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What's up everybody? My name is cliff and you are listening to the What now podcast. That's right. The what now podcast where we threw conversation discuss ways that we can effectively address life's most difficult moments so sit back, relax and enjoy tonight's episode. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to the What now podcast where we have conversations about effectively addressing, facing addressing in facing life's most difficult moments and we know those difficult moments. We have now classified as defining moments because we took back the power we took back the authority and we took back the right that was ours to define those moments. Thank you all for joining in. If you have any feedback you would like to give, please reach out to me at info at Clifton's Pettijohn dot com.

Also, if you would like to run an ad, you have a business, You have a ministry. You want to send a birthday shout out. You want to send the appreciation shout out. You want to do whatever it is that you want to do. Let me know, let's talk, we can do business. Hit me up on that same email address. All right now, let's dive right in these. This is like part three of a, I guess a three part, if we were doing a series on the podcast, uh in part one, we talked about homelessness, kind of got into self awareness. The next one we talked about the last podcast, we talked about self awareness. Um, and now I'm gonna talk about one of the things that I became aware of, the more I b was willing to become self aware. Now I did not mention this in the self awareness podcast, but I'm gonna start off by mentioning this. I encourage each and every one of you that desires to experience a transformed life that you reach out to a transformation coach.

And if you don't know, transformation coach, boom, you have one alright, www dot clinton patty john dot com. I also encourage you to reach out to a therapist because the therapist has the ability through conversation to help you bridge the gap between your childhood and your adult life. And um, I thank God for my therapist always say that he's my best friend because he helped me connect some things and one of the things that I became aware of when I became self aware um is my desire to always quit. My desire to always quit. I always have a desire to quit. Uh Let's start the story. Okay, so I think it goes back to childhood. Um I don't really consider myself a athlete. I was a baseball player. I think there's a difference between an athlete and a baseball player.

Always tell everybody my brother is the athlete, he's very athletic. He played multiple sports. He just he was born with that innate ability, awesome. You know, he's awesome with me. I feel like I just had the ability to play baseball. I played basketball a little bit. I hated basketball, to be honest with you, I love watching basketball, but I hated playing it because I felt like I was forced to play it and I went through this whole phase. I don't want to do anything that anybody forces me to do. I went through that as an adult to as well. But yeah, or that I felt that somebody was forcing me to do. I didn't want to go through that. But um I played basketball a little bit when I was younger, made some all star teams and all that. Um but I really didn't like it. I really don't like it, but I fell in love with baseball, right? But here's the thing about baseball my first year and I talk about this in the teaching, I think, I can't remember what I talk about it, but I absolutely suck, joe like to the point where I wouldn't have wanted me on my team.

That's how much I sucked. And I was like, the one when you play little league, everybody has to play. So I was kind of like that last player that they put in and you already know it's gonna be a strikeout, so you don't want to have to put me in when the game is on the line. So you kind of put me in at an awkward time of the game just to get me out of the way, just to say he had a bad, he played the inning. That's how I was like, I literally sucked, joe. I mean, oh my God, was so now that look at that look at it, I probably was so embarrassed back then, you know, because I just was horrible. Y'all don't understand because when the incident happened and when this incident happened, one of the guys that I was on the team with his dad uh says something that pissed me off and what he said, thinking about it now, what he said was right, but it was the way that he said it that bothered me.

It really bothered me and it just bothered me, it bothered a lot of the other parents as well and everything and he said he said out loud in front of everybody and I got mad now here's, here's the thing with me when I get mad, okay, I'm a very quiet person. Still him to this. Well, yeah, I probably talk a little more than I did back there. I was very quiet. I was very reserved. I called myself a punk myself back in them days. It was just, I was just quiet. So when he said it, although it bothered me, I didn't give much, nobody knew it bothered me when he said, okay. So I got up, got, got stepped into the batter's box and struck out, you know, as I always did. Um, I think I hit the ball one time that year, but it wasn't a hit because I hit it in the infield and I think it caught me off guard and I stood there for a minute. I was like, oh, snap, I gotta run. And I end up getting out. So it really wasn't a hit, I didn't have no hits that year. But that was like the only time I hit the ball every other time I struck out, okay, that's how sorry I really was, Y'all, this is like I said, my first year, But um, so after that I told my mom, I'm not going back and she said, what do you mean?

You're not going back? And I told her what happened? Because she, my mom was usually at all the games, but I think for some reason she missed that game. I don't know. She had to work her second job. I can't remember. Anyway. Um So I told her what happened and she was like, he did what? Okay. All right, I got this now if you know my mom, my mom was just as quiet as me or quieter to me. So it's like funny when she gets mad, but and she was saved for real life. She was saved. So she she gonna flush you out? She's not going to cut you out, but she's gonna make you feel you're gonna know she had been there. So anyway, I don't know what she said to him. Um But she was like, he wants to apologize to you in front of everybody, he embarrassed you in front of everybody's gonna apologize to you in front everybody. So I was like, well, I'm not going back, She's old, but you are, you're not quitting. And I was like, I just met the man, She wouldn't let me quit. So I went back, he apologized. I still was sorry. But yeah, because I didn't change my ability to play. But he apologized and they were like, we still want you on the team.

