Turning the lights back on….LETS GO!!

Brett’s episode focused on “turning the lights back on” during dark or discouraging seasons of life, using Imagine Big by Terri Savelle as the core message. He emphasized that many people stop dreaming because of fear, disappointment, or routine, but encouraged listeners to start imagining bigger again, write down their goals, protect their mindset, and take small daily actions toward a better future. The episode also featured two inspiring real-life stories: an 80-year-old woman who completed the Appalachian Trail after years of setbacks, and a 72-year-old woman who finally achieved her lifelong dream of graduating medical school. Brett then recapped podcast lessons from Christine Hassler, John Gordon, and Joel Osteen about self-love, positive habits, gratitude, and learning to find peace in your current season of life. He closed the episode by reminding listeners that they are loved, capable, and never too old or too far behind to dream big again. 

Christine Hassle | How Love Changes Everything

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-motivation/id1713407788?i=1000722364807

Jon Gordon | The Power of Positive Habits

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jon-gordon-podcast/id1329995882?i=1000768126073

Joel Osteen | Being Happy Where You Are

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joel-osteen-podcast/id137254859?i=1000766051500

Daily Healthy Lifestyle:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1coeDFfQP3wt1DX-nRvIi4Q0W9IJSB8Mr/view?usp=drivesdk

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to A Conversation of Hope with Brett. This podcast is all about you, the mission, to remind you that you are a masterpiece. To inspire you to dream again. To equip you with simple, actionable strategies for success. Strategies you can start using today to begin your journey towards the incredible life you deserve. He wants to remind you of the champions you were going to be. No matter your past or current struggle, firmly believes that you're fascinated and still happy. He's grateful you're here and promises to give us all each week to help you create the life you were meant to live. So buckle up. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Welcome, welcome, welcome to a conversation of hope. I am so glad you tuned in today. I believe you will find tremendous value and hope in today's episode. Right from the start, I want to remind you: you are enough. You have what it takes. You're a champion whose absolute best days are straight ahead. I was watching a documentary with my Lady of Love just a few days ago, and I heard a man in his 60s say his dad had never given him a hug his entire life. Honestly, shook me to my core. And I wanted to tell you right now, I want you to know. If you're listening right now, and that's you, and that's your story, I am giving you a virtual hug right now, and I mean it. And I want you to know you are loved and you are appreciated. The world is a better place because you are here. If we happen to meet someday, and I hope we do, I will give you the hug that you have always longed for. I guarantee it. Alright, y'all. Today we want to talk about turning the lights back on. Sometimes in life, we all go through dark seasons. Dark seasons are not fun, and in fact, they can be quite painful. Today I want to help you turn the lights back on. I'm gonna throw a lot of words of life over you, along with wisdom on how to get going again. If you have been on the sidelines for a while, let's get you back in the game. All right, so Terry Savelle, she's authored over 11 books and has an amazing podcast out there. She calls herself a cheerleader for your dreams. Everything she puts out is amazing. Today we are featuring her book, Imagine Big. I believe what we cover today will reignite your passion to turn the lights back on and start living your absolute best life. Because why? Because I believe you deserve it. All right, let's get into it. Imagine Big by Terry Savelle is more than a book about dreaming. It's a wake-up call to rediscover the God-given potential inside you and dare to believe that your life can be far greater than your current circumstances. All right, so Imagine Big is a motivational. Here we got a motivational recap of what she has said. There comes a moment in life when you have to decide whether you will keep living by default or start living by design. Terry Savell's Imagine Big begins with one life-changing truth. Your life will move in the direction of your strongest imagination. If you can't see it, you probably won't pursue it. So many people settle not because God called them to small living, but because disappointment, fear, failure, or routine shrunk their imagination. They stopped dreaming, they stopped expecting. They stopped believing something extraordinary could happen for them. But Terry's message is clear. God created you to dream big, believe big, and to live big. Not for selfish ambition, but so you can become everything that you were created to be. So dare to dream again. One