1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,520
What's going on guys? Welcome to this episode of the Pursuit of Calling podcast with me,

2
00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:17,040
your host, Thomas Carney. This is the September recap episode where I'm going over a couple

3
00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:23,280
of episodes from this past month, giving you a little bit more life updates, health updates,

4
00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:27,840
and drop a little bit of some exciting news about the Pursuit of Calling brand. So definitely

5
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:32,960
stay tuned for that. Thank you for listening to this episode and I'll see you in there.

6
00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:47,600
What's going on guys? Welcome to this episode of the Pursuit of Calling podcast.

7
00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:53,360
And I guess you already heard that me say that because I also record the intro, but it's okay.

8
00:00:53,360 --> 00:01:03,040
So, sorry. I, sorry about my voice. Sorry if I cough. I am going through a little bit of a cold,

9
00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:08,560
so you're going to have to forgive me for that. But let's dive into the episode. This is September,

10
00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:17,600
the September recap. So if you've been listening to the episode throughout the month, this will

11
00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:21,280
again just be a recap for you. If you haven't listened to some of the episodes this month,

12
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:28,080
this will just be some information to give you, to maybe help you know what was talked about this

13
00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:34,960
month. And so you can go back to those episodes and, you know, see what they were about.

14
00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:43,280
So I'm going to cover two of the three episodes that happened this month. One of my favorite ones

15
00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:47,760
was the first one for the month was with Dawn Marasco. She's definitely one of my favorite

16
00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:53,200
guests I've had on the show. And in her episode, we talked about her story starting from her early

17
00:01:53,200 --> 00:02:00,160
childhood all the way to where she is now. She, you know, initially she didn't think there was,

18
00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:06,160
like she, there was anything for her. She didn't think there was anything for her to do. She didn't

19
00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:10,720
think she had a purpose for the longest time. She later found out that the calling on her life was

20
00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:17,840
to guide other women through the pain she had previously experienced. She lost her fiance, who was

21
00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:23,440
murdered directly in front of her, which was, which is insane. And I don't think any of us can

22
00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:32,160
actually understand what that is, how that would affect a human being. And it goes to show that,

23
00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:40,080
though, that literally anything can be used. God can literally use anything as fuel for the calling

24
00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:48,000
that we have in our lives. You know, if you feel, you know, maybe you feel like you don't have a

25
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:54,000
purpose. Maybe they feel like there's no purpose on your life and that you can't imagine anybody

26
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,600
listening to you. Maybe you don't think you have anything to say and that nobody would want to

27
00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:05,200
hear what you have to say, even if you did have to think you had something to say. So in this

28
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:12,720
episode, we, we, I implore you to listen to this episode because Don really dives in into why

29
00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:19,120
that doesn't make any sense. Why you have a calling on your life. Well, I'll say that not

30
00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:24,240
that it doesn't make sense. It makes perfect sense why you would feel like that, but it also

31
00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:36,960
isn't true. If that makes sense. She said whenever she heard from God that she was supposed to,

32
00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:42,400
she's going to be a writer and a speaker one day. She said, yeah, right. God, don't you know who,

33
00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:47,840
don't you know who I am? What I've done? Who would listen to me? What can I possibly write about?

34
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:58,960
Who's going to care? And then she then saw how all the things she went through are now being used

35
00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:06,560
and being applied to who she was created to be. You know, you can use that as an encouragement

36
00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:12,960
that no matter your past or current circumstances, there is a plane and calling for you.

37
00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:18,400
I said on the previous episode, how we all are given a particular set of tools that help

38
00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:25,040
to help a particular set of people in ways that nobody else can. And I really feel like Don

39
00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:32,400
touched on this really, really well. Then, so if you haven't listened to the episode yet,

40
00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:38,240
I highly, again, I highly encourage you to go back and listen to it. It's definitely one of my

41
00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:42,800
favorites and I think it will be one of yours too, because I honestly feel like you can change your

42
00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:48,560
life or her story can change your life, I should say. So the next episode I want to talk about

43
00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:57,680
was focusing on trials, endurance, character to hope. And it was specifically around Romans 5,

