Have you ever been hit by a wave of inspiration at an event, only to have it slip away once the conference or workshop ends? How do you stay focused and chase your dreams when the everyday reality kicks back in?
Today, we'll explore these questions, and more, as I recount my recent conference event in Atlanta and the struggle to maintain momentum once I returned home. We'll also look at the importance of eliminating distractions and the transformative power that can bring to your everyday life.
Life's most significant growth often happens when we are in the deepest valleys. I'll be sharing an intimate look at my family's journey following one of our daughter's neurologist appointment and the devastating news of her brain function. Even amidst our heartache, we discovered resilience and growth. Similar to the way muscle is built through strain and discomfort, we find that life's biggest lessons come from our greatest challenges.
This episode promises to be a thought-provoking exploration of personal growth, resilience, and the power of dedication. Join me as I discuss mental commitment and evaluation, two critical components when it comes to achieving your goals.
Follow on Instagram & Facebook: @AndyBHoward
Buy the book on Amazon: www.amazon.com/When-Words-Dont-Come-Easy/dp/1955362084
Listen to the first chapter: soundcloud.com/andy-howard-788712319
Learn more at AndyHoward.com!
Have you ever been hit by a wave of inspiration at an event, only to have it slip away once the conference or workshop ends? How do you stay focused and chase your dreams when the everyday reality kicks back in?
Today, we'll explore these questions, and more, as I recount my recent conference event in Atlanta and the struggle to maintain momentum once I returned home. We'll also look at the importance of eliminating distractions and the transformative power that can bring to your everyday life.
Life's most significant growth often happens when we are in the deepest valleys. I'll be sharing an intimate look at my family's journey following one of our daughter's neurologist appointment and the devastating news of her brain function. Even amidst our heartache, we discovered resilience and growth. Similar to the way muscle is built through strain and discomfort, we find that life's biggest lessons come from our greatest challenges.
This episode promises to be a thought-provoking exploration of personal growth, resilience, and the power of dedication. Join me as I discuss mental commitment and evaluation, two critical components when it comes to achieving your goals.
Follow on Instagram & Facebook: @AndyBHoward
Buy the book on Amazon: www.amazon.com/When-Words-Dont-Come-Easy/dp/1955362084
Listen to the first chapter: soundcloud.com/andy-howard-788712319
Learn more at AndyHoward.com!
Yo yo yo. Good morning everybody. I am back and better than ever just landed from Atlanta Last night, actually and so this morning I am. I am hyped up on caffeine and love and All the amazing people we got to see this past week, but I am it. It was an exhausting week, but it was the exhilarating week, have you ever been there? So I just wanted to dive into that a little bit, but I do have some tips for you to Chase after. Whatever your dream is, some tips that will be very helpful To you pursuing your dream, but it will never happen if, if you don't go for it. I can't do it for you, but I can leave you tips and I hope it will help you and be a blessing to you. So all that and more even have some father time stories in there as well that I hope will be helpful for you. All that more happens right after this. So what's up everybody? Welcome back to the winwords, don't come easy.
Speaker 1:Podcast. My name is Andy Howard. If this is your first time here, first of all, welcome, and I say that every single time. I'm always looking for new listeners and hopefully, hopefully, it won't be your last time. I love sharing hope. It's what this podcast is for. It's what we do here is we want to just push hope. So if you're in need of hope today, maybe there is just I Don't know something that you will catch one little piece or nugget from this Usually 30 to 45 minutes that I'm with you, sometimes less. There's no guaranteed time, I just roll with it. But, um, you know, hopefully you'll catch some nuggets of Nuggets of hope. Maybe we should call this the nuggets of hope podcast.
Speaker 1:I just got back from Atlanta. It was amazing. Got to see a lot of my friends, a lot of fellow entrepreneurs, and it was just. I don't know they said anywhere. I've heard reports anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 Hugged a lot of necks, got to meet a lot of people. It was just, it was awesome.
