We all need more energy, the vitality that helps us stay motivated, focused and productive in life. We know we receive energy from good nutrition, along with working out, adequate sleep and maintaining positivity. But there is another major source for the energy we need: having the right kinds of relationships with others. Not the ones that drain us, but the ones that refuel us. And joining us today to talk all about this subject is my friend, a mentor, and New York Times bestselling author of the Boundaries series, Dr. John Townsend. Dr. John Townsend is a bestselling author of more than 30 books that have collectively sold over 10 million copies, a leadership consultant and psychologist, as well as the founder of the Townsend Leadership Program, and the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling where he speaks regularly on leadership and success. Dr. Townsend consults with business and leaders on a national level, and also coaches family businesses in success and relationship strategies. In today’s conversation, Dr. Townsend is going to show you why we all need need the fuel of "Relational Nutrients" from others, and, in turn how to provide them to others. He’ll also detail the specific types of people who can either be energy sources or energy drains, and give concrete steps to help you cultivate relationships with those who will help you be all you were meant to be. I trust this conversation will add a lot of value to you. Resources Buy "People Fuel: Fill Your Tank for Life, Love, and Leadership" on Amazon Connect with Dr. Townsend Review “Win Today” Click here to read the ratings, or even better, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. Your rating will help the podcast get noticed and positioned on iTunes. What Listeners Are Saying… “So great to find a podcast that is both encouraging and challenging! It is professionally produced, yet still has an informal feel like I’m hanging out with Chris… And frankly, I’d love to hang out with him! I really appreciate his heart and have been able to apply many of his topics in my life to help me grow professionally, physically, and relationally. A+!”

Here’s the situation: you’re doing everything according to plan, yet nothing seems to be working out. Worse, and I know you all have been here, God seems to be very distant during these difficult seasons of life. And if you’re anything like me, your knee-jerk response is to run. Maybe you heard God speak, but now He seems silent. Maybe you moved forward in faith, but now His presence is nowhere to be found. My friend, welcome to the wilderness―the place between receiving a promise from God and seeing it come to pass. But the good news is that this difficult season does not have to be without purpose. God will use the wilderness season you’re in to prepare and equip you for your destiny―that is, if you navigate it correctly. And joining us today to help us navigate through wilderness seasons is John Bevere. John Bevere and his wife Lisa are the founders of Messenger International, an organization established to teach, reach, and rescue. A speaker and best-selling author, John delivers messages of uncompromising truth with boldness and passion. But this hasn’t always been John’s story. Early in his life, shortly after marriage, John entered a very difficult season of testing in which everything and everyone seemed to be against him. Waking-up each day in pain, questioning the very purpose for his life, John realized that the inside-out strengthening he needed was actually taking place in the midst of feeling left for dead. In today’s conversation with John Bevere, you’re going to learn what the wilderness is (and how to recognize it in your life), how to posture yourself in difficult seasons, why complaining will short-circuit your potential and elongate your stay in the wilderness, and why discouragement often arrives right before your critical moment of personal victory. If you’re feeling stuck and alone, buckle-up and know this: you are in God’s hands and can walk-through this process with character and integrity. Right now, here’s my conversation with John Bevere. Buy the Book Do you feel lost in a difficult season, wondering, “GOD, WHERE ARE YOU?!” Perhaps you heard God speak, but now He seems silent. Maybe you moved forward in faith, but now His presence is nowhere to be found. Welcome to the wilderness―the place between receiving a promise from God and seeing it come to pass. But here’s the good news―this is no purposeless wasteland. God uses the wilderness to prepare and equip you for your destiny―that is, if you navigate it correctly. Contrary to what many may think, getting through this season isn’t just a matter of waiting on God. You have a part to play in navigating through it. A big one. And if you don’t want to waste time wandering in circles, it’s important to learn what that is. In this eye-opening book, best-selling author John Bevere equips you with key biblical insights and profound stories that will help you navigate your dry or difficult seasons and step into all that God has for you. Buy God, Where Are You?!: Finding Strength and Purpose in Your Wilderness now. Review “Win Today” Click here to read the ratings, or even better, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. Your rating will help the podcast get noticed and positioned on iTunes. What Listeners Are Saying… “So great to find a podcast that is both encouraging and challenging! It is professionally produced, yet still has an informal feel like I’m hanging out with Chris… And frankly, I’d love to hang out with him! I really appreciate his heart and have been able to apply many of his topics in my life to help me grow professionally, physically, and relationally. A+!”

