a restaurant and he was with Alex. Alex became a guest as well. We were so grateful that both of them were able to share in the episode. They talked about eliminating your limiting beliefs. That’s a key thing. Let’s see what Dennis had to share.
You have the right to be yourself. Click To Tweet“Being you is two things. One is you have to eliminate a lot of the doubts and fears which aren’t you. Shedding those things that are limiting self-beliefs that cause people to say no because they don’t feel they are worthy prevent a lot of people from great things that could be happening in their lives. The other side of that coin is you have to believe in what other people have to say about you. There are a lot of people that support you. The best way to know who you are is to ask your friends what your skill is, what is the thing you should be doing, and what is the encouragement. A lot of us are going to reject that because when somebody gives you a compliment, a lot of people will say, ‘No, it was nothing. That’s not a big deal.’”
Eliminating our limiting beliefs is acknowledging those doubts. Those that come in and make you think who you’re not. It makes you question who you are. Dennis made a valid point. It’s those people that you surround yourself with that speak life into you and that encourage you. It’s the one that Kimberly spoke about. You ask them and get their feedback on how they see you. It should be in line with what you see.
When you do the Path to Greatness exercise, that’s going to help you to get clear on what you see about yourself. The people who you surround yourself with, the positive people, those who are speaking life into you and your situations, those are the ones that you want to ask. What do they see? What should you be doing? That’s what you want to do. Let’s see what else Dennis shared in his episode. This is juicy.
“There are a lot of people who want to give you advice, especially people that are friends and they mean well. My mom wants to give me advice on how to run a software company. I love her to death and she loves me, but I’m not taking her advice on how to run a software company because she has never done it before. Whatever it is, forget about the excuses for a moment but one step further and say, what is the thing that you want to do? Who has done that thing that you want to do? Take advice from that person. When that person clarifies where you should go and what you should do, all the excuses fall away from that.”
Kim spoke about the people that are in your life and surrounding yourself. Dennis is saying to surround yourself also with those people who have already done what it is that you want to do. They are currently on that journey in what it is that you want to accomplish and what it is that you want to do. Surround yourself with those people because you are you unapologetically. When you do that, you can be you. I’m so excited to share this with you and summarize this because we had some phenomenal guests.
I wanted to bring this episode together to give my feedback and some input on what it is that we are to do when it comes to being ourselves unapologetically. We want to make sure that we positively are owning who we are and the things that we’re doing and surrounding ourselves with the people. These episodes were full of information that empowered you. Go back and read the individual episodes. Feel free to go back and read the first series that we put in place. I know that each of the episodes that we’re putting out is empowering people. That’s the purpose and our goal. That’s what we want to happen.
I want you to know that it’s easy to lose yourself in today’s clashing ideas, conflicting beliefs and COVID-19. For the last few years, that’s all we’ve been hearing. Also, the flood of information with society’s rigid expectations and endless opinions. Self-expression and self-appreciation can feel challenging and daunting, to say the least. Most of the time, this pushes you to dumb down, hide who you are and just go with the flow.
We’re here to put an end to this disparaging mindset and to begin to own our authentic selves. I want you to own your authentic self. Please continue to join me here because here is a safe place for these episodes where I will initiate influential conversations about being you, and you being you because you are you unapologetically. What I know is this, absolutely no one is better at being you than you.
I hope you enjoy this episode just like you enjoyed all the previous ones. We’re here to help you and support you. We have so many more episodes to come. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. I truly appreciate and honor your time. Thank you so much. Feel free to reach out to me. If you need me, there’s a way to get in contact with me. Check my website. Feel free to reach out to all of the guests. Don’t hesitate to reach out to them there. They came here for a reason to support you. With that, I want to bid farewell for now. Thank you, guys. Enjoy and God bless. Bye-bye.
Important Links
- Dr. Virginia LeBlanc – Previous episode
- D’mon Reynolds – Previous episode
- Kimberly Jordan Croslin – Previous episode
- Sayyam Shahzad – Previous episode
- Mary Henderson – Previous episode