Speaker 1:And and I say that because we all left so energized and pumped have you ever Been to a conference? Maybe it was something even more simple than that have you ever been to? Maybe it was youth camp as a kid, maybe it was like a vacation Bible school, so it won't even that far away, but you would just go every, every morning of that week, who knows? But have you ever went somewhere In? The energy was just so fantastic, the community was so incredible. You're so pumped and whatever it was for, whether it was a business conference, maybe it was a personal conference for Something you're looking to level up with, something to inspire you but you left so energized Only to hit reality and you get home and and when you're in that moment, like when you're at the conference, when you're at the camp, wherever Everything seems so easy, it makes so much sense.
Speaker 1:Every speaker is speaking right to you and it's like, yes, that's what I'm gonna do, that's what I want to do with my life, that's what I want to do with my business, all the things. But even as you check out of the hotel, before you even get home, reality starts to hit. Maybe it's the Uber driver or the taxi, or however. You're getting to the airport. Maybe you get to the airport and you can't even I Don't know your flights delayed or you're there's a mistake with your luggage, or or you get home and you have all these Expectations because you're so excited, you got it lined up in your head and you're ready to tell your family about the amazing change what happened this weekend? I don't know. Your spouse isn't as excited because they've had the kids and not the kids are bad. Love you kiddos, if you're listening, ha. But it's been a stressful weekend or or whatever it is, and they're just happy to see you again. And you're expecting this slow mo, almost Baywatch, tight, slow mo, running. You know you got hassle off, just running towards your, your significant other, and you embrace and, and maybe they're just so done For whatever reason. They're just tired, they're exhausted and see from right, there is like, oh man, I Knew it, I Knew this wasn't was too good to be true. I'm back in reality. Have you ever had those kind of moments? And that's what I want to kind of focus on today how to, how to keep it real, how to jump back in After you leave the comfort of the, the hot tub experience, the jacuzzi experience.
Speaker 1:I remember as a youth pastor for years, man, we would go to summer camp and it would be exhausting. It would be absolutely exhausting, but at the same time, it was some of the best, some of the best week of our life. We would see a lot of crazy, cool things done. God would move in powerful ways. One thing about our particular camp is they had this rule and it's probably changed now, in this day and age, but phones were just coming out and and not everybody had them. So, to eliminate distraction, they would take up the phones, like each leader of the cabin would take up the phones and give them back at the end of the Week. They didn't want any distractions, they just wanted people to be able to focus on God and Focus on the camp experience itself. No outside distractions, and that's what was cool, right, and so we saw a lot of cool things happen.
Speaker 1:I mean that first, that first five minutes after you make that announcement to your kids is not always easy. Then afterwards, they were no longer distracted by Home, they were just focused on what was happening at camp and you know what. God moved in some powerful ways, and what was always crazy, though, is Almost like clockwork as soon as you pass the phones back, you start getting, they start getting you know contact from home, they start getting the stress from the outside World right outside of the camp experience, and sometimes, even while we were dropping the kids off Back to their parents in the parking lot, you could see the smiles of the kids Turn into frowns, and that's not for everybody. I don't want to. I don't want to make it look like, you know, the parents are out to get the kids and things, and it was just the youth pastors. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:No, but some of these kids came from very hard lives and it was almost like, oh man, was this too good to be true? This week, and sometimes I saw kids make huge changes and they fought through it and they fought for what they received and they changed their life. And then I saw some kids who never came back to church, where it was just a challenge it was. It was too big to overcome their home life and maybe they went somewhere else. I don't know. I Do know the seeds were planted and I do know God made huge impacts in their life during that week.
Speaker 1:But that's what I want to talk about today for you. Maybe you have some crazy dreams, maybe you have some goals in your life. I kind of talked about it last episode, last week, like what's next for you? Well, that's what I want to talk about today. What is next for you? I want to build off that and what's gonna keep you from having these mountaintop experiences and then just Forgetting about it and moving on?
Speaker 1:You know we were never intended to live on the mountaintops, right? I Mean there is a, there's what's called an elevation line, a tree line. There is a certain level, a certain elevation where life is very hard to exist at a certain point. Right, that's why it's hard to breathe. You won't find food up there. You won't find animals up there. Very few plants survive up there. That's why you start seeing these mountain tops. When you get to the very top of these big mountains, you will say they're like bald mountains. They're sharp, they're edgy. There's no trees, like some of the southern mountains that are not. They're more like hills, I guess, where you can see all the trees and things. And there's a reason for that. We were never meant to live on the mountain tops.