A few months ago, I met Christina Meredith. She’s a foster care activist, a mental health advocate, a national speaker, and officer in the United States Army. But before any of these things came to be, her story looked quite different. As a child, Christina Meredith was called “Laundry Girl, “Stupid,” and “Slut.” Born into a large, dysfunctional family, Christina was singled-out by her controlling mother and forced to endure years of physical and psychological abuse, not to mention the repeated sexual abuse by her uncle for nearly four years. She spent many days without food to eat until she entered foster care as a teenager. But after aging out of the foster care system, with nowhere to turn, Christina lived in her car, using public beach showers and working three jobs, just to survive. Within a few years, though, Christina’s life transformed beyond her wildest hopes. And after months of hard work, the world recognized her by her true name as she was crowned Miss California. She went on to create the Christina Meredith Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports foster care girls living in abusive situations. So how did Christina go from abuse to homelessness to Miss California? Well that’s the story we’re going to hear right now. Buy the Book Growing up, she rarely heard her own name. Today, she's here to help you claim the inherent worth that is yours. Born into a large working-class family in upstate New York, Christina Meredith endured years of abuse before entering the foster care system as a teenager. With nowhere to turn after she graduated from high school, Christina lived in her car for almost a year, working three jobs to survive. As she prayed in her car every day, Christina had no idea that in just a few years, she would be crowned Ms. California. She had no idea that her suffering would one day help others find healing. But she did know that she was destined for more, and she would not give up hope no matter the circumstance. In CinderGirl, Christina tells her piercing and poignant story of leaving behind homelessness to become Ms. California and the founder of a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy for foster care children. With stunning vulnerability, Christina invites us into her childhood home and the heart of a child longing to be loved. She asks us to journey with her across the country and deep into a growing faith. She invites us to dig deeper into our own personal courage, even in the grimmest of conditions. CinderGirl is the riveting story of one young woman's determination to overcome hardship in order to help others know they are not alone and that they too can achieve anything they dream. Buy CinderGirl: My Journey Out of the Ashes to a Life of Hope now. Review “Win Today” Click here to read the ratings, or even better, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. Your rating will help the podcast get noticed and positioned on iTunes. What Listeners Are Saying… “So great to find a podcast that is both encouraging and challenging! It is professionally produced, yet still has an informal feel like I’m hanging out with Chris… And frankly, I’d love to hang out with him! I really appreciate his heart and have been able to apply many of his topics in my life to help me grow professionally, physically, and relationally. A+!”

Well today on the show, I’m excited to take a deep-dive into the personal story of one of America’s most beloved television personalities. He and his team have been instrumental in transforming the lives of families throughout the nation, and it’s my privilege to share his own story of overcoming personal struggles and obstacles in order to find success by doing what matters most: helping others. And he is star of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” as well as TLC’s wildly popular show, “Trading Spaces,” Ty Pennington. As a kid, Ty Pennington had too much energy. He was chaotic, bouncing off the walls, and on a first-name basis with the local emergency room staff. Back then there wasn't public awareness of attention deficit disorder yet. People just thought Ty was rambunctious, and truth be told, trouble maker. But Ty discovered something amazing when he was just a boy: he felt most focused when he was building something. He discovered that he loved to work with his hands—to use tools and be creative to build and design new things. In today’s conversation, Ty shares his remarkable life story in which he remembers when he was diagnosed with ADHD in college, and what it has meant to be an advocate for ADHD awareness. You’ll hear about his start as a model and carpenter, and his eventual move to television where he starred in two of America’s most popular television shows. I trust, through Ty’s own story, that you’ll learn how to navigate obstacles when they get in your path, how to get out of your own way, and how to position yourself for success. Right now, here’s the conversation with Ty Pennington. Buy the Book As a kid, Ty Pennington had too much energy. He was chaotic, bouncing off the walls, and on a first-name basis with the local emergency room staff. Back then there wasn't public awareness of attention deficit disorder yet. People just thought Ty was rambunctious, and truth be told, trouble maker. But Ty discovered something amazing when he was just a boy: he felt most focused when he was building something. He discovered that he loved to work with his hands—to use tools and be creative to build and design new things. In Life to the Extreme: How a Chaotic Kid Became America’s Favorite Carpenter Ty shares his remarkable life story. In his characteristic humorous style, he takes you racing through his life with ADHD-infused diversions that will make you laugh out loud. He shares about how he was diagnosed with ADHD in college, and what it has meant to be an advocate for ADHD awareness. He shares about his start as a model and carpenter, and his eventual move to television where he starred in the hit shows Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Trading Spaces. Life to the Extreme will inspire you. Ty's boundless energy and his sense of humor are infectious. You'll laugh. You might cry a little. And you'll definitely be inspired to change the lives of those around you. Buy Life to the Extreme: How a Chaotic Kid Became America’s Favorite Carpenter now. Review “Win Today” Click here to read the ratings, or even better, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. Your rating will help the podcast get noticed and positioned on iTunes. What Listeners Are Saying… “So great to find a podcast that is both encouraging and challenging! It is professionally produced, yet still has an informal feel like I’m hanging out with Chris… And frankly, I’d love to hang out with him! I really appreciate his heart and have been able to apply many of his topics in my life to help me grow professionally, physically, and relationally. A+!”