44
00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:03,840
3 to 4, where Paul wrote about how our trials produce endurance or endurance produces character

45
00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:11,920
and character produces hope. And the particular kind of character I'm talking about is good

46
00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:20,560
character. This good, righteous character that can only come through the process of trials,

47
00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:27,200
endurance, character and hope. And I talked about how I don't believe that you can properly pursue

48
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:35,040
your calling without actually having a good character. Like your past, I also touched on

49
00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:41,600
how your past circumstances form who you are today and your current circumstances will determine who

50
00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:49,760
you are tomorrow. It sounds like you don't have a choice, but really you do. You have the choice of

51
00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:56,560
what kind of change, what kind of growth you're going to experience. You get to decide whether

52
00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:05,200
your past circumstances, those past trials that you've had to endure are going to have a positive

53
00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:12,560
or a negative result on the character that you are going to possess. Because you could be in a

54
00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:20,880
circumstance right now and you have to decide right now how that's going to play its part in

55
00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:28,160
your character later down the road. And to add a little bit more context to that, I'm actually

56
00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:34,160
going to touch on something I wasn't planning on touching on until later in my notes. But so last

57
00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:40,080
night, not even last night, yesterday morning, I was laying on my couch. I had a massive migraine

58
00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:46,080
for like over, I don't know, it was probably about 24 hours. I had this migraine, and I'm probably

59
00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:51,920
more like 12, 16 hours, doesn't really matter. I had this pretty terrible migraine and I was laying

60
00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:58,400
on the couch. I was just wallowing in self-pity and like, man, I'm going to have to lay here all day.

61
00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:07,360
I was, you know, I was suffering through a trial and I wasn't enduring well.

62
00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:12,320
I was also listening to podcasts though at the same time, because I didn't feel like I could sit

63
00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:19,520
there and do nothing. I had to do something that was, can at least be perceived to be productive.

64
00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:24,720
And for me, listening to podcasts helped me grow and helped me learn new things, especially in this

65
00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:32,320
particular circumstance. So Ed Myletts podcast came on and where he was particularly talking about

66
00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:40,720
how pain is inevitable, but suffering is a choice. I can do a whole episode on that maybe one day,

67
00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:48,240
but I was laying there on the couch and I was like, dang it, you got to be joking. I was like,

68
00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:52,800
this is exactly what I needed to hear. Because I was laying on the couch thinking that's where I

69
00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:59,520
was going to be all day because I didn't feel like I could do anything else. And then I was like,

70
00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:05,040
uh, didn't feel like I could do anything else. And then here's Ed talking directly to,

71
00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:10,320
essentially talking directly to me saying that Thomas, you're,

72
00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:17,200
you're in pain right now and that's, that's fine. That's going to happen. Pain is inevitable,

73
00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:25,760
but suffering right now, you're suffering and that's your choice. And I get, there's plenty

74
00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:33,680
of circumstances where people could take that and say, take that in a very negative light,

75
00:08:33,680 --> 00:08:39,680
but take this forward, take it for, please just try to take it for what it is. Because when I say,

76
00:08:39,680 --> 00:08:46,400
when you say suffering is a choice, really what you're, really what it is, is you're choosing a,

77
00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:52,240
a negative, a negative, a negative outlook on life versus a positive one.

78
00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:57,520
And even if you're in a bad circumstance, so that's what I'm talking about about whenever I was

79
00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:05,360
talking about having a good character, because I, in that moment, I wasn't, I wasn't exemplifying

80
00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:12,640
a good character. And because I, and that's personal to me, I call myself, I'll call myself

81
00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:23,520
out all day. And the good character that I then, I then produce, that was then produced in me,

82
00:09:24,560 --> 00:09:30,800
was one of like, no, not just because I'm in this bad circumstance does not mean I have to live,

83
00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:39,440
does not mean I have to allow that to produce a negative outlook, a negative mindset in me.

84
00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:45,120
That's my choice. That was my choice. I got up, I started walking around and it's kind of nuts.