of the biggest lessons in Imagine Big is that many adults abandon their dreams because life happened. Maybe somebody told you. You're unrealistic. That will never happen. People like you don't do things like that. Over time those words become limits. But Terry reminds us your past does not define your future. Just because your dream was delayed doesn't mean it was denied. You may have been through heartbreak, financial setbacks, divorce, mistakes, loss, but none of that cancels God's promises for your life. You must give yourself permission to dream again. Ask yourself, what would I pursue if I knew that I could not fail? What excites me? What vision keeps stirring in my heart? Because buried dreams are often clues to your true calling. Terry strongly teaches the biblical principle from Habakkuk 2 2. Write the vision and make it plain. Dreams become powerful when they become visible. This is why Terry emphasizes vision board, written goals, journals, and surrounding yourself with constant reminders of where you're going. Why? Because what stays in front of you stays alive inside of you. When you see your dreams daily, your mind begins to align your actions with your vision. You stop drifting and you start directing. A dream written down becomes a target. A target creates focus, and focus changes everything. Expand your belief system. Terry teaches that often your biggest obstacle is not resources, it's mindset. You may be praying for a bigger life while thinking small thoughts. You cannot consistently live beyond what you believe you deserve. So if deep down you believe I'm too old, I'm not qualified, I've failed too much. You'll sabotage opportunities before they even begin. Terry challenges us to upgrade our thinking because faith is seeing the invisible before it becomes visible. Your imagination is the blueprint of your future. You must start seeing yourself healthy, successful, joyful, confident, blessed and purposeful. Not because it's easy, but because belief activates action. Take the consistent action. Dreaming is essential, but dreams without discipline stay fantasies. Terry emphasizes that imagining big means partnering faith with action. If you want to write a book, start writing one page. If you want to get healthy, start one workout. If you want financial freedom, start learning. Big dreams are built through small daily disciplines. Success is rarely one giant leap. It's thousands of faithful steps. And every small act of obedience builds momentum. Protect your environment. Terry also warns that your environment can either fuel your dreams or kill them. Who are you listening to? Are you surrounded by negativity? Doubt? Fear? Are you feeding your faith through personal development? God's word, encouraging mentors, inspirational teaching? What you hear repeatedly shapes what you believe. Protect your imagination. Water your dreams. Starve your doubts. One of Terry's most empowering messages is to live with expectancy. Expect good things. Expect divine appointments. Expect open doors. Not because life is perfect, but because expectation positions your heart for possibility. When you expect nothing, you notice nothing. When you expect God to move, you recognize opportunities others miss. Faith is not passive, faith anticipates. The biggest message of all everyone, your life can still be bigger. Maybe you feel behind. Maybe you've wasted years. Maybe your dream seems impossible. Terry's message is this it's not too late. As long as you're breathing, God still has a purpose for you. Your current reality may not match your future vision, but that's okay. Seeds never look like harvests in the beginning. But if you keep believing, keep sowing, keep imagining, keep moving, your life can become bigger than you ever imagined. Alright. Imagine big is about refusing to let fear, insecurity, or past disappointments shrink your destiny. You were not created just to survive. You were created to thrive, to impact, to inspire, to grow, to fulfill your purpose. So today, dream again, write it down, see it clearly, believe boldly, act daily, because the size of your vision often determines the size of your future. Imagine bigger, believe stronger, live with purpose. Your best life is waiting for you on the other side of a courageous decision to believe that bigger is possible for you. Yay! All right, y'all. That is fabulous, amazing nuggets of wisdom to get us back in the game. Make sure you buy a copy of Imagine Big by Terry Savell. It's T-E-R-R-I, S-A-V-E-L-L-E. I promise you will not be disappointed. All right, buckle up as we head right into the laugh zone. Once again, if you're driving down the road, you might want to pull off to the side. These jokes are powerful. If you're on a treadmill, you might want to step off, take a little five-minute break. Because once again, I wouldn't want you to fall down on the treadmill. These jokes are powerful. All right, here we go. Why are elevator jokes so good? They work on so many different levels. They're going to be very inspirational, I promise you that. And they're going to