Welcome, pursuers, to the Pursuit of Calling podcast, where my goal and purpose is to provide
you with the strategies and tools needed to successfully discover and pursue your God-given
calling.
I'm your host, Thomas Carney, and today we're talking about getting going or getting gone.
Okay so yesterday I got my hair cut.
I almost didn't though.
I looked outside and I saw that the roads were kind of messy.
There was a lot of snow that came down the night before and it was still coming down
really hard and I wasn't expecting it.
The road right in front of the house just looked atrocious.
My hairdresser or whatever you want to call it, I don't actually know what the title is,
but whenever she texted me she asked me if I was still coming in because of the snow
and I said, yeah, yeah, I'm coming in.
I'm going to try.
I'm going to try to brave the storm and then be honest with you, a few moments later I
texted her and said, hey, I actually think we should reschedule.
And then, not even kidding, two minutes left after that, I decided to go in anyway.
And I texted her and said, hey, actually, you know what?
No, I'm going to come in and I'll let you know.
I'll keep you posted.
So that's what I did.
Do you know what the funny thing is?
When I finally got in my car and I drove down the road, even though the roads right in front
of my house looked really bad, just a little bit of ways down the road, not even a hundred
yards, the roads were clear, perfectly fine.
I had nothing to worry about.
However, I almost let something that seems to be scary and unknown that was right in
front of me, stop me from getting to what lied ahead.
And that's what we'll be talking about today.
So what do you do when the going gets tough?
Do you get going or do you get gone?
This is a concept I think everyone will resonate with.
We all face challenges on this pursuit of calling it.
We all face obstacles that get in our way.
It's up to us to decide whether we're going to overcome them or not.
You know, Ryan Holiday has a book called The Obstacle is the Way.
And that whole concept is a philosophical concept, meaning that you can't go around
obstacles, you can't dig under them, you can't go over them, you have to go through them.
So it's up to us on this pursuit of our calling, our God-given calling, to decide how we're
going to deal with these obstacles.
A lot of the time we just don't take action, but that's actually not the problem.
Something I learned in my coaching training recently is that the problem isn't not taking
the action, it's what is in the way of taking the action, aka like we've been talking about,
the obstacle.
So what do you do in the situation where you feel something is holding you back or is in
your way from you accomplishing your goals?
I want you to ask yourself this question first.
What is it that has me stuck exactly?
What is it that is in my way?
What is the obstacle exactly?
For me, as a very rudimentary example, for me, getting my haircut, I literally felt stuck
at home.
So what actually had me stuck, however, was my own fear of not knowing if I'd get in an
accident or not.
My car is only two-wheel drive.
As I was thinking about whether I should go in my car or not, whether I should go to my
scheduled haircut or not, thoughts started entering my mind.
My car is only two-wheel drive.
It can't drive in snow like this.
Or, you know, I can reschedule.
I don't want to reschedule, but I can if I can.
I can push it off.
That's fine.
I mean, I'm happy I decided to go because I needed a haircut.
And you know what I did next?
Well, in this instance, I thought about the likelihood of me getting into an accident.
What's the likelihood of this?
Maybe for me, it was a perceived obstacle that I thought was the thing that I thought
was the obstacle wasn't actually an obstacle.
What was the likelihood of me getting into an accident?
In all honesty, the trip is only about five minutes, so I was overreacting a lot.
So the likelihood of me getting into an accident was slim to none.
So our worries, my worries at that time, my worries were holding me back.
Our worries hold us back, even when it's something as irrational as I just described.
So I was going to jump into another part, but whenever you face an obstacle, whenever
you face an obstacle, you don't immediately decide that the obstacle is unmovable.
You think about it and you decide whether it's actually an obstacle or not, and whether
the obstacle is within you or whether it is actually something that is truly external
outside of your control.
So what do you do when you feel the likelihood is high that something might go wrong?
What is the likelihood that this obstacle is actually an obstacle that is outside of
your control?
Well, I'll tell you what you shouldn't do.
You shouldn't give up.
Now I get it, I get it, I get it.
This sounds very motivational, and this isn't for motivation.
I'm really just trying to be super, uber practical with you.
Just super honest.
Don't give up, because the second you give up, the second you decide that an obstacle
is too much, the second you decide that your calling isn't worth it.
It's the second you decide that that thing that you were going to pursue, this calling,
whether it's a particular direction or it's something that you could potentially move
for, something that you could potentially really live in your purpose, live in your
calling with, but you decide that this obstacle is too big.
That instant, you decide that that obstacle is bigger than your calling.
It's that instance where you, and if you're a Christian, it's that instance where you
decide that that calling or that obstacle, I mean, is bigger than the God that gave you
that calling.
I love what John Maxwell says.
He says he doesn't have a career, he has a calling.
You can't quit a calling.
It's with you all the time.
It's the call is on your life, whether you like it or not.
So are you going to decide that whether that obstacle is bigger or smaller than the calling
that God put on your life or that purpose?
Maybe you don't believe in God.
That purpose that is on your life.
I don't care if you believe in God or not.
It doesn't matter.
You have a purpose.
There's a reason you're here.
I can go off on a tangent right now and I have time, so maybe I will.
People that believe that there is no purpose to this existence.
I feel bad for them.
Obstacles aren't obstacles to them, I guess.
Obstacles are just a part of life and they just deal with them deciding that they're
just there.
The second obstacle happens in the way, do they just quit?
I don't know.
I don't know what they do.
I know what we're going to do.
We're going to pursue.
So whenever you hit this obstacle, there's something that's outside of your control,
something where you know pretty sure if you go this particular direction to try and pursue
your calling this way, something's going to go wrong.
What do you do?
You pivot.
In order to pivot properly, you need to answer two questions.
Why is it likely that things will go wrong?
I want you to write those things down.
Why are these things going to go wrong?
Maybe they're external and maybe there are some internal things that will cause these
things to go wrong, cause these things to happen, maybe they're not the only things.
If they're external, then this obstacle is not immovable.
I don't believe that any obstacle is immovable.
That's not true.
But if it seems that this obstacle is outside of your control, there's something huge in
the way, how can you pivot?
How can you pivot?
How can you actually get through it?
Write down why it's likely that things will go wrong or could go wrong.
What is the likelihood that those things will go wrong?
What are they?
What can you do differently?
This is the next question.
This is more things for you to write down.
What can you do differently so things go right?
In other words, now that you have the feeling that you should pivot and now that you know
why you should pivot, why it's likely, not just because the obstacle is there, that's
not why you should pivot.
You pivot because you figure out why and maybe through that first step you actually realize,
oh, actually, I can get, actually, I don't need to pivot.
Maybe you don't even need to do this step two.
Maybe you just keep going because you realize that the obstacle isn't actually in the way
like me with the snow.
I thought I could potentially wreck my car, but then I realized the likelihood of that
was some to none.
But if you decide that it is an obstacle that is external, it's outside of your control,
what can you do differently so things go right?
What can you do differently so things don't end up with the way that you're perceiving
that they will?
Get those things down.
Now, I decided in my instance, I could just turn around.
If I felt like it was too dangerous, I could just turn around again with a short drive.
That was the likelihood.
I could, my mind was like, okay, I can go, I can turn around.
If it's actually that bad, I can turn around, come home, no harm, no foul, I'll reschedule.
But I wanted to try.
We all have as much potential as we allow ourselves to have.
And I believe that you have unlimited potential.
And I think that's really exciting, if we're being honest.
I believe you have unlimited potential.
Do you?
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Pursuit of Calling podcast.
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And guys, keep pursuing.
I'll see you next time.