Turn Your Baggage Into Breakthrough: The Art of Selective Release

When I packed one deep burgundy tote to drive my mom across states, I learned something powerful: baggage isn’t just heavy at the airport — it’s heavy on our souls. On the journey of becoming, it’s not about adding more; it’s about putting down what cannot come with you.

In this episode, I share a story from a truck stop where judgment, blame, and pride showed up — and how humility and compassion helped me release what would have weighed me down.

Constant Listener, this is your reminder:
 ✨ We keep the lessons, we leave the luggage. ✨

Hit play, and let’s talk about how to lighten your load so you can step fully into who you’re designed to be.

#OneDegreetoVictory #WomenHealing #BlackWomensPurpose

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to One Degree to Victory
• 0:24 The Journey with Minimal Baggage
• 1:34 Learning About Judgment
• 4:23 The Weight of Blame
• 5:41 Pride vs. Humility
• 7:27 Closing Thoughts on Progression

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

You're listening to One Degree to Victory, the space where stories, strategies, and soul connect. Together we take one small step each week toward the life you know you're called to live. I'm your hostess, Nelita Hollis, and today's story and conversation just might change your life. Recently, I drove my mother across a couple of states to California. We left driving on a Friday, and Sunday morning I was on a plane headed home. I packed one bag. I had the essentials: hygiene, clothing, a travel bag, and neck pillow, and my laptop. My mom couldn't believe all I needed for this trip was stowed away in this one deep burgundy faux alligator tote bag. Well, I had one mission: get my mom, aunt, and myself safely to California and get myself back home with as few distractions as possible. Baggage is an encumbrance, not only at the airport where, depending on the airline, you're either charged for multiple bags or charged by the weight of your bags, but also when journeying inward. On our personal journeys, baggage is a necessary weight that distracts the mind, spirit, and body from its purpose, to encounter your future and to evolve to be the best whole person that you can be for yourself and your family. Constant Listener to Become More, we must think beyond adding new skills or setting new goals. We need to learn to embrace the art of reduction. Sometimes becoming is the brave act of putting things down. Things that can't come with you as you step into the design of who you're meant to be. Everybody judges. We draw conclusions, positive or negative, about someone or something. Years ago, at a truck stop, I judged two people who worked in the same store, and I was dead wrong about Bo. One of the ladies I encountered was younger, and I spoke to her, and she smiled very wanely back and nodded her head. Well, I figured she was just being how she was raised, racist. Acknowledging the presence of another human being because she had to. I turned the corner, constant listener, and encountered someone that looked like me standing behind another counter. There was gospel music that was playing in the background. She had a spatula in another, and I was thinking, oh, thank God this food is about to be good. The young man at the counter took my order. She, however, did not smile. She did not acknowledge me. She began to move around the kitchen as if someone had asked her to do something that was out of the purview of her job. She was mean and nasty. And I thought, oh my God, she got gospel music playing with that attitude? The young man looked at me and just shook his head. Well, I'd gotten my food to go. On the way out, I passed the younger person and went to get coffee. Do you know that young lady, that first young lady that I had encountered on the way in and passed on the way out, came to me and said, I am so sorry if I didn't speak earlier. I just gotten some bad news and I was wrestling with it. She saw me and she heard me, but she was unable to speak. And haven't we all been there trying to hold it together in the middle of the storm? I had to go back to my truck and repent. Listen, what we see is not the full measure of a person. It is what that person allows us to see. I learned about judgment that day. See people and see yourself. I carried into the situation some assumptions about the people I would encounter based on where I was. I placed them in roles and categories before I even encountered what I heard down there, Nary a one. Okay. Now let me tell y'all what I learned about blame. See, when we don't understand what's happening, when we feel slighted, overlooked, or hurt, the easiest thing to reach for is blame. I blame that young lady for her silence. I almost made her the reason I felt dismissed. Blame convinces us that if we assign fault, we'll feel lighter. But in reality, it ties us tighter to the offense. It keeps us circling the same pain, the same story over and over again. Blame would have kept me walking out of that truck stop angry, carrying someone else's hatred. Do you know what the answer to blame is in that situation? What responsibility do I need to own in how I move through this moment? And you know what your response should be? Compassion. Compassion for what you can't see behind the scene that's caused you to be passed up for the promotion. Compassion for why that young lady wouldn't or couldn't speak. Compassion for all the nuances of humanity that we don't see in the personal lives of the people we encounter. Blame locks us in the past. Responsibility frees us to move forward. And then there's pride. When that young lady explained what she was going through, I immediately recognized I was wrong. I didn't have to wrestle along with it. I knew I had misjudged her and the cook. But here's where pride creeps in: it tells us don't admit it, don't confess it, just move on like nothing happened. Pride could have kept me from acknowledging the truth, from repenting, from letting that moment teach me. But instead, I chose to put it down. I chose to say, Lord, I was wrong. I don't ever want to be that judgmental again. Help me to carry this lesson forward rather than the weight of my mistake. And that weight would be guilt. That's what pride does. It tries to convince us that admitting wrong makes us weak. But the opposite is true. Constant listener, humility is strength. Humility keeps us open, growing, and connected to others. Pride isolates, humility restores. That day I learned this. Becoming who I want to be requires laying aside what cannot come with me. Pride, blame, and judgment are three of those things. Constant listener, letting go does not erase the pain of your trauma. You don't pretend the pain didn't happen. You honor it, you learn the lesson, and you leave what doesn't serve behind. Think of it as a selective release. We keep the lessons, we leave the luggage. I love y'all. One degree to victory is about progression, not perfection. And that involves choosing a life that works for you now in this season and building from there. And Sister Girl, it's going to take more than loving yourself. It's going to take vision for where you're going, hope to believe it's possible, action to make it real, and love for your family to fuel every step. Take one degree forward this week, and I'll see you in the next episode.