Welcome to Season 6 of the Excel Stillmore podcast. I am your host, Chris Emerson, and I am here to encourage you in your walk with the Lord, and I'm glad you've joined.

Our program continues to be sponsored by Cunningham Financial Group. John is a good friend and he's helped me and my family in everything

from stock and mutual fund investing to annuities, life insurance, and retirement planning.

I certainly commend him to you if you have needs in any of those areas. You can reach him at

205-326736-3-64. Thank you again for your ongoing encouragement and support. Let's get started.

Hey, welcome. So today, I want to invite you to come along with me on a 20-minute version of self-discovery

that basically represents an evolution of thought in me over the past five

and a half years or so that I've been producing this podcast. So let me begin with this. I like

today's title. I like the grit factor element of it. I believe that this equation is factual

and that the sooner you accept it, the sooner you will lean into it

and trust it and see results. So if you're one of those try harder, lean in, man up, own

responsibility for your choices, and get out there and change it kind of people, you are

really going to enjoy today's content, which includes a real life, own your

choices story by a Navy SEAL. But for me personally, I've been on this conflicting, challenging

journey over this last handful of years of trying to determine how much of changing the outcome

is really within my power to accomplish. I think if you've

been making great effort like I have, you know there are limitations to the amount of effort that

you can do and you can get into this cycle where you go, I'm trying my hardest and it isn't working

and maybe I just can't get there. And it begins to miss the presence of God, the providence and

workings of God, the effective power of the ruling high priest Jesus Christ, and the ever-present

potency of the Holy Spirit and angels in the spiritual world. I have to tell you, for a lot of years, that just wasn't a

big part of the way that I thought. It was about, look, Chris, just get better knowledge, find

...