88. Living In Between Dreams: Faith, Valleys & Becoming

Your Valley Isn’t Punishment — It’s Preparation

Have you ever felt like you’re stuck between who you are and who you’re becoming?
That strange space where your dreams are so clear you can see them — but they still feel out of reach? You’re not alone.

This episode is for the dreamers, the doers, and the ones in their becoming season. I’m talking about those quiet, uncomfortable valleys where faith is tested, doubt creeps in, and everything feels slower than you imagined.

Here’s what we explore:
 ✨ Living in between dreams — why this middle ground is where your deepest growth happens
✨ Why it’s not “fake it till you make it” — it’s faith it till you make it
✨ How to discern when to pour from your cup… and when to refill it first
✨ Lessons the valley teaches you about people, process, and purpose
✨ Why becoming feels lonely — and why that’s a sign you’re on the right path

Through my own personal stories, reflections, and revelations, we’ll unpack what it really means to keep working the dream when no one sees it yet.

Your current situation isn’t your final destination. It’s preparation for the life, calling, and abundance you can’t yet imagine.

💌 If this resonates, share it with someone in their valley season. Let’s grow, glow, and trust God’s timing — together.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to The Human Experience
• 1:13 Living In Between Dreams
• 4:18 Faith It Till You Make It
• 8:23 Pouring Versus Protecting Your Energy
• 11:50 Meaningful Work and Sacred Becoming
• 15:17 Real, Raw and Real Estate

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to. It's the Human Experience Podcast Hosted by Hazel Brown, a healthcare leader, wife, mom and career coach. If you're big on authenticity, personal development, perseverance and transparency, you're in the right place. Get ready to be uplifted, inspired and empowered as you become fearless in pursuit of the life you desire and deserve. Our goal is to help you level up by creating a safe space to learn and reflect, while listening to transparent stories from our host or successful professionals and business owners who've agreed to share the parts of success that typically gets X'd out on social media, because that's the part you need to see and hear the process. Go ahead and subscribe. You don't want to miss out on these transparent stories and discussions that reveal highs, lows, aha moments and nuggets that'll help you to grow and glow.

Speaker 2: 1:13

Hey, hey, hey, you are now tuned in to the it's a Human Experience podcast. I'm your host, hazel Brown. Hey, listen, I don't know about you, but I've been living in between dreams and I just want to remind you that your current situation is not your final destination. Listen, and I like that movie it's just really been playing on repeat in my spirit lately that sometimes the hardest place to be is actually not rock bottom, it's not the mountaintop. They all come with their own disturbances, their own lessons, their own feels right. But if that space in between, where the dream is close enough to see but it feels just far enough away, you're questioning everything. Guys, tell me I'm not alone, right, you're questioning your whole life, but you know that what God has prepared for you is so close. It is so close. This episode is for you. If you're sitting in between that in-between space, like guys, know that this one's going to get deep. It's going to get deep, deep, right. If it's your first time tuning into the podcast, I want to make sure you scroll up to the top and hit that follow button. You share the podcast with the people that you know need to hear this message. You realize that you are not alone on the journey. And, guys, yes, we're in the video era, but let me tell you, every time God gives me a download, something strong in my spirit, I'm going to pause the typical cadence and setup that I already have set up for you and make sure we are growing together. You're getting the information, as he puts it in my spirit, to share.

Speaker 2: 2:51

The reality is I've experienced this so many times within my journey my journey for personal development, my journey in my career, my journey in my business, my journey as a mom, my journey with my husband, my journey through relationships and friendships. We all go through so many different lessons while we're growing. The reality is a temptation to pause, to sleep the dream away, feel safer than trying. That is a normal thought process. But you have to decide, you have to choose. You have to know that you can't go to sleep on your dream just because it feels quiet right now. You can't go to sleep on your dream because you know it's going to be a lot of work. You just got to understand that sometimes the vision that you see doesn't match the life you're living, and it doesn't mean you're faking it till you make it. It just means you have to work the dream. Something that rings true for me, that I had to recognize is that sometimes the valley is the assignment when you are right now, at the peak, at the dip or somewhere in between. That is the assignment. Where are you? Write it down. Feel the feels, know that. You Write it down, feel the feels, know that it's okay and you're going to be okay.

