4133 Hear Me Out
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
As parents, it's easy to lose sight of the goal. We stress about how good we are at this — replaying conversations, grading ourselves on tone, wondering if we handled the moment the "right" way. Somewhere in that pressure, we start believing our job is to have it all put together. So when we're handing our children the lessons we think they need, all we can hear in our own head is: hear me out. Because the last thing you want is your child shutting down your wisdom. You've lived what you're teaching. You've got the scars, the hindsight, the answers. You want to be heard — and that want...
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4132 Been There, Dump That
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
You know the phrase, "Been there, done that." It's the verbal shrug we give when something no longer impresses us, no longer scares us, or no longer has anything left to teach us. To put a twist on the phrase to serve you better, why not enhance it: been there, dump that. Because here's something we never sit around and talk about when it comes to growth — it's not just about picking things up. Those new habits, new skills, new mindsets. Growth is just as much about what you're willing to put down. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the . The...
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4131 Fear Isn't Who You Are
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
Fear rarely shows up looking like fear. It shows up looking like "that's just who I am." It shows up as "I've always been this way." It shows up in the sentence that starts with "I'm not the kind of person who..." — and ends right before you find out you actually could have been. That's the sneaky part. Fear doesn't usually announce itself. It just quietly moves into the identity you've built for yourself, unpacks its bags, and starts paying rent. And over time, you stop noticing it's even there. You just think it's you. But fear isn't who you are. We all carry a version of ourselves...
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4130 Find the Gift in the Grind
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
Some days don't ask permission. They just show up — loud, full, and relentless. The alarm goes off before you're ready. The inbox is already three messages deep before your coffee's even brewed. Somewhere between the meeting that ran long and the errand you forgot, you look up and realize the whole day has passed you by, and you can barely remember a single moment of it. This is the trap of a busy life: we get so wrapped up in doing that we forget to notice we're living. And in that forgetting, we lose something precious — the ability to see the good that's been sitting right in front...
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4129 Why Your Hustle Needs A Pause
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
How many times have you pushed through the day fueled by caffeine and sheer will, only to realize by evening your decisions are fuzzy, your energy is gone, and your brain feels like mush? Your decisions are only as good as the sleep you got the night before. Your actions are only as strong as the rest of your body took the day before. Your productivity hinges on how still and quiet your mind has been — not how fast it’s been spinning. It's no wonder why your hustle needs a pause. The culture today glorifies nonstop motion as the only path to success. But the consequence is a society on the...
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4128 The Room is Never Empty
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
There's a version of faith that lives in a building. You walk in on Sunday, sing the songs, hear the message, maybe even feel something shift in your chest. Then you walk out, get in the car, and by Tuesday afternoon you're back to running your week on your own steam — making decisions, carrying stress, fighting battles — like you're the only one in the room. You know that gap between the sanctuary and the rest of your life is where a lot of us quietly live. Not because we stopped believing, but because we started treating God like a scheduled appointment instead of a constant presence....
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4127 Are You Sleeping with a Stranger?
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
People change. That’s a truth we all accept, or at least give a nod to in passing, yet rarely sit with deeply. Time moves on, circumstances evolve, and the very essence of who we are shifts in subtle and profound ways. So why does it feel so strange with the person you share a bed with—are you sleeping with a stranger? When you lie down beside your spouse tonight, take a moment to ask yourself: Are you sleeping beside the person you once knew, or a stranger who lives in their skin? Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the . Change Is the Constant...
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4126 You're Not Lost, You're Just Sightseeing
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
Life doesn’t come with a map. It twists and turns, throws detours at us, and sometimes drops us in places we never expected. This reality hits even harder when you’re raising kids—because now you’re not just navigating your own path; you’re guiding little explorers through their own confusing journeys. Overwhelm can take over, leaving you with questions: “Am I doing this right? Are we lost?” But the thing is that you’re not lost; you’re just sightseeing. When you’re sightseeing, you don’t panic because you’re off-course. You pause. You take in the landscape. You explore...
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4125 It's Okay to Look Back
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
Looking back at your past is natural. It’s part of being human. We reflect on where we came from, what we’ve endured, and how we’ve grown. But there’s a line between glancing at your history and living inside it. Be careful how long you hang out with your past. Like Doris Roberts said, “It’s okay to look back, just don’t stare.” Some people get stuck in their past like it’s a favorite hangout spot—even a safe one. They replay old mistakes, clutch grudges, or drown in regrets. Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the . This isn’t...
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4124 Put the Phone Down
Create Your Now with Kristianne Wargo
We live in a world wired for distraction. Endless notifications, the addictive drag of social media feeds, and the constant buzz of other people’s highlight reels can pull us from what truly matters. We wonder why we feel stuck—trapped in what has happened, fixated on what didn’t work, and overwhelmed by the noise of life. But here’s the brutal truth: if the past leads your present, you’re not moving forward—you’re treading water. Put the phone down. Stop scrolling through other people’s curated moments, the endless barrage of “perfect” lives. Desire to be supported and...
info_outlineFailure isn't just a setback — it's a message disguised in discomfort and disappointment. It arrives uninvited, often at the worst possible time, and it doesn't come quietly. It brings shame, regret, second-guessing, and a chorus of voices — most of them your own — asking how you could have let this happen. But if you're letting the anguish and frustration of failure call the shots on your next step, you're likely circling the same block, not advancing. The road after failure is real.
