1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,240 What's going on guys? 2 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:22,840 Welcome to this episode of the pursuit of calling with me, your host Thomas Carney. 3 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:27,080 Today I got a little bit of a recap for you from about the last few months. 4 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:30,880 We're going to go over some updates from the podcast. 5 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,880 Some of them you may know, some of them you might not know. 6 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:38,800 And then we also go into some health updates about my muscular dystonia, just to give you 7 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:43,520 guys a little bit more insight into my life, what I'm working through. 8 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:48,040 And the goal is to give you some motivation to really pursue your calling, no matter your 9 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:49,040 circumstance. 10 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:53,760 And if you like what I'm doing with this podcast, with the pursuit of calling, and you want 11 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:57,720 to support me, but aren't really sure how I want to give you a few ways. 12 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:03,480 One is sharing this episode or the podcast out on one of your social media accounts. 13 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,120 Two is leaving a comment that really helps out the algorithm. 14 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:13,240 Or you can also donate to buy me a coffee link, which is in the description of this 15 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:14,960 podcast just as a thank you. 16 00:01:14,960 --> 00:01:19,840 And if you think you're actually getting value from this content, I just really appreciate 17 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:20,840 it. 18 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:33,360 All right, see you in the episode. 19 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:35,460 What's going on everyone? 20 00:01:35,460 --> 00:01:40,960 So in this episode, it's a little bit different as I probably said in the intro. 21 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:50,320 This one is more of an update about my life, about what's going on with me, where I'm planning 22 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:55,160 on going, like what's my future, whatever, any future plans. 23 00:01:55,160 --> 00:02:01,120 And this is really going to focus a lot on my health, like the updates with my health. 24 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:05,320 As some of you know, I've been going through a trial of muscular dystonia. 25 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:10,920 So I'm going to give you a little bit of updates of what I've been doing in that area of my 26 00:02:10,920 --> 00:02:11,920 life. 27 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:18,080 And then we're going to dive into also how I'm working on improving in areas of the podcast 28 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:22,320 and what some future goals are moving forward. 29 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:25,640 So let's dive in a little bit. 30 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:28,160 Let's dive in to my health updates. 31 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:35,840 So my pain, if you don't know about muscular dystonia, let me explain it a little bit. 32 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:42,120 So muscular dystonia is a chronic muscular condition. 33 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:49,760 It essentially is about incorrect signals being sent from the brain to your muscles 34 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:54,720 and causes them to erroneously contract whenever they're not supposed to. 35 00:02:54,720 --> 00:03:03,320 Luckily, I'm not at a point where I don't have as severely as some other people do. 36 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:08,880 There's a lot of cases out there of cervical dystonia, which I do not have, where people's 37 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:14,200 necks get affected heavily and their heads are kinked to one side until they figure out 38 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:18,560 a way to loosen that up through therapies. 39 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:25,560 And I do see that there's progress and ways to alleviate that, which is fantastic. 40 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:31,320 But my personal experience is essentially pretty, it's more widespread, I guess. 41 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:38,920 I don't have any, what a lot happens a lot is a lot of twists in your arms or neck or 42 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:41,080 certain body parts that you can't really control. 43 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:47,120 And luckily I don't have to deal with that right now, but I do, and I do pray against 44 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:56,240 that, but what I do deal with is a lot of tense muscles in my arms, my shoulders, my 45 00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:05,600 neck, and it seems to be more of a muscle tension in my experience than muscle twisting 46 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:11,240 or the muscles contracting so severely that I can't move a particular body part. 47 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:18,960 I do lose some range of motion in my shoulder, which I found out, but that's easily overcome 48 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:23,040 with just not the range of motion is an overcome. 49 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:29,280 I haven't found out that yet, but I have, it's not a huge deal for me, I guess is what 50 00:04:29,280 --> 00:04:32,400 I'm trying to say. 51 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:39,360 So one way I'm trying, one way I'm working on bettering myself in the health area of 52 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:45,040 my life is keeping with my diet. 53 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:51,320 So a while ago I did an elimination diet that was in a book called Inflammation Spectrum 54 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:53,480 written by Dr. Will Cole. 55 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:58,840 It took about six months, and ever since then I've been a lot more aware of the food industry 56 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:01,720 in what is in particular foods. 