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00:00:23.280Family, what's going on?
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00:00:26.480It's your boy Prince here, and you already know what to do.
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00:00:27.679Come on, bring it in.
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00:00:29.120Come get this hug.
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00:00:34.320Family, you good?
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00:00:35.600You alright?
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00:00:36.719Alright, family.
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00:00:37.520Guess what?
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00:00:42.640We are back with another season of Against All Odds Podcast.
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00:00:49.520Family, yes, we are here, season three.
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00:00:55.119I want to thank you all for listening so far for the support and for tuning in.
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00:00:57.759I thank you all for growing with me.
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00:01:03.200Um, and I'm grateful for us growing on this journey of life together.
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00:01:09.519Um, so family, I want to welcome you to another episode of Against All Odds Podcast, right?
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00:01:16.719Um, as always, I am very grateful that you have taken some time out of your day to spend that time here with me.
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00:01:22.000Um, you know, life has a way of teaching us lessons in places we never expected.
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00:01:27.040Sometimes those lessons don't come through success, they come through disappointment.
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00:01:31.840Sometimes they don't come through encouragement, they come through how people treat us.
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00:01:46.079Lately, I have been learning that one of the greatest acts of growth is not pretending you don't notice bad behavior, but it is noticing it, acknowledging it, and choosing not to become it.
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00:01:50.239So today, family, I just want to have a conversation.
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00:02:07.120No pressure, no preaching, just two people sitting down talking about what it looks like to protect your peace, grow through difficult experiences, and make the decision that somebody else's behavior will never determine the kind of person that you become.
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00:02:13.759Family, grab those drinks, your tea, coffee, or whatever you're drinking, wherever you're listening from.
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00:02:17.120Pull up a chair, let's have a conversation.
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00:02:21.919Welcome to another episode of Against All Odds Podcast.
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00:02:53.759Have you ever noticed a behavior in someone and just stuck with you?
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00:03:00.319Not because it was loud, not because it was dramatic, but because you felt it.
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00:03:08.400Maybe someone said something slick, maybe they left you out, maybe they treated everyone else one way and treated you another way.
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00:03:13.039Maybe they made you feel small without ever saying anything directly.
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00:03:21.360And if you are anything like me, um there was a time when stuff like that would sit with me for days, honestly.
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00:03:31.919I would replay conversations, I think about what happened, and I wonder why people do what they do or do what they did, and I'd really carry it, right?
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00:03:36.800Not because I necessarily wanted to, but because it bothered me.
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00:03:41.599And the truth is, family, I think a lot of us carry things longer than we need to.
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00:03:48.159Not because we're weak, not because we're overly emotional, simply because we care.
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00:03:58.080Because when you genuinely try to be kind to people, it can be very confusing when kindness is not returned, right?
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00:04:05.520I've learned that there are people who don't even realize the atmosphere they create when they walk into a room.
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00:04:13.840Some people carry peace, some carry tension, some will make others feel welcome, some may make others feel invisible.
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00:04:20.160And for a long time, whenever I encountered that kind of energy, I would absorb it.
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00:04:25.199I would leave conversations carrying emotions that didn't even belong to me.
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00:04:28.160And lately I've been realizing something.
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00:04:34.720Just because I notice bad behavior does not mean I have to become emotionally attached to it.
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00:04:38.399That's been one of the greatest lessons of my life.
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00:04:45.519Family, years ago, when I would experience mistreatment, I would get stuck there emotionally.
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00:04:48.000I would really feel it deeply.
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00:04:51.199And honestly, sometimes I really still do.
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00:04:54.639But now I've started looking at things differently.
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00:05:05.839When someone shows me behavior that I don't really care for or that it does not sit right with me, instead of immediately getting upset, I've started paying attention.
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00:05:10.480I've become a student, I watch, I observe, I've learned.
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00:05:14.319Um, because every inner reaction is teaching me something.
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00:05:31.040Sometimes people teach you how to love, sometimes they teach you how to lead, sometimes they teach you how to talk, communicate, and sometimes people teach you exactly who you never want to become.
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00:05:40.240And that shift has changed so much for me, family, because now instead of carrying frustration, I carry awareness.
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00:05:44.560Um, y'all know I've noticed something else too, though.
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00:05:50.560Um, the very things that hurt us often reveal the kind of person we're meant to become.
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00:05:58.000The very things that hurt us often reveal the kind of person we are meant to become.
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00:06:01.199I've experienced being left out before.
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00:06:05.600So now when I walk into a room, I intentionally acknowledge people.
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00:06:07.920I've experienced feeling unseen.
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00:06:11.439So now I make a point to make people feel noticed.
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00:06:13.600I've experienced being dismissed.
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00:06:17.680So now I try to truly listen when people are speaking to me.