Speaker 2: 4:10

I know, for me, the valley guys, the valley has been interesting in so many ways. I've learned who shows up for me in the valley. Some people that I thought was going to be there for me in the valley they were nowhere to be found. People that I didn't expect to be there in the valley were right there cheering me on, not because they even knew I was in the valley, just because they cared about me. No matter what, the valley is meant to teach you so many things, and I don't think we talk a lot about that.

Speaker 2: 4:43

I think for me, I was just really reflecting on just a dream, to dream right. I realized that many people in the dream of the vision that God gives them let's be clear about what the dream is their purpose. They see the light, they see the thing and then they see other people and they think man, how do people just push through despite the problems, the things that are happening around the world, the things that are happening in their life? And I've recognized that it really has a lot to do with rethinking fake it till you make it. I used to hate that saying. To me it felt like pretending, performing being something I wasn't, and what I had to realize that what it really means is, I guess, a layered perspective. Right, it means like embodiment over pretending, sometimes stepping into what you're becoming before the world sees it is fake. It's not faking it, it's, you see, what God has shown you, but you're not there yet because you see it right.

Speaker 2: 5:51

But you actually have to build up the muscle and the courage to make it your reality. See, you could be going on a road trip. You bought the hotel, you've seen it online, but you're not there yet. You still got to get in the plane. You still got to pack your bag. You still need money for this trip. You may be taking a road trip, it may take you hours to get there, but guess what?

Speaker 2: 6:15

Initially it was a vision that you had to put in the muscle to get there. What if you were like I'm afraid of heights, I don't want to go alone, I don't want to drive. My tire might got flat on the way, I ran out of gas, somebody called me complaining about something, somebody died on the way, but I still got to make sure I enjoy my trip. It's no different. Why can we put in the work and muster up the courage to enjoy a vacation, but we can't muster up the muscle and the courage to enjoy our life, to make the dream actually become a reality? It's not fake, it's faith until you can actually see it. It's faith it till you make it.

Speaker 2: 6:59

Faking it isn't lying about where you are. It's aligning with who you're becoming and trusting God to catch you on the way. You can't wait till you're ready. You can't wait till you feel ready. You have got to shift and know that you deserve to live the dream and you have to trust what God put in your spirit. Guys, I got to go a little deeper because I feel like so many times you have people around you that will talk you out of what God has for you. They'll say things to you to push you off, not because they don't want to see you win, but they cannot see what God showed you Like.

Speaker 2: 7:39

In the process of going after the goal, going after the job, going after the friendship, going after the move, going after the business, going after whatever you're going after, you are going to hear people tell you to stay where you are because it's more comfortable. And guess what? The part of you that's scared to put in the work, the scared to go around the bend where it's dark, might agree, but you got to trust God more than you trust their opinion. You got to trust God more than you trust fear. You got to trust that you deserve to live that life. Something else that I was thinking about in my download from God listen, he be talking to me and I'm like let's go, let's share it with the people.

Speaker 2: 8:23

Something else that I really want to talk to you about is pouring versus protecting. I feel like this is so important because, let's be real, there's so much trends and talk about. You know, don't pour from an empty cup, but the truth is it's more complicated than that. It's way more complicated than that. The reality is, sometimes, when you're giving from not enough, it deepens your well. It gives you more supply the next time you replenish. It helps you stretch your faith. It helps you to understand what you're capable of. I know for me. Earlier this year I was in a space of just pure depletion, but I still poured into the lives of others. I still showed up and made sure that the support that I needed to provide in the people and the things that I was putting in my life, they still got what they needed. Where there are other times where I straight ghost everything I'm doing because I'm not going to pour from a negative place, I'm not going to pour from a place that doesn't add value.

Speaker 2: 9:33

So you have to discern for yourself whether you're in a space that you're little and you're not enough. That you have to give is real filthy. It needs some like bleach, right. It needs to be sanitized and desensitized and all the ties, right. We need to disinfect it in the little you have left. But if the little you have left is clean, is filtered, is pure, but it's just a little sometimes, you could give it. You just have to decide who is worth you giving it to. You have to decide where you're at in a space of growth.

Speaker 2: 10:13

It's that knowing when you're serving versus when you're self-sabotaging, when you're hurting yourself because these people wouldn't pour from a full cup, no matter what's in that cup, and I think that's where we messed up. Sometimes we pour from a place for people that wouldn't do it for us, and sometimes it's okay to do it. If God gave you that test and he told you the thing, then it really doesn't matter whether or not they receive. All that matters is that you surrender. In my personal journey, I just know when it felt impossible. The things you discover about yourself and God is just amazing, and sometimes pouring from an empty cup reminds you that God is your source. You're not your source. It's really just a roller coaster of becoming. We celebrate the highs, but the lows, where we're being stretched, refined and made ready.