57 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:07,200 You might be wondering why I'm talking about that while talking about like my muscular 58 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:14,280 dystonia, and it's because I have the particular belief that if I were to continue to eat a 59 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:26,120 lot of the junk foods or just what's it called, heavily processed foods, I believe I would 60 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:29,320 be in a worse spot than I am right now. 61 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:35,960 I think there's enough evidence to show that regardless, there's evidence to show that 62 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:40,960 if you can, people that continuously stay away from heavily processed foods have a higher 63 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:42,480 quality of life. 64 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:44,720 So I'm like, might as well stick in that area. 65 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:46,880 I'm not perfect at it. 66 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:55,600 I had potato chips the other day and I felt sick afterwards, and now they're in the trash. 67 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:59,800 So I'm trying to eat healthier. 68 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:06,360 I'm also trying new things, and trying new things. 69 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:10,480 When I say that, I mean, I'm going to a new chiropractor that was recommended to me by 70 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:12,880 a woman at my church. 71 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:17,600 This particular chiropractor apparently uses cold lasers. 72 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:28,880 I don't really know what that is yet, but I believe it's supposed to help alleviate 73 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:33,640 some muscle tension or inflammation. 74 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:37,360 I believe it's targets mainly, but we're going to look into it. 75 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:42,480 I'm going to look into it, try it out, and I'll probably report back next month. 76 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:48,560 I guess I didn't really say that, but I'll go back to that later. 77 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:52,960 I'll explain what this format is at the end of this episode. 78 00:06:52,960 --> 00:07:06,040 So there's another thing that happened yesterday, which was July 25th was yesterday, and I met 79 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:17,280 with a man from the Office of Vocational Rehab, which is somebody who essentially is there 80 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:28,400 to facilitate the ways for me to get quality of life care, I guess you could say, that 81 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:32,200 would particularly help me with my job. 82 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:39,080 And then he's also pointing me in the direction of what is called the Center of Assistive Technology, 83 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:44,100 which potentially can help me with driving because driving is really difficult for me. 84 00:07:44,100 --> 00:07:51,320 So that is something that I'm looking forward to and reporting back on if you guys like 85 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:54,440 this format. 86 00:07:54,440 --> 00:08:01,520 So I also want to talk about my hopes to come out of this part of my life, because this 87 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:07,760 part of my life could be a part of my life for the rest of my life on this earth, or 88 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,440 it could be a part of my life for a limited amount of time. 89 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:13,520 I don't know, only God knows that. 90 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:20,120 So really there are a few things I want to come out of this part of my life, regardless 91 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:23,480 of how long this lasts for. 92 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:27,520 I want my testimony to be known. 93 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:37,000 So I want, how this has strengthened me in my faith, knowing that He, God, knows it all. 94 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:38,960 He knows every part of me. 95 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:41,280 He knows every hair on my head. 96 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:44,760 So that also means He knows exactly what's wrong with me. 97 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:51,480 And I want to be able to share the testimony of how my faith has been strengthened as a 98 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:54,060 result of that with others. 99 00:08:54,060 --> 00:09:01,560 Whether it be on a stage one day or just one-on-one with somebody to be able to help strengthen 100 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:09,280 their faith in the Lord or maybe start or give them a reason to have faith in the Lord. 101 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:13,080 Another thing I want to do with it, another thing I want it to be used for in my life 102 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:19,840 is use as fuel for the fire to propel me towards my calling. 103 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:26,720 You can either sit down in your own circumstances and just sit in your own self-pity or you 104 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:28,800 can stand up and fight. 105 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:32,520 And that is what I choose to do with this in my life. 106 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:38,520 I choose to use it as fuel for the fire to propel me towards my calling. 