Is the MilSpouse Mastermind Show for you? 

Well, it depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re already living the life of your dreams, and you’ve never struggled with being a military spouse or pursuing a life that lights you up, fills you up and makes a difference in the world, then the show’s probably not for you. 

But if you’ve ever struggled with self doubt, if you long to do something more than just being a spouse and a mom, but you’re not sure what that is or how to do it. If you want greater clarity, if you want to use your passions and skills to make a difference in the lives of others, to figure out how to thrive as a military spouse, how to love the life that you lead, even if you didn’t choose it, then this is the show for you.

You, my friend were made for more, more than the managing of schedules, keeping up with kiddos and holding down the home. Hi, I’m Christine, a military spouse of over 10 years, mom of littles and self-professed coffee connoisseur. I believe you have something valuable to offer. And when you pursue the things that light your heart on fire, you trade frustration for fulfillment and isolation for others.

Of impact. Welcome to the mil spouse mastermind show. We’ll help you navigate life as a military spouse prioritize what matters most and show you that you don’t have to wait for it tomorrow to chase your dreams. It’s time to discover who you are meant to be because together we can, you can change the world.

So today I thought I would start by talking about five BELIEFS to move us towards the life we long for. The life of purpose, joy, and impact. A life that leaves us feeling filled, fueled, and full of life. 

So, number one, you have something valuable to offer. It’s easy to look at others and say, oh, I could never do that. Or I could never achieve that or have that kind of success. But what we do is we get ourselves in trouble. When we look around at what others are doing or this success that others are having, and we make assumptions about the kind of life that they’re living. This is especially problematic on social media, because it’s easy to log into your Facebook or your Instagram and see all these amazing experiences that people are having and say, well, that’s not me, or I don’t have my stuff together.I could never do what they do or what’s wrong with me. 

What matters most is that you believe you have value. But you understand that you have a unique contribution to make to the world. It doesn’t matter what someone else is doing or how they’re living or serving or finding success or not you were made with and for a purpose.

And it’s all too easy to just play it safe, to sit on the sidelines, to stick with living the status quo. Launching into something new will, most definitely, involve risk. It will involve discomfort. We have to step out from what we know, and we’re gonna make mistakes along the way. We’re gonna have setbacks and failures.

That’s part of the journey, but it is the path to a life of influence, impact, and ultimately fulfillment when we choose not to take action. When we choose this safe life, the world misses out. We miss out. There’s a unique contribution that each of us are designed to make. You have a totally unique set of experiences, skills and passions to offer the world and to truly make your greatest contribution.

You first have to believe that there is something inside of you to offer others. You have value, your story matters. And sometimes the greatest gift you can offer others is yourself. I know it’s so easy. Especially when we get caught up in living a life, that’s not in our skillset for me becoming a mom was completely outside of my skillset.

I like spreadsheets and lists and strategic planning. And when it’s just staying at home as a mom with a baby at home, there’s a whole new set of skills. And it’s easy to lose sight of what we can do and what we have to offer. It’s easy to start struggling with self doubt. And to let that self doubt hold us back.

But a life of joy of purpose of impact requires that we move past that self doubt. And it’s scary. This podcast, this journey is scary, but I know that it’s the next step of my journey. And so. Being faithful to step into that, to take that leap of faith. And I hope that through me taking this leap of faith, it blesses you, it encourages you, it inspires you to do your own thing, to become who you are meant to be and figure out what you are meant to do.

So the first thing is to believe that we have something valuable to offer the second secret is that what we do today matters. So often we look at these bold steps of action and these big leaps of faith and think, well, I’m not at a place where I can do something big, so it doesn’t really matter. I’ll have to wait till another season of life.

We, we look at our own lives and we see that things are completely ordinary. But the thing I want to say is that nothing big ever happens without tiny steps in a forward motion, how we show up and live our lives day to day. That’s what determines our future. Our daily thoughts, actions, habits, and our schedule that determines who we become.

And that’s why it’s so important that we show up and live every day with intention. That’s why it matters that we establish healthy rhythms to care for our mind, body and spirit. We need healthy inputs so that we can make healthy outputs. You don’t have to wait for tomorrow to chase your dreams. I think this has been the biggest misconception that I’ve seen in people’s lives is that I have to wait until the season where I can take big action.

And even in seasons of waiting, they’re a step. And daily actions that you can take that move you towards, who you were meant to be your big dreams whatever’s on your heart begins today. It begins by taking one step. One thing that moves you towards that big dream today, you can pursue a new skill. Gain knowledge make a new connection today.

You can make the choice to show up with intention. You can choose what goes into your schedule. You can practice healthy habits. You can show up for your friends, your family, your loved ones, what you do today. The third secret is that fulfillment comes through contributing to something greater than yourself.