Speaker 1:I thank God for the mountain top experiences, but what we've learned is that true growth comes in the valleys. True growth comes in the valleys. Muscle, for instance. If you've ever tried to put on muscle, if you're into health and the fitness, you build muscle by literally destroying muscle. That makes no sense, right? You rip, you shred your muscle apart and it regrows stronger Sometimes. That's the same with the valley experiences. I believe with all my heart that every valley happens for a reason. Every valley happens for a reason I can't explain it, I don't know why. I would love to say one day, when I'm face to face with the Lord, with Jesus in heaven, that I'd be able to say, hey, okay, couldn't we have tried it a different way, by learning so much by eating ice cream? I don't even like ice cream. That's what's funny, but I know the majority of people do. I'm the weirdo that doesn't like ice cream, I know. Or couldn't we have learned it a better way? Is it there an easier way to learn lessons? For some reason it seems like the harder lessons, the harder life is, the bigger the lesson, the more you learn I'll never forget for us. I share this one a lot when I speak. It's in the book as well. This whole little piece is actually from the book about the mountaintop experiences and true growth.
Speaker 1:Coming in the valley, I was at the chief neurologist appointment, the chief neurologist of Dallas Children's Medical Center. You kind of know where that's going Anytime. You have that kind of an appointment one of the biggest, largest children's hospitals in the world and you're getting the chief neurologist. It's not a good sign, man, and I'll never forget it. He walked in with a box of Kleenexes in his hand. He looked at Tiff and I and he was just very frank. He was not rude. It's very nice, but I can imagine, as a doctor who has to give horrible news, there's probably no easy way to do it. So he was just very frank, very fast with it, and I'll never forget that this is word for word, this quote that's in the book. It's just I've said it so many times that it's word for word. What he told us it's hey guys, there's no easy way to tell you this, because we just had an MRI. So we got the results for Peyton's MRI.
Speaker 1:That's my daughter, she's now 15. He says she's got 10% brain function. She'll never walk, she'll never talk. If so, she'll have a very limited vocabulary, maybe 150 words or less, and honestly, so far she's never talked. But he said she'll never be able to use her hands like the fine detail of her fingers, like to pick up a pencil or to hold a coin. He said if she's lucky, she'll be able to use her arms to hug a pillow or to give you a hug. He said she's legally blind, which simply means like, as she can see shapes and colors. But he said if she was driving, if we were driving down the road and she's with us and we see trees, she would never see the detail of the trees. She would see, you know, the green of the leaves or the brown of the bark, but she would never see the fine detail of one single leaf or of the bark. And really it was at that point that everything just faded.
Speaker 1:He did talk, probably for two or three more minutes, but it kind of sounded like like Charlie Brown's teacher, just the wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. I was beginning to. I was just numb, I could not believe what I was hearing. I mean, we had been praying for this appointment for weeks. Our pastors had been praying for us, my parents, my family, and it was like where are you, god? Where are you? And I was just shocked and I grabbed Tiff's hand and he just said I'll give you a few minutes, take your time, but I do have to see other patients. So he exited the room and I can still hear his footsteps echoing through the halls and if you've ever been to Dallas Children's you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. But there is such a long hallway that goes all the way to the green level parking and it was like every eye was on us. I mean, we are in tears. We just received the probably the worst news of our life.
Speaker 1:Tiffany's had quite a few crazy stories in her life, I know before it was mine and we're just holding each other's hands, taking one step at a time, trying to get to the garage so we can regroup. And we made it to the car and we were crying, we were already a mess. But once we got to the car as I finally were saved, even though we're still in a public garage and man it just we just lost it for a few minutes, just cried, didn't really say anything to either one of us, we just cried. And I remember calling my dad. My dad was still alive then and he was my rock, my mom and dad, both just amazing people. And I remember my mom actually answered and she said, andy, and she's no longer with us either. Right now she's in heaven. I said, andy, is that you? And I just said mom, and that's all I could get out.
Speaker 1:And I just broke down and was crying and just in tears and she said oh, james, it's Andy, something's wrong. She knew. And so before they could say anything, before I could even get through the tears. She just started praying over us. They both did. They were side by side. I could, if I could, see it. They're side by side, the phone, and just praying over us and something rose up in us. I felt a peace that passes all understanding. God was there, jesus was there. I just I didn't feel him because I took my eyes off of him and was focused on my own, my own little problem. But going through hard times is what grows us.