It exists. But it doesn't open itself to those still standing in the wreckage, rehearsing the crash.
Desire to be supported and encouraged by other like-minded women? Join us at the Kairos FREE Online Community. https://createyournow.com
Step Back Before You Step Forward
Proverbs 3:5–6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths."
Notice what this doesn't say. It doesn't say your paths will be straight because you figured it out fast, or because you were hard enough on yourself, or because you refused to rest until you recovered. It says in all your ways acknowledge him — which requires the willingness to stop, to release control, and to trust something wiser than the storm inside you. God's got you!
Failure floods the mind with emotion: panic, self-blame, the urgent need to do something. Those feelings rush in, pretending to save you. In reality, they often keep you stuck — reactive rather than strategic, spinning rather than moving.
Wisdom demands that you step back from the chaos of your emotions and seek clarity beyond what feels immediate and urgent.
The smarter move is to decouple feeling from learning.
Failure as a Lesson, Not a Trap
When failure happens, two responses compete for your attention.
The first is emotional: panic, self-doubt, retreat. The second is analytical: examine what went wrong, extract the lesson, identify the next best step. Only the second will free you. The first puts you on repeat — exhausted, spinning your wheels, and no closer to where you're trying to go.
Romans 8:28 offers a perspective that changes everything: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
All things. Not just the victories. Not just the comfortable seasons. The failures, too, have a purpose — and that purpose is not to paralyze you but to reposition you. The question is whether you'll stay long enough in the lesson to receive what it's actually offering.
C.S. Lewis put it plainly: "Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." Failure is one of those hardships. It is doing something to you, whether or not you're paying attention. The only choice you have is whether to be shaped by it intentionally or dragged by it blindly.
Turn failure into forward motion.
The K.I.S.S. ~ Turn failure into forward motion!
Three Strategic Steps to Turn Failure Into Forward Motion
1. Separate Your Feelings From Your Facts
Name the emotions without judgment — anger, embarrassment, disappointment, grief. They are real, and they deserve acknowledgment. But don't make your next decision inside that storm.
Journal it. Talk it out with someone you trust. Then step away. Return when you're emotionally neutral and ready to dissect the failure clearly, not reactively. The facts of what happened will look different when you're not standing in the smoke.
2. Extract the Lesson, Then Map Your Next Step Against It
Ask honest questions: What exactly went wrong? What part was within my control? What assumptions did I make that turned out to be false?
Your next step must logically address the core failure — not just react to the pain of it. There's a difference between a move that solves the actual problem and a move that simply makes you feel like you're doing something. One builds; the other just burns energy.
Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." That future is real — but it's built on honest reckoning, not avoidance.
3. Anchor Your Next Step in Principles, Not Passions
If your next move relies primarily on feeling better or proving something to someone, it's built on unstable ground. Decisions driven by wounded pride or emotional urgency rarely lead where you actually want to go.
Anchor instead in values, clear criteria, and strategic goals. Ask: Does this align with who I'm trying to become? Does this address the real problem, or does it just feel good right now? This is how you stay clear-eyed. This is how you stop letting "save me" emotions masquerade as forward momentum.
You Are Not Who You Were
The person who failed is not the person standing here now. Something has shifted — your awareness, your humility, your understanding of what you were missing or what you assumed too confidently. That version of you has been refined. What remains is clearer, if you're willing to see it that way.
This is not a call to minimize what happened or rush past the weight of it. Grief is legitimate. Disappointment is real. But there is a difference between acknowledging the loss and being defined by it.
"Your failures are not the end of your story. In fact, they're just the beginning: my strength is my story!" ~ Kristianne Wargo
You are being created in real time. Failure is part of the process. God is the potter, and we are the clay (Isaiah 64:8).
The question worth sitting with is not only what went wrong but who is being shaped in the aftermath — and whether you are cooperating with that process or resisting it.
The Road Is Open
The goal is not simply to survive failure — to get past it, put it behind you, move on. The goal is to use it. To let it become the specific, irreplaceable fuel for the next version of what you're building. Failure is not a detour from your story. Handled with honesty and wisdom, it may be one of its most important chapters.
You might be amazed by what comes from "Oh my goodness storms," to "Oh my goodness rainbows."
The road after failure is not smooth. But it is open.
Take the lesson. Anchor your steps. And walk forward as the woman you are and who you are becoming.
"Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!"
#MindsetMonday #CreateYourNow #PersonalDevelopment
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Cover Art by Jenny Hamson
Photo by Canva.com
Music by Mandisa - Overcomer
http://www.mandisaofficial.com
Song ID: 68209
Song Title: Overcomer
Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia
Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI)
One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music -
Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.