If you stick around for a while, you’ll probably hear that I quote psychiatrist, Victor Frankl. He survived Hitler’s concentration camps in World War II. And he wrote a book called Man’s Search for Meaning. As opposed to Freud who saw the ultimate purpose of life as the pursuit of pleasure, Frankl believed that meaning and fulfillment ultimately come through a contribution greater than yourself.

He wrote that happiness cannot be pursued. It must ensue as a result of our contribution. In other words, when we try to make happiness or comfort, or even ourselves the goal, it never works. We will never find a life of joy and fulfillment when happiness is our goal, but joy fulfillment, purpose satisfaction is possible when we feel.

On others. I think our culture today we’ve gotten so wrapped up in self-care for the sake of self care and for the sake of doing things that make us happy or more productive for ourselves, but that’s not going to get, give us the life that we want to live. Taking care of ourselves is vital. Self care is not selfish, but it’s not for ourselves.

It’s so that we can show up and serve others and make the contribution that we were meant to make on this earth. So let’s, let’s review where we are so far. Number one, you have something valuable to offer. Number two, what you do today matters. Number three: Fulfillment comes through contributing to something greater than yourself.

Number four impact happens when we focus on who we are becoming and how we serve. I listen to lots of personal development groups and business coaches and spiritual leaders. And in so many instances, we get caught up in this idea of purpose being what we do. After all, this is the first question we usually ask when we meet someone new. “What do you do?” 

I recently started reading Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen. I was struck by how prevalent this idea of what we do and how it’s ingrained in our culture. We spend so much of our time focused on doing things, achieving things of having people perceive us as doing things.

We want to be on the go so much so that we’ve lost sight of what it means to be enterprise. We, we wanna be seen as being productive. We want to be seen as being on top of all the cultural trends and being in the know, and the problem with this is that this is the path of go do, and it leads to burnout.

If we truly want to show up and make a difference in the world and make a contribution that matters, then we have to stop thinking in terms of what we do and how we monetize it. We have to shift our perspective and first ask the question, who do we want to be? What kind of legacy do we want to leave?

How do we want to show up and how can we use what we have to serve? It’s just a completely different way to approach life. And I’ll admit, this is a hard shift to make when all we’re trying to do is to make it from sun-up to sundown. When our schedule is so packed that we have no space for, for reflection.

It’s really hard to shift the way that we think about. We have to be willing to examine everything that we do, our schedule, our obligations, our responsibilities, the things that distract us. What is it that I actually am saying yes to and no to with my time. And I’ll go into this in more detail in a future episode.

But what I want to say about this today is that I believe the true route to a life of impact without overwhelm is possible, but it begins by focusing on who we are becoming and how we serve others. And then number five, Together we can positively impact the world. I started out this episode talking about our comparison trap and it’s so toxic to who we are meant to become collaboration.

However, can turn a single spark into a flame because we are better together. We were meant to live a life of connection, to collaborate with others, to feel a sense of belonging. You see, when we pursue the things that light us up, we can make some progress, but when we do it alongside others, when we encourage, equip and inspire each other, along the way, change happens much more quickly.

I was listening to a podcast this morning. They were talking about all of the collaboration that went into developing the COVID vaccine in record time. Now I’m not making a statement on vaccines. I’m simply observing how much progress was able to be made in a very short amount of time, because so many people had a similar goal and collaborated together.

That’s why I felt like it was so important that the MilSpouse Mastermind Show not just be a podcast, but a community. It needed to be more than just me talking to you. There needed to be a component where we could collaborate, where we could inspire and encourage one another. So if you have not done so, the MilSpouse Mastermind Show ommunity is a free group over on Facebook that I would love for you to head over and join.

I’ll link it in the show notes. This is a place for honest conversations, idea, sharing collaboration, equipping others. This is not a place to complain, but to help each other, uncover our dreams, to equip each other, to support each other on our journeys, to pursuing those dreams, to help us discover what lights us up.

And then how we can use our super powers for good. So let’s do a quick review to move from where we are today to living a life of greater purpose, joy, and impact. We must believe that one, we have something valuable to offer to what we do today. Matters. Three fulfillment comes through contributing to something greater than ourselves.

Four, impact happens when we focus on who we are becoming and how we serve and five together, we can positively impact the world. When we internalize these beliefs, a life of adventure, of fulfillment, of connection, an opportunity awaits. We make a difference. And ultimately we become who we were designed to be.

That’s the kind of life I want to live. And I hope you do too. And it’s a life that doesn’t depend on what your spouse is doing, where you live, how long you plan to stay there. It’s a life that ultimately brings us freedom because it’s not dependent on having the perfect work-life balance or being the perfect quote, unquote, military spouse.

It’s about you being new in this season of life that you’re in. It’s about making every day count. Despite whatever circumstances you’re going through, these truths can and should influence our lives. Thank you so much for joining me today. I pray that you leave feeling fueled, filled, and ready to take on the calling that you’ve been called.

I pray that you walk away today with greater clarity and that you find joy in your journey until next time may you live filled, fueled, and full of joy.