107 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:42,080 So what's it mean to sit down in self-pity? 108 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:43,680 What does it mean to sit down? 109 00:09:43,680 --> 00:09:48,720 It means believing that I can never accomplish my goals because of my disability. 110 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:53,600 It means to not even try to find out what can be done to decrease my pain and increase 111 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:56,000 my quality of life. 112 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:02,320 Then the other opposite side of that would be standing up and fighting, accepting my 113 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:08,320 pain and believe it's there to motivate me to be the best version of myself. 114 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:14,700 I know that it sucks, but I also know that it can be overcome. 115 00:10:14,700 --> 00:10:24,680 Whether that means my pain is alleviated or that just means that I mentally overcome it. 116 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:27,400 Because the mind is more powerful than the body. 117 00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:28,400 I do believe that. 118 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:34,400 And I believe that regardless of how severe the pain gets, my mind is still able to push 119 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:42,000 me through and carry me through as long as I keep my faith in the Lord. 120 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:49,960 And then I do pray, I mention God a lot in this piece, and I do pray and thank him a 121 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:54,400 lot for what he has brought me through so far and looking forward to what's ahead. 122 00:10:54,400 --> 00:11:00,920 Because I know that I'm not the same man as I was even a year ago in the beginning of 123 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:04,640 this part of this trial where the pain started to get worse. 124 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:09,160 I know that it's increased, I know that it's grown me, I know that it's continuing to grow 125 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:11,320 me. 126 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:16,720 And you know how this podcast is called, The Pursuit of Calling? 127 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:23,840 I just said earlier that my calling doesn't end because I'm in a circumstance that is 128 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:26,240 not ideal. 129 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:33,720 My calling, as you've heard from many guests on this podcast, that your calling goes with 130 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:36,680 you everywhere that you go. 131 00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:38,820 It goes with you in every circumstance. 132 00:11:38,820 --> 00:11:41,960 It doesn't matter what you're going through. 133 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:47,840 What matters is how you respond to your circumstance and how you use your circumstances to your 134 00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:49,920 advantage. 135 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:59,320 These circumstances that I'm in right now, they suck, like I said. 136 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:01,600 But I choose to use them as fuel. 137 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:09,760 I choose to let it grow my faith because the other option, the other direction is either 138 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:11,880 moving backwards or staying where I'm at. 139 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:16,120 And I refuse to do that. 140 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,360 So I just hope that some motivation to you, if you're in a circumstance that you don't 141 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:26,240 like, if you're in a circumstance that sucks, just know that it's okay that it sucks. 142 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:31,160 It's okay to admit that it sucks and that you can use that situation to propel you forward 143 00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:34,240 and that it's there to grow you. 144 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:36,440 If you're in it, you're in it for a reason. 145 00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:40,440 I know people don't like to hear that everything happens for a reason. 146 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:45,360 And I think my, I was talking with some people the other day in small group at my church 147 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:54,200 that I don't particularly like whenever people say that God has put them in a particular 148 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:58,760 circumstance that is a negative circumstance that is hurting them. 149 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:03,280 I don't like whenever people say that God put them there in order to grow them. 150 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:05,760 I don't like that because I don't believe that's what's happening. 151 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:13,920 This might be a hot take, but I believe that these are, there are things that God allows, 152 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:14,920 right? 153 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:21,400 Like, He didn't put me in this pain, but He obviously is letting me be in it. 154 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:28,680 And if He's the perfect God, like I believe He is, then His reason is perfect. 155 00:13:28,680 --> 00:13:36,960 So, if I really truly believe that His will is a perfect will, then I can believe that 156 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:39,720 my circumstance is here for my benefit. 157 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:41,120 It's here to glorify Him. 158 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:44,480 It's here to praise Him and lift Him up. 159 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:45,560 Right? 160 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:47,560 So take that as an encouragement. 