The Art of Rising Up

PART ONE:

RISING UP

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO RISE UP?

What does it mean to rise up? To me, it means getting on a new level, shaking off the old baggage and embracing newness. It means taking the necessary steps to improve and become a better version of myself. It means progressing every aspect of my life, physically, mentally, and spiritually. We, as humans, crave progress. We crave the feeling of newness and improvement in our lives. Even if you’re someone who despises change, I’m sure there’s a part of you that desires more for your life. It’s an instinct for humans to continuously move forward and cultivate more; to want better for themselves.

It’s natural to achieve something more fun, more fulfilling, happier, and more adventurous. Take, for example, any time you have had a goal. As soon as you reach one of these goals, it’s not long before you’re on to the next big adventure. Our never-ending goals and future aspirations are proof that we constantly have a dream in our hearts. We always have a desire to move forward in the direction of our dreams and achieve higher levels of success. We are constantly in forward motion.

No matter what success looks like to you, we all have the same approach to it; to rise up. When it comes to our goals, we are all headed in the same direction; forward. Anything worth having takes work, that’s an obvious fact. To achieve anything, we need to rise to the occasion and do the work necessary. But that’s not all, I’ve learned that one of the most important things when it comes to rising to a new level is that to get to a new level, you have to cut off the chains that have been holding you in this one. You can’t bring this insecurity, doubt, shyness, timid behavior with you to this next level.

It’s human nature to crave progress, to continue adapting, changing, and refining ourselves, and our lives. I’d be worried if

you didn’t want more for your life. We have all heard it said before, your new life will cost you your old one. I believe that where God wants to take you in this next chapter of your life is so brilliantly more than you could ever imagine. But before that can come to fruition, you need to let go of some things weighing you down. You simply can’t rise to the next level in your life while holding all the weight you’ve been carrying around.

It’s time to cut the fat of your life and let go of your past, tainted relationships, guilt and shame, self-limiting beliefs, wishy-washy decision making, or old toxic behaviors. If you want newness in your life, it will take newness in every aspect. It will require you to develop certain habits. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is when the Israelites had fled Egypt. The Israelites lived in bondage to the Egyptians where they were slaves. God rescued them and brought them out of Egypt and to me, this could have, alone, been an awesome story.

These people were trapped under a ruler who kept them as slaves, but God sends Moses to rescue them. God does the impossible and leads them out of slavery. And everyone lives happily ever after. But that wasn't the end. God had envisioned for them the Promise Land; a new level, a new place to start fresh.

But the Israelites didn’t bounce from level to level to level. They spent forty years in the wilderness. God needed to shape these people who had been living as slaves and turn them into strong warriors who could fight and fend for themselves. They needed to be refined and strengthened before they even stepped foot in the promised land. And this process takes time. If you think about this story, it can be applied to our lives.

We don’t bounce from level to level effortlessly. Maybe you’ve recently been rescued from you're Egypt, maybe you’ve come out of a season of pain or scarcity or struggle. If that’s the case, I’m so glad you’re here because the next step is laying  a foundation for an immensely better future for yourself. Bigger dreams mean bigger and harder work. It means developing into a stronger and smarter person. It means healing and letting go of past mistakes and hardships. If we can’t accept the fact that we must invest in healing and letting things go, we won’t make it to the next level.

I want The Art of Rising Up to be a guideline for foundation building. Strong foundations lead to strong structures. If you want to rise up, the first part is chipping away at the old. The second part is laying a solid foundation. That’s why I broke this book up into two parts with this same concept in mind. The main purpose of writing this is to lead people to grow and to inspire people to rise above adversities in pursuit of their purpose. Fun fact, this is my first book. I’ve never written more than a five page essay for English class. I find myself nervous and anxious as I write this. I know it won't be perfect, but my prayer is that it corresponds with the right people. Books have impacted my learning and developed my mindset so much; I want to add to that in hopes that my story and what I’ve learned in my twenty years of life might inspire someone else. I believe that there is power in sharing our stories with people and sharing how we’ve overcome our battles.

I guarantee people are reading this who can relate to my story. I know the frustration that comes along with being in a rut. Feeling uninspired and stuck. I know what it feels like to wish for a spark to flame within you and inspire you to dive into something exhilarating. If my story inspires one single person to get up, shake off the dust, raise their ambition, take their dreams seriously, set some goals, conquer some internal battles, forgive people who hurt them, let go of trauma, heal, and rise up to, then it is well worth it.

KNOWING OUR IDENTITY IN

JESUS

From about the time I was seven-twenty years old, I saw myself however people made me feel. If someone made me feel stupid, I saw myself as stupid. If someone made me feel annoying, I adopted the identity of annoying- if someone got mad at me, I saw myself as someone who made people mad- if someone made me feel inferior to them, then that’s exactly how I saw myself too. I, myself have often struggled with my identity and I have also seen others battle with their identity. It’s a tough thing to get a grasp on because in a world that tells us we’re not good enough, not worthy enough and not valuable enough, we’re supposed to believe that we are.

We seem to place our worth in what the world says about us whether it’s direct or indirect criticism. Our society is so virtually connected and so many random standards have been placed on us. The internet has decided what success looks like, what healthy looks like, what beautiful looks like, what greatness looks like. We indulge in the popular, yet unrealistic standards deemed by random people on the internet and that is what we strive for. I believe that the root of people-pleasing and playing small is in an identity issue. At least that was the case for me.