85
00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:52,080
My headache like zapped right out of my head. And it was kind of crazy how quickly it disappeared

86
00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:57,920
once I decided to get up off my butt. And I'm sure there's a whole scientific thing behind that,

87
00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:02,800
why that happened. But I also know I'm just going to, I apply that to God and getting it,

88
00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:07,840
God was talking directly to me, telling Thomas, get off your butt. And I was like,

89
00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:12,800
to me telling Thomas, get off your butt. And I got off my butt and my headache went away.

90
00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:22,480
So I think, I don't know, I apply that to the Lord, but, and so that's all, with all that to say,

91
00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:29,280
maybe having gone through anything exceptionally hard, but like the same, it still applies.

92
00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:36,160
Your circumstances, good or bad, are used to determine who you are, used to determine who

93
00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:42,240
you will be tomorrow. It's up to you to decide how that's going to play out. And that's even to say,

94
00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:49,040
like you might have, maybe you've experienced a migraine before. The same logic applies there.

95
00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:55,360
Now, I know, like, you might think, whenever you think, think of a trial, I might think of this

96
00:10:55,360 --> 00:11:04,640
long drawn out process, but really a trial can be five minutes. And that five minutes of,

97
00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:12,880
of properly enduring this trial allows you to endure, allows you to endure better the next time

98
00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:18,160
you go through that. Because you can remember, because your body remembers, your mind remembers

99
00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:24,160
that you have already endured more and you've endured well before. That's your character being

100
00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:28,560
produced. And now the hope that's produced from that, I'm pretty much just talking about this

101
00:11:28,560 --> 00:11:34,800
whole episode right now, but that character that's produced from that, the hope that's produced from

102
00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:42,720
that good character is hope in a good future. That is hope in a better outcome. It's experience,

103
00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:46,000
it's knowing that just because of your circumstances, you can have hope

104
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:55,440
that your circumstances do not determine who you are. Just because your circumstances suck

105
00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:00,400
does not mean your life sucks. So get off your butt. So

106
00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:07,680
if you want to hear more about that, definitely go listen to that episode, that episode, because I

107
00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:12,640
definitely, I dive way more into it and I did, that's obviously something I'm really passionate

108
00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:18,720
about. So it'd be great if you give it a little listen, went back and even took some notes and

109
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:22,880
told me what you thought about that episode. You know, you can leave a comment on Spotify,

110
00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:28,880
on YouTube, or maybe on Apple podcasts. I think you can leave a review on there. So,

111
00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:35,520
okay. So next, as all the monthly updates go, I got some life updates.

112
00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:42,160
Well, more of my life updates kind of go into my health. So really what I'm going to talk about

113
00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:48,480
here is some cool things are happening with the pursuit of calling brand. And I say brand,

114
00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:56,960
because I'm getting, I'm actually getting really excited to really continue to pursue my calling.

115
00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:06,800
All right now I have, right now Nathan Maverich generously offered to, for free, help me out with

116
00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:14,800
a website. And so it's going to be pursuitofcalling.com, one word. And on that website,

117
00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:19,600
there's going to be a homepage, you're going to be a home and about, and there's going to be a

118
00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:26,560
link to all the episodes. But more importantly, on that homepage, there's going to be an email,

119
00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:32,880
an email text box for you to be able to put your email in. So you can receive, receive free content,

120
00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:37,360
other free content from me that you can only receive from being part of my email list.

121
00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:43,920
Now, these things are, what those new free things will be are going to change over time.

122
00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:49,520
And it's going to just continue to get better as time goes on. So I highly encourage you to get

123
00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:56,080
into it from the, to get into it off the ground up, because I'm, I'm just really excited to be

124
00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:03,760
able to provide more value to those helping call to serve. So whenever that website officially

125
00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:09,920
drops, I'll let you guys know probably on, probably on Instagram. So even go ahead and follow me on

126
00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:16,160
Instagram so you don't miss that either. So let's dive into my health updates. Yay.