Speaker 1:Now I do have a platform. I have a stage to share Peyton's story. Am I saying that God allowed this For that? Did he do this to Peyton just so I could share? No, that's not the case at all. I do believe God makes, makes beauty in the broken. I believe that. I believe when circumstances happen, he finds a way for it to glorify him. He finds a way to find the good in it.
Speaker 1:And it was a long journey and, honestly, this podcast is way too short for me to tell you the entire story. Maybe I'll revisit it another time, another episode, but if you get the book you can hear. I'll even read it for you in five and a half hours If you go to audible, but if you get the book. You can read the entire thing, the entire story. There's so many ups and downs through it, but what I've found is God has been faithful through all of it, and so I wanted to give you some, some steps.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying whatever you faced after leaving those highs, those mountain top experiences are going to be this low. Maybe it's not, maybe it's just something that distracts you from doing what you were called to do, but I want to give you a few steps that will help you find the beauty in the broken. Find you do find. You will help you find what you were called to do. Easy for me to say. So here we go. Step number one the first thing I would ask for you to do, no matter what you're doing, is make make the decision, make your mind up that I am doing this.
Speaker 1:It starts right here. So much I wish I could quote the great yogi bearer, and I need to look that up. In fact, I'm going to pause this real quick. All right, I'm back, sorry. Yeah, the great yogi bearer. He has a baseball quote, and this one always cracks me up, but he says baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical. Obviously, he was a good baseball player, not a mathematician, but that's the truth. So much of this. So much of whatever you want to do is mental. It's right here.
Speaker 1:Mental, whether you want to get healthy, and that's a hundred different things. Maybe you need to start off by just losing some weight. No one's asking you to turn into the rock overnight, right, maybe you obviously most of us will never be the rock. That is an extreme. But what if you make the step today is, hey, I decided to get healthy. Are you all in? Because when you decide the next step I'll dive into it will take more effort, but once you make the decision, then you have to put some action into behind your decision.
Speaker 1:But it starts here, because if you never truly commit to something, if you never truly commit, then what are you doing? You can't say I'm going to get healthy and eat a salad at lunch and then stop by and I'm going to say ice cream again because it's just easy, it's a, it's a no brainer. You need to stop buying, pick up some ice cream on the way home and then get mad at the results on day two. Well, I had the salad and it is a good choice. You made a choice and you made improvements. So I would also say don't, don't be so hard on yourself, but once you make that decision, in other words, give yourself grace. There's going to be hiccups on the way, but when you make decisions, it is time to go through what's not serving you, what is not serving.
Speaker 1:So you need to evaluate your life where you're at. Are you happy with where you're at? Is there more? There's always more right, but what's next? Like what do you want? If you're happy with where you're at and everything's going just fine, then keep rolling. But if you keep feeling this, this tug at your heart, there's this, this dream in your head that when you can't, when you try to sleep at night, you're like I can't even sleep. I'm thinking about it, you want it, but yet you don't put the right stuff in place for it. It's just a dream. You want it. More than that.
Speaker 1:I heard a few quotes this weekend and these were all phenomenal. So there's three of them actually. That and there's a ton more, there's a ton more, but I can't just blow up your podcast with just quotes. This one's by Mark Twain, and it's just awesome. It says to succeed in life, you need two things ignorance and confidence. I love that.
Speaker 1:See, fear happens so many times that we make these decisions. Oh, I'm making a decision, but then we're like, oh, fear comes in and we're like, oh, why did I say I'm going to do that? I can't do that, nobody would. Nobody would listen to me, nobody would read my book, nobody would listen to this podcast. I had to fight through fears, man, and sometimes you just do it scared. Whatever you're called to do, you keep doing it because you're, you're supposed to, and you do it scared, but you make the decision to do it and you don't sabotage yourself. I love this by Vidal Sassoon. I was thought that was just like a shampoo or something All the ladies are going to get me. I don't know. I know she's something. She a fashion person or a hair designer, I don't know. Please forgive me, I'm sorry, vidal, if you're out there listening, come on the podcast, I'd love to have you on.