remind all of us that age is just a number. Truly. Both of these are going to go, wow, I could still do a lot of things. So here we go. First one up. 80-year-old retired teacher beats disease and injury to become oldest female hiker to finish the Appalachian Trail. The obstacles and excuses kept blocking Betty, but she never stopped moving forward. Betty is an 80-year-old retired school teacher from Carson City, Michigan. She became interested in the Appalachian Trail in elementary school when she learned about it in a weekly reader. Betty immediately thought she wanted to hike that trail someday. But adult life and her work as a teacher obstructed her path for decades. Even young people hiking the entire Appalachian Trail is a grueling multi-month endeavor. Multi-month, y'all. The trail runs through 14 states from Maine to Georgia and is about 2,200 miles long. Filled with rigorous climbs and rocky terrain and a whole host of environmental challenges. Finishing the entire thing is such a daunting task that many people only attempt to cover stretches of it at a time. Betty wanted to do the whole thing. I remember thinking, how long do you think I have to think about this? You know, I'm pushing eighty, said Betty. Am I going to wait until I'm pushing ninety? So yeah, it sort of pushed me into action, she said. She researched the trail and made her first attempt with trail partner Joe Cox. Unfortunately, Cox had a rough fall on Mount Katotin in Maine and had to exit the trail a day later. Betty didn't make it much longer, leaving several days afterwards due to lingering effects from dehydration, Lyme disease, and a concussion. But she tried it once again, starting at Harper's Ferry, Virginia and heading north. Betty made it all the way to Massachusetts, but had a bad fall, forced her to abandon the adventure. Then she had a knee replacement surgery and learned that sad news that Cox had passed away. Betty became determined to finish the trail in his honor. Wow, that's noble. She started at Harper's Ferry again, this time going southward. Unfortunately, in September, Mother Nature threw her another curveball. Hurricane Helane had toppled trees, obstructing paths over the south, making the Appalachian Trail so impassable in parts that officials made hikers an extraordinary offer during the cleanup. They said leave now and you can count your existing mileage on day one of next year. Typically, all through hikes have to be finished in twelve months to count as complete. So Betty had actually caught a break. She began training for her next shot at the trail by climbing steps every day at the local hospital because her Michigan surroundings were so flat. And when she headed out to the Appalachian Trail again, she only had the northern and southern routes remaining since she had hiked between Massachusetts and Virginia before the hurricane had hit. She finished the southern end first. Only the northern end remained, but the mountains of Maine and New Hampshire are notoriously difficult, so Betty wasn't sure she could do it until she met a man hiking in Pennsylvania who said something that was unforgettable. Hikers often call people like this trail angels, seemingly divine beings that show up in the darkest times and offer enough food, advice, or encouragement to keep people going. I was hiking alone and just thought if I had to do this alone, I'm not sure I can do it. And he says, Well, you can quit and nobody will point fingers at you or blame you or anything, but you'll never know whether you could have done it or not. If you go and you take it on and you try it, then you'll at least know. So Betty kept going. The collective elevation gain along the iconic trail is equivalent to hiking Mount Everest 16 times, y'all. Wow. That's crazy. It's estimated that 75% of through hikers fail every year. And no wonder, Betty's challenges included sore feet, heavy packs, bad weather, mud bogs, upended roots, and endless piles of rocks. Early on I decided the Lord must love rocks because he made so many of them, Betty said while chuckling. Finally on September twelfth, Betty completed the northern end at age eighty, besting the previous record by six full years to become the oldest female to finish the Appalachian Trail. I've had a series of unfortunate events, I call them, but each one I learned something, she said. Each one I got a little stronger. Each one I got a better story. And then this year I was able to do it. In addition to the record, Betty took home a simple yet powerful lesson that she loves sharing. Get out, move, set a goal and work towards it. The bigger the goal, the greater the reward. Don't let society or friends and family set your limitations. Quite often you might be surprised how far you can go once you simply take the first step. Hmm. That is awesome. Betty is a remarkable human being, and to finish that and do that at the age of 80 makes us all think of what's possible. Alright, next one up, another really cool story. Senior scholar fulfills lifelong dream to graduate medical school, a doctor at 73 years young. When