Speaker 2: 11:10

Yeah, those viral moments are not on social media, right? You just see, they took a break and now they're back. What you was doing on your break, though? Was it a vacation? Was it a sabbatical? What was it Like? What did you do?

Speaker 2: 11:24

Because the reality is the breaks, too child. Sometimes they're at their breaking point, but they're not sharing it, and I feel like it's okay. Sometimes, when you're in your season, it's okay to isolate, it is okay to just be one with self and God, but you got to know that everybody that you see out here is going through things from time to time, sometimes on a daily, depending on the season they're in. But you have to know that the dream, that purpose, what God is sharing for you to do, to be all the things is needed, is necessary, and I want to make sure that you show up for you. Sometimes God slows you down to teach you, to teach you who you can trust, to teach you what you're made of. And the process is needed for the preparation. The valley isn't punishment, it is truly preparation.

Speaker 2: 12:19

Becoming feels, lonely because not everybody is invited to the next chapter. You lose so many people in the valley because not everybody wants invited to the next chapter. You lose so many people in the valley because not everybody wants to work in the valley. Not everybody could handle the valley. Heck, we don't even want to be in the valley half the time. Why can't we just stop rushing God's process? I feel like that's where I'm at, with me, like I'm talking to me and you too, like why can't we just stop rushing the process, like what we see afterwards is always bigger and better? So we just stop rushing it and know it's intentional, know it's going to be so much better.

Speaker 2: 12:55

Like guys, I am so excited about my next chapter. I am so excited for the work that I'm going to be doing in my career. Like I could feel it, I could see it. I could see it. I've been intentional. I've been intentional about what it is that I'm doing. I've been so intentional because I want meaningful work, both in my career, in my business, in everything that I do, the value in my relationships, the way that I'm raising my children, the things that are happening in my life. Meaningful is the word in this season and I want it to all provide fulfillment.

Speaker 2: 13:34

So sometimes that low, that stretch on that life rollercoaster helps you realize what's really important and I hope that you know it's you. I hope that you know the season is teaching you that becoming is not glamorous, it's sacred. I don't know where you are right now, whether you're in your mountain, your valley or you're in between, but I do want you to know right now that you're exactly where you are meant to be. Like. God is building you, he's building in you, and I really want to make sure you're staying connected to knowing that everything is happening for you, not to you, like there's just so much in faith in it till you make it, and there's so much in just real, transparent, reflective conversations, and that's what we do with workplace therapy or human AF. Yes, I haven't started talking about that much. We are redefining what it means to be human, because the reality is you are human and we got to remove these masks and we got to stop performing and start understanding that being who we are truly matters. Being who we are is what really takes us to the next level. Allowing the process to process is really what's going to make you stand up strong in your next chapter. Child, I'm gonna stop preaching and I just want y'all to know that in the process, I told you guys, I've been working with clients doing the things, or what have you right?

Speaker 2: 15:17

And so one of my clients I helped her with her podcast. I'm the executive producer and creative director for her podcast. It's called Real, raw and Real Estate. It's my high school friend and I don't call a lot of people my friends my high school friend, tanisha Williams and her husband, daryl Williams. They started a podcast called Real, raw and Real Estate.

Speaker 2: 15:36

So I need y'all to go on Apple, spotify, youtube, search Real Raw, real Estate and follow them. Listen, it's going to be amazing, genuine person doing all the things. Her and her husband really good people. They actually own the largest minority owned or largest black owned real estate brokerage in the state of Florida. They've expanded to Atlanta and they're going to continue expanding, right, and they're going to continue taking up space and all the things, and so I'm so excited for them, just like I'm so excited for you, like I want to make sure we are all growing together. And so, if this episode met you where you are, share it with someone who's living in between dreams too, because we are going to grow and we're going to glow. We're going to do it together. Now let's go.

Speaker 1: 16:21

We hope you caught all those gems. So here for all of it. Be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss a gem. Write a review so that we know to keep bringing you episodes like this. And check us out online at itsthehumanexperiencecom to keep up with us. Keep growing and glowing. Catch you on the next episode.