Speaker 1:I love this quote, though the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary Boom, it's going to take work. You want to do it, get after it. Nothing comes easy. And then this one opportunity is like a fleeting bird Once it takes light, it may never return to its perch. You know, god has put that dream in your heart for a reason. There are people that only you can reach, no matter what that is. I'm not saying that means you have to be a pastor. That means, whatever you do, god put that dream in your heart. There are things that only you can do that will attract people to you and then, when they come to you, it's your chance to influence them with your life, with how you live your life. I mean you have to preach them a 10 point sermon. Just live your life and be real. I love that. So one make the decision.
Speaker 1:Here's point number two Evaluate your life. So you made the decision. Now what? Evaluate your life? I heard it said this weekend Show me your bank account and I'll show you how dedicated you are to your decision, or something to that effect. I just butchered it, but you get what I'm trying to say here Right.
Speaker 1:He was referring to looking in his bank account at things that serve him. So in things that don't serve. So like if you are called to health, like if you are wanting to level up and you're wanting to, just this is the year where I get my health in order and then you're still showing your. Your bank account says otherwise. Of all the and again, I'm just picking on ice cream today there's a million other junk food things that you could do. I don't know this, this, this. Then what are you doing? Evaluate, it's okay to evaluate, that's not the problem. You see it, though, what happens next? So what do you do with it, the things that are not serving you to get to where you want to go? Got to go, at least for a season.
Speaker 1:I remember when we were growing our business, when we were in the, the grinding stage when we were both working multiple jobs at a time and I had to tell friends, like friends would ask hey, sure would like to hang out tonight, like Friday nights. We, for a season, we made a decision Is this serving us? We loved our friends, still do. They all came back, by the way, majority True friends did, but we had to tell them hey, just be very honest with you right now, for a season, where we're focused on all our free time is going towards growing our business. Not all majority of our free time was going towards growing our business and we were working hard because when we were not at the other jobs, the little bit of time we had, we were faithful.
Speaker 1:Then we had to get up early, sometimes before work. We had to get up early before our regular day job, right, and it was a hard season. But what happened was because we worked so hard then we have this crazy time now that we are a lot. I have a lot more availability now than we ever did then because we chose to go all in work very hard. It was not easy, worked extremely hard, made sacrifices. So Netflix again apologize, maybe I shouldn't use names here those streaming services, can we?
Speaker 1:We added that up, had to go for a season. It was wasted time. It wasn't serving us. Sure, it serves you. Yes, there's time to hear me out. There's times when you just have to relax, when you just have to refresh. I get it, but it depends on what your goals are. If your goals are, yeah, I'd like to get to this point here by 20 years from now.
Speaker 1:Okay, hey, we're all wired different. Me and Tiff we were ready to go. We wanted to get there. It was a sprint for us, it wasn't a marathon. It's like let's go. This is where we want to be. How hard do you want to work? This is the time we have. Here's the great equalizer we are all given the same 24 hours a day. Every single one of us are given the exact same 24 hours a day.
Speaker 1:What do you do with it? What do you do with it? I know there are some things that you cannot move. There's staples in there. There's a job. If you're working a full-time job to support your dream, can we have to pay the bills? We have to be able to feed our families. We have to do what we have to do, but it's that extra job, extra time. What do you do in the white spaces of your calendar is what we've always said. It'll tell you how much you really want the dream.
Speaker 1:So evaluate your life. Where are you at? Some of those things may be good. There may be some areas you're looking at. Oh, look at this.
Speaker 1:Okay, I hit the gym five out of seven days last week. I did this. I don't know. I was on your plan. Whatever your nutrition plan is and we all have a plan, whether you realize it or not. Some are more nutritious than others, but we all have, we're all on a plan. I hit my plan. I hit my goals seven days in a row last week. Let's do it. Let's evaluate good and bad areas that are not doing well.
Speaker 1:Let's evaluate that and say, okay, here's a way that I could probably serve myself better, because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, of the living God. Living God dwells in us and I haven't always been respectful of that. So I want to do my best, man. I want to do my best in my health. I want to do my best with my mental health. That's why I advocate for mental health so much. And just with my goals, with entrepreneurship Pause for dramatic effect there, I don't know if I hit that or not. I probably screwed that up I want to do my best with everything. Everything I touch, I want to do it with a spirit of excellence. That comes with evaluating yourself, evaluating your goals, what's serving you and what's not? There's so much there. Number three get a plan. So you have made the decision hey, I am doing this For me.
