Lesson 19: What's Next

Season three begins with a question that comes after growth, healing, and breakthrough… what’s next?

In this episode of The Time Smith, we step back into the forge—the place where reflection becomes transformation. After overcoming addiction, hardship, and internal battles, there comes a moment where you look at your life and realize: you’ve reached a checkpoint. But life doesn’t end there.

This lesson explores:

•  The feeling of accomplishment vs. the reality of continued growth 
•  How past pain can shape self-destructive patterns 
•  The importance of facing your reflection—internally, not just externally 
•  Why healing requires action, not just thought 
•  Creating your personal “baseline” for a stable, grounded life 
•  Breaking cycles and choosing intentional change 

Smith challenges you to examine your life honestly—your habits, your thoughts, your patterns—and begin building your own forge. Not based on ego or perfection, but on clarity, patience, and truth.

This is not about having everything figured out.
 It’s about deciding to move forward anyway.

If you’ve ever asked yourself “Is this all there is?”—this episode is your answer.

What’s next is up to you.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Time Smith and welcome back to season three. I hope you've had time to listen to season one and season two. The catalog is growing and the lessons are being logged, but let's move into this new season. What's next? That was something that came to me one night. I thought about the things that we've accomplished and not just this podcast daily life. Career, family. Overcoming. Breaking barriers. Breakthroughs. And the thought came to me now what? Now what happens? Not that I had the sense that I have accomplished everything. But life is in stages and I realize that certain checkpoints have been reached. You do get the sense of accomplishment. Let's step into the forge. As always, there's an elevator to the left. That elevator takes us down to the floors rather quickly. And to the right there's a staircase. The reason for that is, and if you're new, is that you can get stuck in your head trying to figure out memories. Trying to figure out your life and the problems that are before us, these circumstances. So I created that for myself, that I can go down and come back quickly and not get stuck in my head. I will talk about that soon. Of how we can get more organized. But there are lessons here that'll help you do that. Well. What's next? And once we accomplish goals, we can sit there and look at our life and say, well, this is about as far as I need to go. Maybe you've reached a number financially that you said, this is what's okay for me, or you finally got the dream job, or maybe you opened a business. Well, there was a time for me when the accomplishment was. I finally broke addiction. I finally got out of the gang. I finally overcame that feeling. And it was a checkpoint. That's important. How are you doing with that today? Life isn't just projections and anticipation, anticipations. It's also and mainly reality about where that step that you're taking actually takes you. Those steps can be taken in the right direction and in the wrong direction. That's what we're always trying to figure out. Is this the right decision? For some of us, and I'll say it like that, is that we're very self destructive. Um, maybe I don't want to feel alone on this, but. I have primarily been self-destructive that if things were going too good, I'd get nervous if things felt right. I would question it. Opposed to if things were bad, I would just accept it because my train of thought was that this is the way it's supposed to be, because things had normally been wrong. Bad and hard. Difficult. If you go back to the lens of suffering, then you will see why I had that thinking. But as I got older, I started realizing that that was just a moment that happened and that life can actually be good. It was hard to get to that point, but that's what I was working, working to. I was working to try to get to a destination that just my train of thought would accept that things can be good. Now how do we reach that? That's what this is. Sometimes we go into memories, right? Never changing them. But we learn the lessons from them. So we get better. We improve. And sometimes you read books. Maybe you might go to a class. Maybe you might get good advice. Um, for others, they might read the Bible. They might want to practice their faith, something that pushes them internally to change externally. So what are you putting into yourself that's allowing you to take those steps that you need to take to change your life? Okay. This lesson is titled What's Next? For myself. If I share is that I will continue to go into memories and continue to organize. There's still some deep layers within that I haven't completely shared with you. I mean, it's only eighteen lessons and the lessons are only about fifteen to twenty minutes long. How could I possibly share that much with you? It would take time. It would take me doing public speaking. It would take me to step out of my comfort zone and to start meeting people, and to show exactly what has happened and what has changed. Right. If you look at some of the experiences that I've had and maybe that you've had, you might say, I grew up in a home where there was domestic violence. My parents did a lot of yelling there. There could have been a divorce in your family. There could have been addiction, alcoholism, uh, drug addiction, violence, right? Lying, cheating and stealing and things that don't give children young adults. Uh, a path to success because they're trying to fix. The decisions of the past. The whole. The whole layout of the time. Smith of the forge is, in essence, a zero. It's baseline. Uh, I still haven't talked about the floors that are above. And many times I try and I attempt to want to talk about it. I don't like getting into being a a person that brags or that you rely on ego or pride. I like to stay grounded. Well, that's the baseline. That's the forge. Um, I also don't like being a person that looks back at everything, all the mistakes that I've made and live in the past. The problem with that is that if I do not accept that errors were made. Uh, that problems happened when I was younger. Then, uh, there's also a, a separation between the reality of your life and that fantasy of who we think we are. How