Hey.

Hey, friends, and welcome back to the podcast.

This is your host, Kristen.

Today I'm actually going to share with you why I've created some of the workbooks that I have reigniting your passion, creating a life you love.

And it all starts with the journey I've been on and that so many other women also relate to.

They feel stuck, they feel unsettled, or just this discontentment in their life.

They feel.

Feel like they know there's something more for them.

So I'm going to share a little bit about my own story and just explain to you why at this time of year, do I feel the need to talk about it?

And it's really because as we reflect on the last 10 months moving into our 11th month, we reflect at the end of the year, as we slow down for the holidays and we step into next year, I start thinking about why I'm doing what I'm doing now and why this work is so important to me.

So that's what we're going to do.

Welcome to Faith Fueled Woman, a podcast designed for Christian women eager to deepen their faith and shine God's light in every aspect of their lives.

Each week we'll delve into practical strategies, inspiring stories and biblical wisdom to equip you with the tools you need to navigate life's challenges and grow deeper in your faith.

From finding calm in the chaos, forming deep Christian friendships, to everyday ways to connect with God.

We'll cover it all.

Hi, I'm your host, Kristen.

I'm an encourager, a faith led entrepreneur, a mom and a wife.

Let's be encouraged in our everyday lives as we let our faith guide us, fuel us, and fill us with God's incredible peace, wisdom and joy in our lives.

Right.

So I started the podcast about three years ago and what I want to share with you today actually goes back.

It's a sort of a pattern of what I've experienced throughout my life.

And part of that pattern is that I stepped into jobs that I was pretty good at, but I never felt called into the work.

Right.

So they paid bills or it was kind of like one job led to the next, but I never felt like it's kind of what God made me for.

And what that did to me though was is it.

It kept making me separate, you know, like in other words, it wasn't truly me.

I was doing work, but it never felt like it's who I was meant to be.

And so it was only a couple years ago that I finally said no.

I just feel this calling for Me to step into work that has real meaning, it has impact that I can help other women where I've been, help them step into a more meaningful life, step into how God designed them and what he maybe wants for their next seasons.

And so I'm just going to go back a little bit and share a couple examples with you that you might relate to.

The first is when I was young, I guess I was a, let's see, I don't know, 10 to 13 and then 13 to 17.

I would write.

I'd have a journal and I would write little.

I would write poetry or maybe what look like song lyrics.

These are things that I never shared with anyone.

I never did anything with them.

Because as shocking as this is, this would have been before the Internet.

I mean, maybe it started, but those ages we didn't have, you know, cell phones and computers.

Like every person did not have a computer or an iPad.

It wasn't until I went to college that we started getting email addresses.

Like that was a normal thing.

So.

So when I was growing up before that you weren't just going to push it to a blog or of course as a younger person, I probably wouldn't have been anyways.

But the point is, so already then I had an interest in writing.

I never really pursued that path because I thought you had to be, you know, someone that was really good at grammar.

I thought just liking writing wasn't enough to pursue writing at that age.

So in college I didn't pursue emphasis on writing or getting a degree in English because I thought, oh, I'm not that great at grammar.

I'm like the run on sentence queen person.

Okay, I can write a lot, but it's going to need to be edited.

And so I went in and studied political science, international relations or pre law.

But the first thing was that I was holding myself back from something that I was curious about, like writing those words on the paper.

I just felt the desire to do that also like taking.

Actually not, not then.

I liked the idea of being a National Geographic photographer.

Well, I never pursued that.

I didn't even have a camera.

It wasn't like now where we all have cameras in our hands because of our smartphones.

It wasn't like that.

But I always had this desire to do something like a National Geographic photographer, but I never pursued it.

All right, and then fast forward.

After I went to college and then I went to graduate school, I was already dating my now husband.

I moved back to my hometown and I took this first job.

And the first job was actually for a specialty foods company.

And I was basically underneath the owner of the company.

I was kind of like the second in charge.

It was a fine job, even though there was a lot of challenges with the way the owner ran things.

But that was my stepping stone into my next job, which then is how I got into more the technology space of working for an online news site as their site and ad operations manager.

So I did that for six or seven years and then eventually I ended up coming home.

I had three of young boys at the time.

I'm sorry, I had two young boys at the time I left.

And then when I left that position, I ended up getting pregnant with my third, our third son.

But I tell you all this just to say that then I started a an international website with my mom called ziggityzoom.com which was in the early education and family fun space.

So I did that.

So we still have those sites up, people still come and get content there and workbooks.

But what I found after doing that for 10 years was I kept feeling this pull to do work that felt more aligned with how God made me work, that felt more aligned with how people relate to me.

I'm the listener, I'm the person that people might come to for guidance or mentoring, you know, that sort of thing, coaching.

And so, but.

And I did that in my past careers.

I would do training, mentoring, coaching, you know, advising.

And so I just felt this pulled to do that and then also to encourage people in their faith as well.

And so that is how I stepped out of different things I was doing and into podcasting and now doing coaching and some mentoring and then creating, you know, life giving resources, workbooks and working on some books.