Speaker 1:I remember like, for example, I did the Spartan, did the trifecta, did want to. That was because my wife got excited when I did the first Spartan. She joined me and of course, she always does everything with even more excellence than my excellence. So she decided, hey, we can't just do the sprint. We got to do the whole trifecta, which is like a 10 K after that, and then it's a half marathon after that, all within a calendar year. So congrats to us.
Speaker 1:But it was fun. But the very first time I did a Spartan. So I made the decision. Hey called my buddy. Hey, russ, my dude. He's been on the podcast before. We'd have to find which episode that is. He's a beast of a man. Looks like rock junior, like dude. I'm doing this, but I'm not doing it alone. I need you, he said. Sure thing I'm there, no questions. I knew that dude could roll out of bed and do a Spartan, so I needed him. So I made the plan, I made the decision. Then I evaluated my life. Where am I at? Are my, are my daily habits leading up to the Spartan? Am I going to be able to finish the race with what I'm doing now? What am I doing? I evaluated oh, this is not serving me, this is not Spartan like a root, a root, a root. If you've ever done a Spartan, you would understand. If not, just forgive me for that last five seconds of your life. This is not Spartan like. So I made the decision. I evaluated where I'm at and then I got a plan.
Speaker 1:You read about it in the book, but I, I found I hired a personal trainer for the first time. I was trying all the things on my own and I didn't feel like I was making progress. I didn't know how to work out, dude, I was 345 pounds at one time in my life. So why would I know anything about getting ready for a Spartan? I don't know. I just know I had turned 40 years old and I made the decision. I am 40 and I want to do a Spartan. I don't know, didn't put much thought behind it, I just made the decision.
Speaker 1:So, sure enough, I hire a trainer. He kicked my butt, but I was ready. I was ready for that Spartan, dude. I was running like six miles a day Well, at least not a day six miles at a time when we got to the Spartan, because I knew it was a three mile race and I wanted to run twice of it. So my, my cardio was ready. My strength was another story, but I have since gotten much stronger than four years ago.
Speaker 1:But I got a plan and he helped me. He knew, hey, spartan is going to take a lot of core workouts. You need your core, you need your entire body. It's not just biceps, it's not just back, it's not just legs, it's everything working together. So we got a plan together. Then we executed the plan, which is point number four. So you execute it.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter if you put a plan together and then you don't follow it, which goes back to number one, or how committed are you when you make the decision? Then you evaluate your life, then you get a plan, then you execute. And I mean, if you're all in, I know emergencies happen, right Gosh, our whole life has been built around emergencies. Our daughter has been in and out of the hospital so many times I can't even tell you how many years it's added up to but there were times, even while building the business, that Tiff would have her phone and she would make a call. She would make a connection, even from the hospital room, even from ICU. She'd step out in the hall, do a zoom where the business partner connect, even when emergencies happen.
Speaker 1:So my thing is execute, no matter what right. Some emergencies are bigger than others and if you have to step away, that's fine, but that doesn't mean you cancel the plan. That might mean you have to move the plan around because you have to execute it, and there's probably so much more I could go into. But the last thing I would encourage you to do is find some accountability. At some point you make the decision Not now. Don't make the decision. Then find accountability. I see that happen a lot too. I'm going to run a marathon today and you tell the whole world before you've even done your first workout. Then you might find out you are not created to run a marathon. You can't run a mile, much less the 26 to. I think anyone could if they were determined enough. But there are some realistic goals, like, depending on your age, where you're at. You have to be realistic with it, right? So I would make a decision. I would evaluate your life so you can get rid of the things you need to get rid of. I would get a plan, I would execute the plan and then, as you're starting to roll and as you're starting to build momentum and people are already seeing the difference in you because you've started doing these things Then you go public with it for that accountability. Hey, let me tell you what I'm doing Invite people for the right. What was cool about that.
