testimonial by penny

When Penny Cruse discovered Mimika Cooney’s Unstick Your Mind program, she was feeling defeated and depressed.

At 54 years old, she’d spent 13 years working in a job that was not fulfilling her. She was disappointed she had not made progress toward fulfilling the purpose she felt called to do: coaching young adults.

“I have a Master of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and really have not fulfilled my purpose that I believe God birthed me onto this Earth to do, which is to use my degree as a platform to write for, inspire, and coach young adults,” Penny said. “It’s my passion.

“Instead I’ve been working at a job in higher education that, for well over a decade, I’ve been profoundly aware has no advancement potential and is beneath my education, skills, and abilities.”

Penny said she had tried to make strides toward aligning her life with her purpose but felt she had not found success. In fact, she felt she had recently experienced a major blow. After putting much time and effort into applying for a PhD program at a prominent theological institution, her admission was declined. The rejection of her application left her feeling devastated.

“I was reeling,” Penny said. “I really thought I was going to get accepted and be moving to California. That was where my gaze was set. I felt so disappointed and just kept thinking, ‘What the heck do I do now?’”

Add to that the isolation she had been experiencing as a single woman working from home since COVID hit, and it didn’t take long for depression and lethargy to set in.

“Everything in my life felt like it was shutting down,” Penny said. “I was struggling to rise up to engage my workplace. There was a lot of clutter in my life and my mind. I had dishes piled up in my apartment and my office, which was in my living room, had really overtaken the space.

“I felt so bogged down and hopeless. I knew that I had things to offer and that I was a gifted teacher. I had ideas of things I wanted to do vocationally, like becoming a college professor, but everything felt so out of reach for me. I had zero self-confidence. I knew I had people I could reach out to professionally, but I was bound up in so much fear. I didn’t have the wherewithal or the ability to even write an email or make a phone call to say, ‘Hey, can you help me?’ I needed a total lens change for my mind, but I didn’t know how to get there.”

Then one Saturday morning Penny was lying in bed and saw an email from Mimika in her inbox. 

She had been on Mimika’s email list for several months but had not paid much attention to the emails. However, there was something about the subject line of this one that made Penny take notice. After opening it, she immediately connected with what she read.

“In the email, she asked three questions and each one deeply resonated with my heart,” Penny said. “The questions were about feeling inadequate, feeling scared of taking risks, and feeling paralyzed to take action. Each question was completely me. I lay there thinking, ‘Who is this person?’ It was definitely a divine intervention.”

Penny signed up to attend one of Mimika’s webinars introducing her Unstick Your Mind program. Within minutes, Penny had bells and whistles going off in her heart that this was the program that could shift her life into a better place.

“It was the content that really spoke to me, as well as Mimika herself,” Penny said. “She asked some questions that were very pregnant with purpose and really got me thinking. I also loved how positive and transparent she was. Mimika has overcome some incredibly difficult life experiences so she has done the work, and she is also very willing to admit she doesn’t have all the answers. It was very refreshing and real.”

Penny said joining the eight-week program was a no-brainer and the financial investment was a great value. After Unstick Your Mind kicked off, she was thrilled with the content she received, along with Mimika’s Christian-based coaching approach.

“The content is incredibly high quality,” Penny said. “Each week there’s a video module on a given theme and then you’re posed with some very big questions that uproot and unveil life-long patterns that have affected your beliefs about yourself and others.

“The questions challenged everything within me and I found myself having these huge ah-ha moments about the beliefs that have been holding me back from being as successful, prosperous and fulfilled as I can be.”

Penny said one of these ah-ha moments was realizing how deeply she had believed the lie that she was not enough and how crippling it had been to her advancement in life.

“When I discovered that one of my biggest beliefs was that I didn’t believe I was enough, I realized the reason why I felt so bogged down,” Penny said. “I had allowed myself to live what I call a substitutionary life or a sub-par life where I was working in a job that had no opportunity for advancement. You do that when you believe you’re not enough. I had been carrying that lie around for decades and it showed in the way I was living.”

Penny said another ah-ha moment was realizing that her fear of trying new things was not only rooted in a fear of failure but also in pride.

“That was a huge revelation for me,” Penny said. “I’d never considered that my pride was keeping me from stepping out in my life.”

All of her ah-ha moments — and all of the introspective work she did that led to them — have helped Penny experience some amazing results, starting with the way she regards herself.

“I started seeing myself so differently and believing in myself,” Penny said. “My psyche started changing. I still wake up feeling afraid but I’m much more determined. I recognize now that I need to step out and make things happen. I used to think that opportunities would come to me but now I know I need to engage life and explore opportunities. I need to be vulnerable, ask for help, and have conversations. My lens on life has completely changed.”

That approach has led Penny to take some bold action toward a career change in teaching.

She recently reached out to two high-level professionals in education to ask for help and guidance in starting a teaching career. Those requests have resulted in several meetings that have opened her up to new tools, resources, wisdom, and connections.

“Both meetings were incredibly valuable. I got practical steps, wisdom and tools to help me move forward,” Penny said. “One of the people I reached out to was the Dean of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a man who taught my preaching class 20 years ago. Not only did he gladly accept the meeting request, he looked me up on Facebook. He remembered me and for 45 minutes met with me on Zoom in which he championed me, supported me, and heard my heart.

“Being vulnerable enough to contact people in high academic positions and say, ‘Will you help me?’ has been a huge shift for me. It showed me that when you’re willing to take the risk and ask for help, the vast majority of the time people are very willing to help you.”

Penny’s mindset transformation has also allowed her to see her current job in a new light. She now views her physical office space as a launch pad for new opportunities. The freedom she has over her schedule and her day has become a blessing that will allow her to move into more writing and teaching. 

Penny said that anyone who is struggling with mindset issues or wants their life to feel more fulfilling should consider joining Mimika’s Unstick Your Mind program. Especially those who want to be supported by a Christian coach who combines neuroscience, psychology, and faith-based spiritual truths. 

“There’s incredible power and accountability in this program,” Penny said. “If you walk alongside Mimika and follow the steps, you’ll unearth truths about yourself that will change your life. You’ll feel differently, as well as, look at life differently. Most importantly, you’ll act and believe differently. 

“Without someone championing you who has overcome their own challenges and struggles, you’re not likely to see change. It’s certainly not going to happen with you going about your daily life in the way you’re doing it right now. You need an energy shift and a mindset shift.  Unstick Your Mind will help you get one. It certainly did for me.”

To learn how Mimika can help you unstick your mindset issues and feel more ownership over your life, click the button below.