161 00:13:47,560 --> 00:13:50,200 If you're not a believer in faith, I know I talked about God a lot in this episode, 162 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:52,840 so I really hope you stuck with me this whole time. 163 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:55,440 If you did, I really do appreciate it. 164 00:13:55,440 --> 00:14:01,200 If you're not a person of faith, like just know that your circumstances, regardless of 165 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:05,920 what you believe in, your circumstances, like they don't define you. 166 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:08,160 They don't tell you who you are. 167 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:12,880 And I know I'm a Christian, and I believe that God defines every single one of us as 168 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:17,920 His child, as His children, as His creations. 169 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:23,280 And like, that's there for you too. 170 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:27,200 That's there for you too. 171 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:28,200 You can know Him. 172 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:29,400 You can know His love. 173 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:30,720 You can know His grace. 174 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:38,720 And I just pray that, man, I know I don't say this as a Christian podcast, but I'm really 175 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:43,920 digging in this episode unintentionally. 176 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:48,880 I really just pray that you take this to heart and think about it, even though your circumstances 177 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:52,280 suck, that that doesn't mean your life sucks. 178 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:55,000 That doesn't mean that you don't have a purpose. 179 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:59,120 That doesn't mean that your calling ends. 180 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:06,360 That just means that you have another reason to fight. 181 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:08,200 Okay, enough about that. 182 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:10,280 That was way more than I was planning to say. 183 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:13,700 So let's move forward. 184 00:15:13,700 --> 00:15:18,560 So now let's get more into how I'm working on improving the podcast. 185 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:20,600 I really talked about myself a lot. 186 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:25,560 So we're going to talk about the podcast this time. 187 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:28,560 So some podcast updates. 188 00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:34,280 So obviously there was a rebrand from Technically Short to The Pursuit of Calling. 189 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,640 And I got some really good feedback about the name rebrand. 190 00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:40,520 Some people didn't think I should change it. 191 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:50,320 After talking with people that really know podcasting and know who I talked about, what 192 00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:58,920 I want to do with it, I had this guy, John Stange, tell me it would make sense to rebrand 193 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:04,720 to something that makes more sense, to something that whenever people see the name, they know 194 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:05,880 what it's about. 195 00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,000 So that's why that happened. 196 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,800 Then I'm going to be working on a new guest format. 197 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:14,880 I just thought about this earlier today, actually. 198 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:18,280 But I think it's going to be really good. 199 00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:24,040 So a new guest format where we look at the guest, we look at their past, present, and 200 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:28,040 future of their particular calling. 201 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:36,040 So that we can kind of give you guys a step, not a step-by-step process, but give you kind 202 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:40,280 of more of a timeline of life. 203 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:44,700 And maybe that can give you a little bit more insight into yours, into your calling. 204 00:16:44,700 --> 00:16:47,080 So I think it could be interesting. 205 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,440 Honestly, I don't really have much else for you guys. 206 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:52,280 This is a shorter episode. 207 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:56,040 So let me know what you think of this new solo format. 208 00:16:56,040 --> 00:17:01,200 Just to recap, maybe do this once a month. 209 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:04,120 And I would really appreciate you just letting me know in the comments. 210 00:17:04,120 --> 00:17:06,260 That'd be fantastic what you think of it. 211 00:17:06,260 --> 00:17:10,420 So my plan is to do this, like I said, once a month and give you all updates on my life 212 00:17:10,420 --> 00:17:12,960 and plans for the future. 213 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:15,320 And just to keep you guys updated. 214 00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:17,600 Let me know what you think. 215 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:22,440 So thank you for listening to this episode of The Pursuit of Calling with me, your host, 216 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:23,440 Thomas Carney. 217 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:28,560 Don't forget to share this episode out on all your platforms. 218 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:30,440 And I will see you next time. 219 00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:45,440 Peace, guys.