What's going on, Pursuers? Welcome to The Pursuit
of Calling, the podcast that provides you with
the strategies and tools needed to successfully
discover and pursue your calling. Whether it's
through inspiring stories, thought -provoking
interviews, or quick, insightful episodes on
personal growth and development, we've got you
covered. I'm your host, Thomas Carney. Enjoy
the episode. All right, what's going on, Pursuers?
When I was a kid, I would say a lot to my dad
in multiple different areas of my life. You probably
said it a lot, too, growing up. You would go,
Dad, I'm doing my best. You might even say it
now. I don't know if your dad ever said this
to you, but my dad would tell me a lot of times
when I would say that, he'd come at me with the
phrase, Thomas, you gotta do better than your
best. And in my little child brain, that made
no sense. I didn't understand how can you do
better than your best? How can you do better
than what you've already established to be your
best? It didn't make sense in my mind. And now
being an adult, I'm not an advocate for personal
growth. I can now say I know what that means.
I understand that now we're not just talking,
when we're talking about doing better than your
best, we're talking about the pursuit of excellence.
I believe my dad planted a seed within me, a
seed of excellence within me, even if he didn't
know it. And I'll be honest with you, at times
I think he did know it at a lot of those times,
but I don't think he knew whether it was taking
root or not. And now being an adult, And being
here, Advocate for Growth, everything I've been
doing with this podcast and my business, I can
say that it has. I can say that it's definitely
taken root. You know, what's great about looking
to do better than your best in an area that you're
looking to grow in is that you're continuously
raising the bar or expanding your own capabilities.
In chapter six, the law of environment in the
15 invaluable laws of growth, John Maxwell says,
significant growth will not occur in your life
if you are not continually challenged in your
environment. Set specific goals for yourself
that are beyond your current capabilities. So
think about that. I'm going to read that last
part again. Set specific goals for yourself that
are beyond your current capabilities. You want
to raise the bar. You want to do better than
your best. So for instance, I have two examples
here. There's an example of health. Maybe you
run a 10 minute mile. Let's be really practical
here. Maybe you run a 10 minute mile and you
want to run a nine minute mile. That nine minute
mile is now outside of your capability. It's
outside your capabilities. And so now that's
your goal. Then there's personal growth. Maybe
you're only reading 50 % of a book a month, or
maybe you're not reading any book a month, maybe
not reading at all, and your goal is to read
one book a month. That reading one book a month
right now is outside of your capabilities. So
remember that this is a continuous cycle. Some
of these goals may seem small. However, each
time you raise the bar, each time you do better
than your best, you get a new goal that is outside
of your new capabilities. You get a new best
that you can now do better than. You're going
to be surprised at how far you can go just by
using this mindset. This podcast is all about
giving you the tools needed to successfully discover
and pursue your calling. And just using this
method is going to get you leaps and bounds above
where you are right now. Being able to do better
than your best in the area that you're looking
to improve in, that you're motivated to improve
in, and every time you do these incremental improvements,
incremental upgrades to your capabilities, you're
going to get more motivated. I think one thing
that I'm thinking of now before I dive deeper
into my notes is that these goals, they might
seem small. This actually is my notes. They might
seem small. But there's a reason for that. You
know, I said it's continuous. So let's go, it's
a continuous, like you're not going to set, instead
of reading, you're at zero books a month, and
maybe your goal could be to read five books a
month, but then there's all these other little
goals inside of that. There's these sub -goals.
Okay, now, before I get to five, I have to read
one. Then the next goal that's outside my comfort
zone is two or one and a half. You make these
incremental steps up the ladder to reach this,
what I like to call your big goal. Some people
call it your big, hairy, audacious goal. It's
already a BHAG, as some people call it. Also,
these goals, they don't go on forever. I think
you can probably guess that you're never going
to be able to run one mile a minute. No matter
how many times you raise the bar on yourself,
you're never going to be able to do... You're
never going to be able to raise the bar so high
that you become the flash. And you can only read
so many books a month before you actually start
spending too much time reading and not enough
time applying. So what do you do next? Maybe
you're satisfied with where you've gotten. So
what do you do now? Do you stop? No, no, no,
you don't stop. You don't stop. What do you do?
You pivot. Or you go to whatever the next logical
step would be, the next logical thing to do to
help you get from where you are to where you
want to be. Yeah, maybe reading one book a month
is good for you in one area or subject, and you're
happy with that. And you said, okay, maybe your
goal is to read five books a month. But what's
the next subject to learn about so that you get,
what's the next subject to learn? Or maybe you're
good with one book a month. You're satisfied
with one book a month. And now it's time to apply
what you've learned to your life and making goals
around that outside. I'm going to guarantee you
that if you haven't applied what you've learned,
applying is outside your comfort zone. I am a
testament to that. I love learning. Applying
is hard. You know, I realized recently that the
goal of me starting my business is not for me
to leave my job. But to actually, it's to have
the option to do so. So what is the next logical
thing for me to do once I've gotten, I say my
goal is to get six paid coaching clients. I have
three clients right now. What would it take?
Outside of my comfort zone, it's six paid coaching
clients. What's the next logical step for me?
Maybe it's to start a merch store. Maybe that
would help me get closer to my goal of having
the option to leave my job. Or maybe it could
be to start masterminds that lead me into more
one -on -one coaching clients. Remember, and
don't forget, remember I said masterminds? Remember
about the mastermind that is dropping on April
27th. Don't forget about that one. That's my
birthday. It's my gift from me to you. I'm saying
I'm going to give this mastermind, I want to
gift a mastermind, a four -week mastermind on
the 15 valuable laws of growth. So if you're
interested, let me know. I'm going to, you know
what, I'll even drop a Google form. into the
show notes so you can show your interest and
tell me what you want to learn, what you would
expect to get out of it. This podcast is about
pursuing your calling and formulating the goals
and habits in order to do that. So right now,
I'm going to give you a little bit of an application.
Write down one thing you're going to do this
week to raise the bar, to do better than your
best in order to pursue your calling well. All
right, guys. Thank you for listening to this
episode of the Pursuit of Calling podcast. If
you enjoyed it, share it out everywhere. I'm
going to stop saying all the social medias. Share
it out everywhere. Share it to your friends,
your mom, your dog, your dad. Don't forget to
give this podcast a five -star review on Spotify
and Apple Podcasts and wherever you listen to
your podcasts. And guys, I'll see you next time.