Mr. Carl Kraft nearly died from a brain hemorrhage, he and his wife Don reviewed their bucket list. Carl wanted to travel. Don said she wanted to go to medical school. He thought I was crazy, she said. Now though, Don proudly carries a doctorate in medicine after finishing as the school's oldest ever graduate at 72 years old. The doctorate dream took root from the earliest periods of Don's life and would blossom into a career as a nurse practitioner and a pediatric educator. It was a career she enjoyed even while marrying and giving birth to two children. For the sake of them, Don put her medical school ambition on hold, at least until her forties, she thought. Then she got divorced and remarried before she and her new husband, Carl, decided to start their own family. Don spent the decade raising two more children. The dream of medical school gradually faded until Carl suffered his brain haemorrhage, at which point Don realized it had to happen now, or as the phrase goes, never. Digging into her retirement savings, Don paid the tuition for St. James School of Medicine, where the institution waives the requirement for a medical college admission test. It wasn't a straightforward process, and the senior scholar wouldn't have hoped or imagined failing the biochemistry exam during year one, but with the support of her husband Carl and the classmates who all remember her fondly from their dorm living, movie nights, yoga sessions on the beach, Don kept going. It took clinical rotations in Chicago, West Virginia, and a stint in South Texas, where a medical professional encouraged her based on her aptitude to seek out a residency program for Don to graduate with her doctorate this month, not long in advance of her 73rd birthday. When you have to do it for work, you feel like it. I got to do this so that I could pay my rent, Don said, who has three grandchildren. I want to do this because I really, really enjoy it. She says, I feel alive when I work in the medical field. She will begin her residency at Trinity Health Medical Center in Muskegon, Michigan this year, y'all. Wow. That is so inspirational. I like I said at the beginning, age is just a number. There's so many things you can still do. If you have those dreams in your heart that you've always, always wanted to do, but you're thinking it'll just never happen. Maybe those two people will let us think. Don and Betty will say, they would look at us and say, you know what? Age is just a number. You can get out there and do it. So why not us, right? That's who we are as a community. We do what other people don't. All right. I like you, as you know, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while. I love listening to podcasts as well. I am always trying to do anything I can to get better and better every day. I want to recap for you now my top three podcast episodes of the Week. And we got three good ones, y'all. All right, number one up. How love changes everything by Christine Hassels. Christine says love is the greatest force for healing, transformation, and freedom. Not just romantic love, but self-love, divine love, compassion, and courage to live with an open heart. Love begins within. She teaches that so many of our struggles, fear, anxiety, insecurity, people pleasing, and unhealthy relationships come from a lack of deep love. Often we search outside ourselves for validation. Will this person choose me? Am I enough? Can success finally make me feel worthy? But external love can never fully heal internal wounds. One of her core teachings is when you truly love yourself, you stop abandoning yourself. That means setting boundaries, honoring your needs, speaking your truth, treating yourself with compassion instead of criticism. Love changes everything because self-love changes your standards. Christine often explains that most people aren't actually blocked from receiving love. They are blocked by fear. Fear says if I open my heart, I could get hurt. If I trust, I may be disappointed. If I'm fully seen, I may be rejected. So we create protective patterns, overthinking, emotional walls, control, perfectionism, choosing unlovable people. These patterns prevent us from experiencing the love that we desire. Healing happens when love becomes stronger than fear. Daily love looks like gratitude, presence, compassion, healthy boundaries, courage, and grace. You don't become loving by waiting for perfect circumstances. You become loving by practicing love in imperfect moments. When you choose love, fear loses power. Shared begins to heal, relationships deepen, purpose becomes clearer, and peace becomes possible. And we all know peace is really, really good. The more you love yourself and live from your heart, the more your entire life will transform. Link to the entire episode of this one is in the show notes. John starts by explaining your life is not built on giant moments of inspiration, but small habits that you repeat every single day. John explains that success, joy, confidence, and purpose don't usually come from one big breakthrough, they come from daily