And I'm saying thinking, y'all stop lying, y'all do not want me on your team. Yeah, like, like, I get the whole sportsmanship stuff, oh, we're all here for you, but come on, y'all, y'all all were relieved that I walked off. Um But that was the first time that I wanted to quit. Okay. And that was my worst year of baseball probably because like I said, I sucked, then they ended up sending me to camp and then I got a different coach who used to play with my uncle, he tried me out pitching and like, hey, I was an all star after that. Like for the rest of my career, hurt my arm in high school, fell out of love with it, you know, all of those things. But I told that story because I realized that that was what begin the pattern of quitting in my life. That began the pattern of quitting in my life. And I begin to live a life that any time that something challenged me or I wasn't good or great at something, I quit.

That was my answer to everything now. For some people, they didn't know that I quit because I may still have physically been there. But emotionally, spiritually, psychologically I'm out, I didn't quit, I'm somewhere else. And then I got to a year in high school, It was a JV, 9th Grade nine for 10th Grade JV and I went through this drought, y'all and I don't know what really happened. I just went through this drought where for some reason I was and I believe it was psychological, none that I think about it, but my pitching just was not on point and you don't understand. I was like number one and number two or number two in the rotation. So I could pitch. You know that that's the real idea many things I might couldn't do, but I could pitch and I remember the last game pitching it was it wasn't that great. We ended up winning, but I just was not pitching to the ability that I was accustomed to.

So I made up in my mind that's it. I'm not going back. I quit. I quit. And I remember my mom, I guess by that time she just was like over it because she was like, you know, you quit again. Okay, alright cliff. Okay, no problem. But my coach came to the house and my coach came to the house to show me I'm a numbers man. So you know, he knew what I like to see numbers. So he showed me he was like, you're leading the team in hitting. And I'm like, what? He's like, you're leading the team and help hitting. I was like, but coach, what is going on with me? He was like, we can fix all that, we'll get to that. But you're leading the team in hitting and you want to quit. Yeah. So I came back. But when I came back it wasn't the same for me anymore and that's when I fell out of love with baseball. I fell out of love with and I still played 11 and 12th grade, but I didn't love it. I didn't love it and had some opportunities to go play college ball.

But I just didn't love it anymore. And I didn't remember the love I had for until two years out of high school. And I realized uh and here's why I realized that two years out of high school, my coach, I didn't even go to our senior awards ceremony. I didn't go to anything. My coach came to my job. I was working at Richard Allen came into the classroom and presented me With my awards from the baseball season two years after high school and when he was talking about it with baseball, I was like dang yo I really messed this thing up. I could have had so much more baseball if you know my focus was right and I hadn't quit. And you said what? You said, you went back. I did, but I quit. I quit emotionally and psychologically I just was not there. And I realized that all into my adult life because I did not deal with those principles from elementary school cause that's when I started playing baseball and now I didn't quit in middle school because middle school I broke my wrist and still made the team the day, first day of tryouts, I broke my wrist but I still made the team and I played ended up playing with one hand.

I hit with one hand. I would pitch with the right handed glove on my um I will put it over my cast. Some of you old enough, you know, Jim Abbott, he was a one handed pitcher, he would pitch, had the one glove on the nub. Then after he pitched the ball, he'd hurry up, put his hand on the pitching hand, that's how I pitched. I pitched like that in middle school. So um I didn't fall out of love with it then, but in high school I fell out of love with it. But I translate that into my life. Everything, everything regards to how great I was at it regards how great I loved it. That came a time when it was tested. That I fell out of love with it and when I fell out of love with it, I just quit. I did not endure the hard times are the testing times of it. I would just quit. There was a pattern that was developed that continued throughout my life. It became a cycle in my life.

Things, I was good at things. I was great at things that challenge me. If I felt, if I felt out of love with it or my emotions were all over the place, then I would quit or not. Put in the effort that I needed to put in the effort in order to produce excellence from it. I just quit. I was a quitter. I was a quitter y'all. And to me, when you keep doing that, that is weakness that can be strengthened, but you have to be willing to allow it to be strengthened because sometimes we can quit so much that we don't understand. We are, I don't want to say we're messing up things, but we're causing ourselves to have to take an alternate route and we have to get to a place in our lives where we make up in our mind come hell or high water come challenges, challenges or an easy road. If everybody else walk away, I'm gonna stay and endure this thing because it's mine, it's rightfully mine.

