The Versions Edit - SZN Three, Ep 5

"The Self-Edit is not a podcast you listen to; it is a practice you participate in." 

In This Episode, We Cover:

• The Power of Chapters: Drawing from Michelle Obama’s philosophy that you can have it all, but not all at once.
• Beauty Marks vs. Blemishes: How Ciara’s "Beauty Mark" philosophy reframes our challenges as the very things that define our best eras.
• Stretching vs. Striving: A practical discernment grid to tell if you are moving in the "speed of grace" or running on the fumes of anxiety.
• Radical Themes for 2026: Why this is the year of Radical Surrender, Radical Execution, and Radical Alignment.
• The "Soft Girl" Rebrand: Why the "soft life" isn't about bubble baths—it’s about the end of striving and the beginning of "no more drama" (Mary J. Blige style).

The Self-Edit Practice: Your Integration Tools

1. The Grace Test Ask yourself these questions this week to discern your current pace:

• Is there peace underneath the discomfort? (Stretch = Uncomfortable but peaceful; Striving = Chaotic).
• Is this connected to a word God already gave me? (Stretch aligns with prior revelation; Striving comes from panic or comparison).
• Does this require more faith or more force?

2. The "Deposit Check" Exercise Stop reaching for shortcuts. Before your next big decision, list:

• What knowledge has already been given to me?
• What skills have I already been trained in?
• What influence already exists in my hands?
• The Rule: Obey only from this list of deposits this week.

Key Quotes & Anchors

"God stretches capacity to prepare you, not to punish you.""The Edit: Stop starting and restarting, and start watching for signs that God is still doing something with what He already gave you.""Obedience activates deposits. Striving compensates for insecurity."

Scripture & Meditation Anchors

• Isaiah 43:18–19: "Remember not the former things... Behold, I am doing a new thing."
• Proverbs 3:5–6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart..."
• Matthew 25:21: "You have been faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many."

What does the new version of you look like and feel like in 2026? I want to hear your "word"  or theme for this year. Share it with the community and let's hold space for the stretch together.

Jeneba

Transcript

Host - Jeneba Wint: 0:24

Welcome back to the Self Edit. I am your host, Jeneba Wint. You have not heard from me and what I know is so long, but I'm back and I'm here again for another episode. Um, it's 2026. Now when you're listening to this and. Look, I'm just happy to be here. Happy to make it. God chose me again as his favorite. Um, and yeah, so this episode is for the version of you who is shaking in your boots. Because you are grieving the old version of yourself, the one that was comfortable, the one that was predictable, the one that was safe, but you're not quite ready to step into that new version of you. You're standing in between errors is what it feels like. That's where I've been lately. I don't know about y'all, but 2026 didn't start off all peaches and rainbows for me. Um. Because it was like this new sense of knowing that I'm, I need to be stretched in capacity into something more. So what I've been noticing lately, as I've been reflecting on my 2025, even though I did a lot, I did all the things. I came out with my book, um, interview like Olympian. Go put that in Amazon right now if you don't have your copy. Um, I spoke on so many stages. I spoke at NYU Tulsa. I've always wanted to speak at a big university, big name university like that. Um, I spoke of so many stages, so many conferences. Have people buying my products, people paying for my ip, which is what I've always wanted. Marriage is starting to thrive again. Kids are good. So career so, so, so in a, in the areas, I'm doing the things right. But 2025 still felt like the year of planting and putting down roots. Um, the year that I was going from becoming to being, and as I step into 2026, I definitely feel. That stretch that I'm being stretched in my capability, my faith, my identity. I feel like God, God be really like checking me, chin checking me, talking to me any kinda way. He doesn't, I feel like that's just how it is. He don't, he, he, he's not like, oh, it's not giving soft. It's not giving like. Baby Jesus, right? Is giving Jesus that flipped over the tables. So, um, I feel like in my spirit, I've, I've, I'm in 2026 and I, I just have this feeling of, am I who I really stay? I am, do I believe God to be who he says he is in my own life. And that's the tension that I've been feeling in 2026. It's like, wow, like we're here already. I didn't even get any kind of break or ease into it. No, but so if you've been feeling like that, you're not lost, but you're just more aware of the shift that is happening in your life. Uh, okay, so welcome back to the self edit. If you've made it this far in the podcast, in the episode, this is the podcast that you don't just listen to, but that you participate in. We have group participation here, so the question that we're holding on today. Is what part of myself am I editing in this season of becoming? I feel like that's really deep. So write that down. Think about that. Marinate on that. Let that, let that simmer like a crockpot for you this week and hold onto that. We're gonna come back to that later on in the episode. Um, so this. This time really has me thinking a lot about eras. Um, and kind of similar to the Taylor Swift Eras tour. Not reinvention, not