Well today, I wanted to share a message I recently preached entitled, “If You’re Stuck and Alone, It’s Time to Come Home.” May people live isolated, insulated lives inside themselves—despite having great friends and family around them—because fear, guilt, and shame from the past have told them that it’s too late to find connection and belonging inside relationships. So the question we’re going to tackle today is this: are you and I really alone? I trust you’ll be encouraged and challenged by this message. Let’s dive in right now.

I bet you know how frustrating it is to wake-up for the day with plans to accomplish important tasks, only to find yourself overwhelmed and unaccomplished by the end of the day. Everyone gets 168 hours a week, but it never feels like enough, does it? And you probably know what it feels like for work to eat-up the majority of that time. In fact, many professionals today are working as much as 70 hours a week—leaving less and less for rest, recreation, family, and friends; all the things that make life great. But this is where a lot of people, me included, get hung-up. You see, most people think productivity is about finding or saving time. But it's not. It's about making our time work for us. It’s about learning how to become free to focus. And that’s the conversation we’re having today with leadership and productivity expert, Michael Hyatt. For years, Michael Hyatt struggled to balance it all. As the former chairman and CEO of one of the world’s largest publishing companies, his success came at the expense of his health and his most valuable relationships. The turnaround for him came when he realized the answer wasn’t simply to get more done. Instead, success, Michael learned, is about getting the right things done. He soon discovered how to sync his daily activities with his most important goals and priorities. And since then, his life has never been the same. In today’s conversation, Michael is going to share his groundbreaking method to become free to focus so that you will win at work and succeed at the rest of life—in your health, your relationships, your hobbies, and more. He’s going to help you redefine your goals, evaluate what's working, cut out the nonessentials, focus on the most important tasks, manage your time and energy, and build momentum for a lifetime of success. If you’re tired of the overwhelm and want to be free to focus, buckle-up, because my conversation with New York Times bestselling author, Michael Hyatt, starts right now. Key Statements Focusing on everything means focusing on nothing. You can’t focus when you’re multitasking. Your best creative ideas often arrive when you’re free to do nothing. The prerequisite to innovation is constraint. FOCO is the fear of conflict with others. FODO is the fear of disappointing others. No one ever drifted to a destination they would have chosen. Focusing on wins isn’t “pollyanna;” it’s perspective. Buy the Book Everyone gets 168 hours a week, but it never feels like enough, does it? Work gobbles up the lion's share--many professionals are working as much as 70 hours a week--leaving less and less for rest, exercise, family, and friends. You know, all those things that make life great. Most people think productivity is about finding or saving time. But it's not. It's about making our time work for us. Just imagine having free time again. It's not a pipe dream. In Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less, New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt reveals to readers nine proven ways to win at work so they are finally free to succeed at the rest of life--their health, relationships, hobbies, and more. He helps readers redefine their goals, evaluate what's working, cut out the nonessentials, focus on the most important tasks, manage their time and energy, and build momentum for a lifetime of success. Buy Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less now. And...claim your free bonuses here. Review “Win Today” Click here to read the ratings, or even better, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. Your rating will help the podcast get noticed and positioned on iTunes. What Listeners Are Saying… “So great to find a podcast that is both encouraging and challenging! It is professionally produced, yet still has an informal feel like I’m hanging out with Chris… And frankly, I’d love to hang out with him! I really appreciate his heart and have been able to apply ma...