Especially if we're going to be successful in any areas of our lives. And to be honest, I didn't experience much success or its great success in a lot of areas of my life because before I could experience the success, I would quit. Have you seen the picture on facebook where the man he has like the pitchfork and he's hitting away at the wall, hitting away at the wall, hitting away at the wall and he's almost right there. It shows that if he hits this thing one or two more times, then he has dug himself out of this situation but he decides to retreat and turn away. That's exactly the story of my life. I'd retreat and run away when I was right there, I was. It was almost mine. I could taste it. I was almost apprehending it, but I just would quit and I can't say I didn't have a support system because I had support, I had support. That support may not have came the way that I desire for it to come and many times didn't come from the people, I desired it for it to come from.

I had support, but support doesn't do anything if you lack motivation within yourself, because support can only add to the internal motivation that's already there, so you got to give support something to work with and I wasn't willing to give support something to work with, although I was verbalizing that I was giving support something to work with, there was nothing inside of me or nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, let me correct that I was blocking everything inside of me that it could connect with. So I was going in and in one ear and out the other ear, I wasn't allowing it to go in one ear and go all the way down to my spirit and connect with what it needed to connect with because I blocked all of that. I and once you block all of that out, it does not matter what anybody says to you. I think the reality says that it takes somebody to tell you something seven times that one person has says to, to destroy a negative thought or a negative thing that somebody has said about you or did you know, thought that you've had about yourself, but with me, I completely blocked it out, I was a quitter, yo and to be honest with you, there's days.

I want to quit now and there are days I quit now, but it's not months anymore. It's not years anymore. It's days now. It's not even weeks anymore. It's days now that I gathered myself and say, oh, nobody had a conversation with myself today. Nobody, you don't quit on that long enough. Let's go, let's pick that part up and let's go. And I want to speak to you out there. That that's how you've defined yourself, that's how others have defined you. I want you to understand that there is life beyond quitting. You have the ability not just spoke to one of my brothers, uh was it last week, and he was telling me how this is the longest he's kept the job and his greatest celebrating an anniversary. He was like, man, you know, I usually quit by now and that's when this thing clicked inside of me now, that's something I would not quit on. But there's other things that I quit on and some of you, you won't quit on others, but you'll quit on yourself, not not after today, not after today.

Matter of fact, I pray that you won't even be associated with individuals that will allow you to quit on you and focus on them. I already said it, it's time for us to focus on us show and what we were called and created to do, and you cannot quit anymore. You cannot quit anymore. If you're listening to this. And you know, you've quit. You know, you put down portions of your purpose. Whether it's through ministry, whether it's through education, whether it's through your career, whether it's through a relationship, whether it's through your family and let's reverse to that relationship. Now, there's some of you don't need to quit. Uh, some of the stuff that you're in. I know baby you've held on, but you're the only one in the ring fight and baby, you don't tried everything and they steal you. I'm not even getting into relationship advice. Let's go keep going. Cliff. Okay, Cliff, I'll keep going. Thank you. Cliff for telling me that.

Anyway. Some of you know where you quit on yourself. You've quit writing. You quit singing. Oh, that's me God, I will sing. God, I don't sing. No cliff. Shut up. You don't need to say, um, you've quit mentoring. You quit putting on conferences. You quit going live now. Some people don't need to go live, but the ones I'm talking to, you know, you need to go live because you have a message. You have a mission. You have a mandate. So my encouragement tonight is let's stop quitting y'all, Let's make that declaration. I will no longer quit on myself. I will no longer quit on my purpose. And I will no longer quit on what I have been called in designed to do. All right, As I always say, create a great day walk with purpose and by all means execute your vision peace. Mm mm Can you identify any areas in your life where stagnation is manifesting now?

I know some of you might say no, I can't. I want us to look at stagnation for what it really is. Some people have identified stagnation as something that's not growing or that's not producing. I don't believe that stagnation to me stagnation can also be that Yes, we're growing. Yes, we're producing however were growing and producing in a manner that's disrespectful to the purpose and the greatness that resides inside of us and listen we all have areas Well we can identify that we could be doing a lot veteran. There's greater potential in those areas than we are experiencing. And guess what I have a tool that will help you begin to experience transformation in those areas of stagnation in your life. And that tool is called from stagnation of transformation. That's right. That is my book from stagnation of transformation. So I want you to hit over to my website www dot clinton petty john dot com.

I want you to hit there. I want you to hit the transformation tab there. You're gonna find a free preview of my book. That's right. A free preview of my book and I promise you after you read the preview, you're gonna want to invest in your personal transformation through purchasing the books or get hit over there, purchased the book, let me know you purchased it. Here's what I always say guys. If you purchased the book, you read the book, you apply the principles in your life and yet you still are stagnant in the areas that you are applying them to and you're not experiencing any transformation and you can prove to me that you have applied these principles. I will give you a 100% refund. That's right. A 100% refund. Why? Because I believe in the application of the principles that are outlined in this book. So again visit www dot clinton petty john dot com and purchase your copy of from stagnation to transformation.