When there is a disconnect in our identity and who we are, it leaves so much room for false representations of who we’re supposed to be. I believe that when we struggle with pleasing people, seeking their constant approval and validation, and worrying about their thoughts and opinions towards us it’s because we struggle to be grounded in who we are. My issue was that I didn’t know who I was, so I was looking at everyone else to tell me who I was. I was looking at anyone and everyone to tell me if I was right or wrong. I asked for the approval of my ideas, my goals, my plans, my looks, my thoughts, my views, my beliefs.

I invited people to tell me if I was right or wrong, good or bad because I didn’t know for myself. My identity wasn’t grounded in anything. So not only would I invite unnecessary feedback on my life, I ended up getting a lot of unsolicited feedback on almost everything because I became the kind of person who would open myself up to receiving the random judgment of other people. I became the kind of person who only felt right about what I was doing if people around me thought it was good. On top of that, if someone did disapprove of my choices, I felt the need to explain myself and further seek validation. The problem with not being grounded in your identity is that you look to other people to tell you who you are. That’s never how it was supposed to be. Other people aren’t supposed to have the right to validate you because we’ve already been validated by God. Before we can get into anything we have to establish this belief.

I believe that we struggle with things like people-pleasing, playing small, other people’s opinions, self-limiting beliefs, and seeking validation and approval from outside sources because we fail to remember that our identity is in Christ first and foremost. What He says about us trumps all other feedback. We are created in the image of our perfect God (New International Version-Genesis 1: 27). We are God’s temple and His Spirit dwells within us. We get way too distracted worrying about how the world views us; perfect Instagram pictures, counting the number of likes, sitting at work wondering if your colleagues like you when the creator of the universe calls you loved, worthy, purposed, treasured, justified, redeemed, free, accepted, and blameless. Most importantly, he calls us His.

We belong to a God who has a detailed plan for our lives. This, right here, should be enough for us to let go of impressing others or seeking validation. We have been predestined by God for greatness for His glory- talk about some great news. I don’t have to worry about impressing anyone, getting approval or a psychological permission slip signed by anyone because of what God has already said bout me. By nature, I like recognition, after all, I am a number three, (the achiever) on the Enneagram, and my love language is words of affirmation. So I like to reach goals, make things happen, achieve big things, and do more than the people around me, AND I like to be recognized for my hard work/accomplishments. Maybe that makes me super self-absorbed in some eyes, but I just love when people reassure me. I love when people say good things about me- I love when people appreciate and recognize me. That’s how I most feel loved.

But even with this personality, although it’s not a bad personality, I must always remind myself to not put so much value on what other people think about me and remember what God says about me. When you find your identity in Christ, you are free from having to only feel good when people around you tell you that you’re good. Because as long as we are looking everywhere else for a pat on the back when we do something, we will live like prisoners to outside validation. You have to get extremely good at seeing yourself the way God sees you and you won’t feel trapped or weighed down by the need to get approval from anyone else nearly as much. When I am fully in tune with how God thinks of me, I feel so much more empowered to follow through with the vision He’s given me. I don’t have to rely on my understanding or limited skillset.

He does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called. He gives us a vision and equips us along the way. I don’t have to worry about being perfect because God says I can do all things through the strength He provides me. So how do we get good at viewing ourselves the way God does? Make it a habit to accept who Jesus  says   you are. Make a conscious decision to start perceiving that as truth instead of the lies you tell yourself or the fickle opinions of others. I will dive deeper into opinions and self-limiting beliefs but we can’t get over those things until

we get a strong grounding in our identity.

We were made to have an identity in Christ; to be like him. We were made to take after the likeness of Jesus, not the world. When we feel pressured to do things the way everyone does them, to act the way young adults act, to do life the way society perceives the best way, when we follow cookie-cutter societal standards for life, we are ultimately trading in God’s perfect plan for a flawed, insufficient, unsustainable version of what was intended to be purposeful, abundant, and incredible. When we don’t have our identity firmly placed in God, we fall for everything society deems good and successful.

That is a huge problem because true satisfaction and abundance are found in Jesus when He’s not our source of fullness, richness, and joy, we get a fake, watered down version of the very best that God had originally planned for us. I hope you have the audacity and the faith to put your belief in Jesus and stop looking to the world to fill the void in your heart. You’ll be searching your whole life to find what God is giving you with open arms and all you have to do it say yes. Worldly satisfaction is temporary and when it runs out you have to go run and find another source. With God, that’s forever. His love for us never runs out. Nothing we could ever do will change the way he views us.

That’s just not something this world has to offer us. Ephesians 2:9 tells us For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (New International Version) With God, we aren’t strangers and we have a place in God’s house. We always have a seat at the table. As someone who has always struggled with fitting in and thinking I have to be cool enough to sit with certain people, I know that with God, there is always a place for me and I don’t need to squeeze my way in or continuously prove to people that I deserve to be there.

He welcomes us and there is always a place for us; we don’t have to compete for God’s love or attention. In addition to that, I believe that God has a plan for a place you are meant to be.

I don’t know if you can relate to this or not, but a lot of times in my life, I felt like I had to always squeeze my way into friend groups or social groups otherwise, I was left out. More often than not, I have felt like there just wasn’t a place for me where I was trying to be involved. What the Holy Spirit put on my heart is that that’s not how I was supposed to go through life; squeezing my way in, fighting for a place or a spot, or proving that I deserved to be there. At least not in atmospheres such as friend groups or community. What I learned is that God desires for me to be somewhere where I am welcome and loved