127
00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:23,280
So my health updates, I've had some crazy things happen in my health, right? Actually, more recently,

128
00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:30,000
I stopped my, I don't know if you knew this, I was on an antidepressant medication. I wasn't,

129
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:35,760
I'm not because of depression, but because of the neurological pain that my dystonia or I shouldn't,

130
00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:40,160
I don't, I don't like saying my dystonia, by the way, I just like saying that the dystonia that I

131
00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:45,840
have, because I don't want ownership over the dystonia, but that's a whole different topic.

132
00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:54,160
So that the dystonia, the pain that the dystonia produces is neurological pain and antidepressants

133
00:14:54,160 --> 00:15:00,880
have shown benefit in that respect to reducing the pain. But for me, it caused a lot of GI problems.

134
00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:08,320
So after about a month, my doctor decided to help me get off, to allow me to not allow me, but to

135
00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:13,760
tell me to get off the medication after I told them what was going on. And I went off the medication

136
00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:18,640
and I went through some withdrawal, which is getting insane because I was on the lowest dose

137
00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:23,200
and it was terrible. And that was like the hit and bag, and I was talking about yesterday was

138
00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:30,080
almost pretty sure was a result of that. And guys, you, like, you don't want to, you don't want to go

139
00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:34,160
through withdrawal. It sucks. But again, just because my circumstances suck does not mean my

140
00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:40,720
life sucks. I'm still here. I'm still going. That was temporary. So another exciting thing is that

141
00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:48,560
on September 23rd, the day before this episode drops, I'm going to be going to the Cleveland clinic

142
00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:56,000
where I'm just getting another opinion on my condition and I'm going to be,

143
00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:01,520
I'm going to get to talk to a different neurologist where the Cleveland clinic is world renowned

144
00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:08,960
for so many different things, especially for their research into movement disorders. So

145
00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:12,720
I'm actually pretty excited to go out there. And as far as I've been away, I've been from home in a

146
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:17,280
really, really, really, really, really long time. Sorry, that was a lot of really, but I have been

147
00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:22,560
away from home in a really long time and to that extent. So it's, I'm actually pretty excited to

148
00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:33,840
go for this ride with my dad. So any prayers, all prayers are appreciated. And yeah, so let's dive

149
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:39,280
into the last part of this episode, which is how I've grown in the last month. So I've kind of

150
00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:44,880
already mentioned it. What I was going to talk about was what I talked about with Ed Mylett and

151
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:51,600
how I, Ed Mylett's podcast and how I got off of my butt and real a lot and like, you know,

152
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:58,320
real a lot. And like, it was just a, really, that was just a application to what I talked about on

153
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:02,480
this podcast is this because my circumstances sucked it out. Me and my life sucks. And I still

154
00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:09,440
have a calling in my life. I can't just sit back and ignore just because I'm in pain. It might sound

155
00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:14,720
like I'm being pretty hard. It might sound like I'm being harsh on myself. Well, I mean, maybe I am,

156
00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:19,120
but I don't really see it in that instance. I don't really see it. Think there's an issue with

157
00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:26,640
that. I think there's, I need, like, if you have a calling, if you believe you have a calling on

158
00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:31,520
your life, you have to push yourself. There's going to be instances where you have to push yourself

159
00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:36,320
past a limit that you believe that you have, because we're all capable of doing way more than

160
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:42,960
we believe that we can do. So that's how I've grown this last month. I mean, there's other ways

161
00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:48,320
I've grown, but that's the one that was most recent and most fresh on my mind. Guys, I want

162
00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:52,080
to thank you though, for listening to this whole episode of the Pursuit of Calling podcast. If you

163
00:17:52,080 --> 00:18:00,160
liked this episode, give it a like on YouTube, give this like on YouTube, give me a follow on

164
00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:06,880
on Spotify. Sorry, I had to remember the names on Spotify. Give it a five star review that is

165
00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:12,320
greatly appreciated because that helps out the algorithm, helps other people know that it's good,

166
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:21,120
that this podcast is any good. And yeah, if you guys could also, you know, just let me know,

167
00:18:21,120 --> 00:18:25,680
like if you, how you're feeling about this podcast, you should send me a message on Instagram,

168
00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:31,280
shoot me a text if you have my number, it'd be greatly appreciated. All right, guys,

169
00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:43,280
I will see you next time.