many times have you looked in the mirror before and said unpleasant things about yourself that you don't like what you see, and never mind about the external. We all have moments where we wake up and our hair is sticking up and you know, maybe we have bags under our eyes or something that isn't isn't attractive, but some sleep, a comb, some gel could fix that. But when you look into your eyes in that mirror. What do you feel? And what are those changes that need to be made? That's what this is. What's next? Because that moment should take you to say. I want to be something better. If you say something bad about yourself now, if you're accepting of yourself, of what you see in the mirror and this is just about improvement, then good. We want that. We want more people like that. We want more people that can testify and give examples to people that are looking for ways out, and not just the handout. Real advice. Sympathetic and empathetic. Filled with truth. What must you do now? If you associate with me and you relate to the things that I say and you say yes. I also grew up in domestic violence. I also grew up in violence. I grew up in. Lying and cheating and. And maybe even addiction. You might put yourself in a place that says you've had that. Might say, I have had a hard life. And no, I don't feel like I'm at baseline. And if you're not on the baseline, then you're in the negative. And you cannot build your life in the negative. You will continue continue to dig yourself downward. That's the reason why there's so many layers in the forge. I've talked about the sixth and the seventh layer or level, the floors that are beneath things that even in my own life, I can say they are still dark. What's next for me is to resolve issues and not just spend time within my head, because I understand that the lens of suffering has been a big part of my life. And at times, yes, I want to explain a little bit more about what that day was and how it's affected me. But also, I want to show that there was a moment that happened that completely traumatized my life, caused me to suffer, caused me to make bad decisions, and that there's a way out. Are you looking for healing? Right. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a medic. But there's things that are inside of us, in our minds and in our hearts that can be healed. Well, that's the reason why people go to church and people pray. And that's the reason why people go to classes. Because though someone might say, oh, well, you go to church because you need a crutch. You need something to rely on. Yes, that's absolutely true because you cannot do that part on your own. Especially when we're not heart surgeons. If there's a matter of the heart and I'm talking inside of your heart, not just cardiovascular, I'm talking about things that ail you from within. Is it all spiritual? Is it your soul? Is it the memory of the past that doesn't let you go? And how do we do that? Taking a step forward and taking advantage of the opportunity that we have again, through going to church and going to class, maybe reading a Bible, maybe going to a seminar, maybe even reaching out to a doctor. It could be you accepting that something needs to happen. You look at the patterns of your life and why haven't they changed primarily because of the motive of the heart? So here's my thought. Assess yourself. Continue to assess yourself. Once you do that, think about that thing that pops up. What is the conversation that is brought out from your mouth? It could be a relationship and you haven't been able to get past it. Well, what should you do, right? Staying in your house, staying in your room, uh, watching TV, staying on your phone. None of that will resolve that. Being on social media, having your algorithm speak to you and speak to you and speak to you. It's not a resolution. It's encouraging, but it won't resolve the issue. So what's next is that you challenge yourself, that you challenge yourself to write. Go out and get a journal and get a pencil and write and create your own forge, right? Create a baseline for yourself and to say, this is what this is. What a normal life my life would feel like, right? I'm not talking about fast cars and big houses and anything like that. I'm just talking about you. What is the baseline and so standard of what we would say, not just what is normal, right, is that we practice common courtesy, that we practice common sense, right? That we are respectful of others, that we don't blow out, blow up on people, that we're not practicing anger, that we practice patience. And so the list can go on of those things. And that would be the baseline unachievable. Not so much. It is achievable, right? We don't have to be the masters of patience, as you know. Uh, the moment that we ask for patience, we get the opportunity. So tread lightly. But maybe you were patient for one minute before with a friend, you know, and you say, I want to be able to be a little more patient and you see your tolerance growing. That's what's next. And that's what creates the baseline. And so instead of just me throwing out examples of what you can work at to establish that baseline, examine yourself. Consider what's good within you and be honest with yourself and allow yourself to see what's wrong. Then you will be able to grow and establish what the forge is in your life. What is your personal forge look like? How many levels does it have? Maybe it's not as deep as mine. Maybe it's way deeper than mine. One of the things that I have set my sight on is clarity. I want to know what life is without fear. I want to know what life is without worry. Yes, hard moments are going to come, but I don't have to respond in fear and in worry. I can accept what's coming. I can accept what has happened. I can accept what my life is without fear or worry. Anyway, as we proceed with season three, I will challenge you more. just in conversation. To understand more about how I got to where I'm at, which is at peace. I'm okay. And I'll tell you that you're okay too. The day might be hard and the day might be long. But just remember that the joy comes in the morning. So get through the night. Get through the hardship if need be. Call a friend. Get down on your knees and pray and everything will work out. What's next is amazing. I'll end it here. Remember, if you are lost, you can be found. And if you feel unloved, you are loved by me. I am the time smith.