Speaker 1:First Spartan I did. It started with just me and Russ and then a buddy of mine heard about it. Dave, good dude, love that guy so much. Once weighed 406 pounds, by the way. 406 pounds, that's the random Spartan with me. Such a beast. Love that dude. And then so many others. David is, since he's been on here, he's like a Greek God. I always tell him that all the time he's like the statue they use for the Greek God. It was his mold, like they used his mold to make those statues. So it's just a beast dude. So many others Once I start naming names, it's horrible, but ended up being like 10 of us.
Speaker 1:I believe maybe 10 or 11. I don't know. But the accountability was awesome. It was awesome being able to have Friends in your life pulling the same direction as you are, pulling the rope, helping you. Keep me accountable. Hey, you doing it, I'm doing it, you doing it.
Speaker 1:If they're not doing it, you may need to cut them off, because there is negative peer pressure as well. There's negative momentum as well. So, even for a season for a season, it doesn't mean you're like, ah, you're out of my life, but travel with those who are going the same direction. You are. Travel with those who have the same mindset as you, that are positive, that are fighting for it. Negative stuff can bring you down, can? It's just, it's real. So at that point I would say, for accountability is the last thing you need, and then you just enjoy the journey. There's gonna be ups and downs, there's still gonna be the valleys, but those mountain tops will come. And what I found about the mountain tops we were never intended to live on them, but the views are incredible. You can see how far you came from when you look back, but you can also see what's ahead on the next mountain. But you have to go back through the valley to get there to grow some more. So I hope this has been encouraging for you. I hope you found something out of what I've said today that will inspire you to go get yours, because you deserve it.
Speaker 1:If you've had one of those moments, like us, where you came back from Atlanta all hyped up but then reality just smacked you right in the face as soon as you walk through the door and you're like maybe that was just all hype, this is your wake up call. You can do this. You were created to do what you were called to do. Nobody else. There's not another you in the world, only you. So you got this friend. Love you and God bless what's up. My friends, I hope you were motivated by that last episode.
Speaker 1:You are created for more and I don't want that just to sound like just a cliche. I don't want you to hear that so much that you're starting to water down now. I want you to really think about that. You were created for more, and whatever God has put on your heart, whatever directed you to this podcast, there's a reason for that because you were created for more and he loves you. He loves you so much more than you can even fathom or begin to understand, because that's who he is. God is love, and so he's placed that inside of you because he sees the greatness in you that we all see.
Speaker 1:But sometimes, if we are just stuck in the rat race of life and we're stuck in just trying to make it to Friday so that I can have two days off only to do it all again, we will never change anything. We will never make any evaluation of our life or changes necessary to go after what we were truly called to do, the thing that brings us such great life and joy. There's something in you that will be burning inside you like a passion, like a flame. It will burn and burn and ignite the more you pursue that's what you were called to do. Don't build somebody else's dreams and that same passion that you take to your work shouldn't you have even 10 times more for your dreams, for your goals? That's my encouragement for you. So I hope this has been helpful.
Speaker 1:If you haven't got the book yet, please do me a solid Go. Check out AndyHowardcom. The book's available there. You can hear the rest of our story. You can get it through Amazon. I even will read it for you on Audible. It's also available on Kendo as well.
Speaker 1:I would love to come share my story if you happen to be a pastor or you have connections, whether it's through youth ministry because I was a youth minister for some 15 years of our life or whether it's at church. We were also associate pastors. We had helped in the ministry marriage ministry of our church for like the last five years. But we speak. I speak at youth camps, I speak at business conferences, I speak at churches and I would just be honored to to share the hope of Jesus and to share the hope and our testimony the other side of mental health and why I contend for that. So I would be honored to do that Again. You can find out more at AndyHowardcom. I love you guys so much. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:And one last big favor, I almost forgot If you do have the book, please, please, please, go leave a review. Just, I need a five star review. 100 reviews is the magic number that I'm looking for, and there is something special about getting to 100 reviews that makes Amazon think, oh my goodness, this is a special book. So it gets it gets pushed more and more people will hear it and more people will find hope. So that's what my goal is. It's 100 reviews. I believe I'm at like 41. So there's like 59 of you out there. If you have the book, please go leave a review If it's been a blessing to you, how it can be helpful to others. Thanks so much for tuning in. If this episode helps you in any way, it would mean the world to me If you would leave a review and share it with somebody else. Thanks so much. I'll catch you next time.