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00:06:22.959I've experienced walking into a spaces where I didn't feel welcome or didn't even feel like I belong.
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00:06:28.160So now I want people to leave an interaction with me feeling like they matter.
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00:06:32.879Okay, not because I'm perfect, but because I know how those things feel.
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00:06:38.560Family, what if our greatest hurt are actually invitations?
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00:06:43.920Invitations to become the kind of person we wish we had met.
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00:06:52.160Because just because something happened to us does not mean it has to happen through us.
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00:06:58.399Now you know what else I've been learning lately, though, family?
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00:07:04.800Just because I can feel somebody's energy does not mean it has to become mine.
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00:07:08.240And that has been one of the biggest shifts for me.
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00:07:13.279There was a time when someone else's attitude would change my entire day.
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00:07:15.920If they were rude, oh I was bothered.
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00:07:18.959If they were dismissive, I carried that all day.
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00:07:24.959If they were cold to me, I found myself becoming cold to everyone else because I was upset.
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00:07:30.000And if they were short with me, I wanted to become short back with everybody.
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00:07:36.800It was almost like whatever they had at me emotionally, I accepted it without even realizing it.
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00:07:40.959But now I began asking myself a different question.
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00:07:45.199Why am I carrying something that does not belong to me?
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00:07:46.959Think about it.
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00:07:55.120If someone walked up to you holding a bag full of dirty laundry and said, Here, put these on, most of us would laugh.
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00:07:58.399We'd probably say, um, nah, bruh, I'm good.
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00:07:59.360Those are not mine.
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00:08:00.879Um, or they're not clean.
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00:08:05.199So, why do we do that emotionally?
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00:08:08.319Why do we wear someone else's bitterness?
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00:08:13.040Why do we wear someone else's jealousy or their insecurity?
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00:08:19.600Why do we let someone else's unresolved issues become our attitude for the rest of the day?
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00:08:38.480Family, I'm learning that I can notice it, I can feel it, I can acknowledge what has happened, what's not right, without putting that stuff on, without becoming angry, without becoming reactive, without allowing it to change who I am.
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00:08:41.279That does not mean I'm going to ignore it.
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00:08:44.480It does not mean I will pretend it did not happen.
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00:08:51.759It simply means I refuse to let someone else's internal battle become my identity for that day.
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00:08:56.240Peace, family, is not pretending everything is okay.
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00:09:03.759Peace is saying I see what's happening, I recognize it, but I'm not going to take that home with me.
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00:09:09.919Because if we're not careful, we'll spend years wearing emotional clothes that never belong to us.
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00:09:16.000And family, I'm tired of wearing things that don't fit who I am becoming.
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00:09:26.159So, honestly, I'd rather leave someone else's bad attitude with them than carry that into conversations with people who had nothing to do with it, right?
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00:09:30.480So maybe that's the question we need to ask ourselves today.
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00:09:34.000Whose emotional clothes am I still wearing?
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00:09:41.360Maybe it was a parent's anger, maybe it was an old friend's rejection, a supervisor's disrespect.
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00:09:44.320Who dressed you emotionally?
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00:09:46.879And why are you still wearing that?
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00:09:50.559Family, that's where I learned I was growing.
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00:09:56.559Not because I stopped noticing it, but because I stopped wearing it.
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00:10:03.679Maybe that's why I wanted to have this conversation today.
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00:10:06.639Because I know someone listening is tired.
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00:10:13.600You're tired of being misunderstood, tired of being overlooked, tired of feeling like you have always been the one trying.
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00:10:16.960Maybe you've been carrying the weight of someone else's behavior.
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00:10:19.039But can I encourage you, family?
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00:10:22.480Don't let someone else's character become your burden.
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00:10:27.200Notice it, learn from it, but don't let it steal your peace.
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00:10:33.840Protect your heart, protect your peace, and keep becoming the person you were meant to be.
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00:10:43.360You know, the older I get, the more I realize that life is constantly giving us opportunities to choose who we want to become.
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00:10:55.120Every disappointment, every awkward interaction, every hurtful moment, every rejection, every uncomfortable experience, life keeps asking us one question.
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00:10:57.519What are you going to do with this?
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00:11:00.480And my answer these days is simple, family.
00:11:00.720 -->
00:11:07.600I'm going to learn from it, I'm going to grow from it, but I'm not going to become it.
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00:11:11.840Family, you are not the product of your environment.
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00:11:16.080You do not have to wear the identity of your experiences.
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00:11:21.120You don't have to wear what people projected onto you.
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00:11:22.799You have a choice.
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00:11:26.639I see it, but I don't have to wear it.
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00:11:31.840Family, until next time, that's gonna do it for this one.
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00:11:35.840I love y'all, and I'm gonna see you in the next one.