And actually, I guess in 2018 I took a position as marketing technology director.

And I did that for a couple years.

But once again, after about a year of doing it, I just felt that pull to move into this area.

And so that's after that position is when I started doing the podcasts and then doing, creating, you know, workbooks and digital downloads and things.

But I tell you all this to say at each step in my life, I was holding myself back.

I was, I was afraid to be fully seen.

I was hesitant to say how I really felt about certain things I was scared to try, maybe things that seemed out of my comfort zone.

And eventually I had to do the work to start saying what I really wanted and what I wanted my life to look like.

I needed to do the work, to say, this is how God designed me.

And I know that I'm not somebody that needs to do, you know, go work.

I don't think anyone should.

80 hours a week sitting at a desk all day.

Now I sit at my desk plenty to do podcasting and writing and working with someone people.

But I also go out in my backyard and I spend time gardening and I'll make food for my family, right?

All the things that so many of us already do.

But then I can have a more leisurely day.

I can spend.

Spend a little more time doing or be doing a Bible study or prayer or going on a prayer, meditation, walk, being in nature.

And so for me, that type of day, that type of schedule fits the life that I'm trying to live better.

But it also allows me the space to do the reading, to come up with the ideas for the podcast, for writing.

Because if my day was fully booked every second and I didn't have time for reading, prayer research, I wouldn't be able to do the things I'm doing.

And so I explain all this to say to you.

I tried so many other people's plans, their roadmaps, you know, like, oh, do it this way to build your business, your email list or, or, you know, just keep the course.

You know, keep doing what you've been doing because, you know, you make money and you fine there.

But I just didn't feel satisfied.

I felt unsettled.

And so in the last couple years, I've done the work to step into what I truly wanted and to step towards the life that in my future, I really want.

And some people might say, well, that seems selfish.

Well, it's not.

I'm trying to.

One, I'm tying my faith more into the work I'm doing.

And then two, I'm trying to help other women stand up for themselves, to speak up for themselves, to rekindle that spark within them and to really get clear on what it is they want.

And that also what it is, what is it that's been put on their heart?

You know, where is God calling them to work?

Where is he calling them to serve?

How is he calling them to show up?

And a lot of that is through our own uniqueness.

When we actually do the work to chisel away all of those years and experiences that kind of allowed us to ignore how we were truly made, how we're very unique from the next person, we have to chisel that back away.

Because for many of us, there's decades worth of extra barriers or extra assumptions about ourself or about how we have to be in the world.

And so I created Reignite your Passion workbook to help myself and now other people to reignite their passion, get clear on their dreams, get clear on the giftings God's given them.

And so it really is a call to step into a life like that's that you literally feel good living now that doesn't mean that we won't have hard things to do or we shouldn't work hard.

Right?

I would even say work hard for the glory of God, work hard for our families, but working hard and doing things we love or that we know will have meaning and impact or leave a legacy, right?

A legacy of who we were and what we stood for, you know, and so that's the importance of it.

And for anybody that doesn't know this, I actually work with women and sometimes men to try to help them chisel away and sort of uncover what is it that where are they stuck and where do they need help to figure out?

What do you need to do different?

What do you want to do differently?

Like what's behind your desire to change something in your life and how can your life be different if you actually decide to take action?

Action.

And so that is how I help people.

And I actually have several spots opened between now and the end of the year to work with people doing just this to help them figure out what they've lost touch with in their lives so that they can have more passion and purpose.

I try to help them after spending so much time focusing on others to rediscover what lights them up and then to create a life that is exciting and it's full of passion and it fulfills you.

And I think it's how we then match up those things with what God's calling us into.

It is so much more fulfilling.

And so if any of you are interested in that and you haven't already, go over to KristinFitch.com and go to the freebies page, grab the reignite your passion workbook and start working through it.

Now if you're someone that actually would like to just work with me, you've already, you know the workbook isn't going to cut it.

You want to actually work with somebody to see the change happen in your life, click the link in the show notes that says work with Kristen and that will just let you fill out a little bit of information for me and I will be in touch.

We can just schedule a quick 10 or 15 minute call to connect and see if this is a good fit for you to work with me.

But this is the time of the year that we start thinking about what our past year so far has looked like, how we're going to wrap up the end of the year and really looking to the future.

What's coming next year?

What is it that we want to, you know, what's the vision we have for next year?

What are what's our intention for next year?

And so this is the perfect time to start delving into that as we will slow down around Christmas time.

And so if this is of interest to you, definitely reach out.

Click the link in the show notes or you can always drop me an email.

It's KristenRisenFitch.com just to connect with me.

Tell me something you'd love for me to cheer you on or pray for you about or just connect and tell me.

Hey, I'd really like to learn more about working with you.

Thanks again for listening to the show and if you enjoyed today's episode, we would love it if you could take a minute to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcast because it helps our show get discovered by more people.

And if you'd like to be encouraged in your faith and in your life, go on to KristinFitch.com and sign up to get my newsletter.

I have lots of freebies and lots of inspiration encouragement that will be coming your way and I would love it if you joined part of our community.