disciplines. The habits you practice shape your mindset, your energy, your relationships, and ultimately your destiny. Every day you are either feeding the habits that strengthen you or the habits that weaken you. Positive habits create positive outcomes. Negative habits quietly sabotage your potential. Habits are powerful because they become automatic. At first your habits are choices, but over time your choices become behaviors, and your behaviors become your identity. If you constantly choose gratitude, discipline, and encouragement and consistency, eventually you will become a grateful, disciplined, encouraging, and consistent person. Many people wait to feel motivated before they act, but winners understand the action creates motivation. You don't wait to become positive, you practice positivity until it becomes who you are. You don't wait to feel strong, you build strength through repeated daily actions. John talks about the power of starting your day right. He believes morning habits are critical because they set the tone for everything else. If you begin your day with negativity, stress, or distraction, you're already giving your power away. But if you begin with prayer, gratitude, exercise, reading or intentional thought, you create momentum that carries you through the day. He encourages people to ask, What am I feeding? Faith or fear, complaining or gratitude, laziness or discipline, encouragement or negativity. Whatever you feed grows consistency over intensity. Many people try to change their lives through dramatic, unsustainable actions. But John says real transformation happens through small, repeated actions over time. Tiny habits repeated consistently create extraordinary results. Yay. Last one up, number three. Joel says if you don't learn to be happy where you are, you may never get to where you want to be. Joel explains that life is always going to have something unfinished. There will always be challenges, delays, unanswered prayers, inconveniences, and moments that just don't make sense. If your joy is dependent on everything going perfectly, then joy will always feel out of reach. Instead, he says true peace comes when you stop resisting your current season and start trusting that God is still working even here and even now. He emphasizes that where you are today is not a mistake. Even if it feels uncomfortable, delayed, or difficult, God can use this season to grow you, strengthen you, and prepare you for greater things to come. Sometimes we think we are being buried, but Joel reminds us we're actually being planted. A planted seed may feel hidden in the dark, but growth is still happening beneath the surface. One of the biggest joy stealers is comparison, says Joel. It's easy to look around and think someone else's life is better, easier, or moving faster. But constantly comparing your journey to someone else's will rob you of gratitude. Stay in your own lane. God has a custom made plan for your life, and your timing does not have to match anyone else's. What God did for someone else is not a sign he forgot about you. Joel also talks about attitude. You may not be able to control every circumstance, but you can choose faith over frustration. Joel says when you praise God in waiting, it shows real trust. A setback is not the end of your story. God is still on the throne, and what feels like a delay may actually be divine protection or preparation. Every day is a gift. Laugh more and celebrate those small wins. You don't have to have every answer to live with peace. Don't put your joy on hold. Be happy where you are while God is taking you to where He wants you to be. Good stuff, everybody. Link to full episode in the show notes. Alright, challenge of the week. Let's all, including me, turn the lights back on or make the lights even brighter as we shine to all that we meet each and every day that we have the gift to be alive. I want to remind you again, you are enough. You in fact have what it takes. You're an absolute champion whose best days are straight ahead. As my dad would always say, you are loved and appreciated. Let's all live out hope every day. Hope being helping one person each day. Always better, never backwards, y'all. Continue to speak those words of life over you and your family every day. The words that say, I am getting better and better every day in every way. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever stop dreaming and believing big. Thank you so much for being a great part of our community as we roll to one million. Have an epic day, an amazing week, and God bless.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Thank you once again for listening to a conversation of hope with Brett. Brett wants to remind you that you are loved and appreciated. If you find value in this episode and know someone who could use a little hope of encouragement, please like subscribe and comment. Be sure to check out the comments, a link to Brett, like the weed. Until next time, between you and your family an incredible weed. And ultimately, a great light. Because you've got to do that.