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. So recently I've been given a new
opportunity to be a tech lead at my job. When
I was first given this opportunity, I was nervous
and excited because I didn't really know how
I was, how or what it fully entailed of yet.
I had a somewhat of an idea from just be working
there for now almost eight years, but I had You
know, I had a change in outlook on my job. It
was no longer about how much can I get done today
or how can I succeed personally. It's now about
how can I set the team up for success today,
this week, or this year. So that we can be the
best that we can be for those that we're serving.
For us, that's our end users. That's the people
who use our applications and websites that we
develop. It's the same when it comes to living
in your calling. You know, I've been a web and
mobile app developer since November of 2017 with
the same broadcast company. I haven't always
been the best employee, you know, for some good
and for some bad reasons. thinking uh some of
the bad reasons that you know i thought i deserved
more than i was getting financially so that caused
me not to work very hard or uh and a good reason
is in my opinion is because of the pain i i experience
and when i first started experiencing this pain
i there was a mental transition to happen there's
some growth that needed to happen and i didn't
see my job as a priority at that time personally
i was more uh, concerned about either getting
out of pain or learning how to manage my pain
than I was at honestly doing my job well. And
I don't know if that's okay or not, if I'm being
honest, but it feels at, at honestly, I'm thinking
back and like, there's definitely some grace
I can have for myself in that. Uh, because I
know one, I know God has grace for me, but I
also know that I, um, I wasn't a lot, I'm still
aiming a lot of pain. And I think back to, in
the very beginning to when my thing started.
And I didn't have all the resilience built up
that I have now. So when I think back to it,
I'm like, man, no wonder I didn't want to do
my job. It sucks. But now it sucks a lot less
because my faith has grown. My endurance has
grown. When I talk about my faith, specifically,
I'm talking about my faith in my Savior, Jesus
Christ. And this is why I believe I was given
the opportunity of leadership. Not that I think
my boss saw that I have faith and was like, you
know, let's make that guy a leader. It's more
like because of my faith, I have a bigger reason
to do my job well or with excellence than wanting
to please others, wanting a bigger paycheck,
or even just self -satisfaction. And don't get
me wrong, it is satisfying when I get my work
done, when I accomplish what I'm tasked with,
and when I get done what I say I'm going to do.
But more importantly than that, it's because
of one main reason. I do everything I do with
excellence for the God that I serve. Once I had
that mindset shift, I started thinking about
my job differently. And this was before leadership
started. This is in my notes, but in my head
right now, I'm thinking about how you're not
given opportunities like this unless you're doing
more than what is expected. And that is what
excellence is all about. Excellence means doing
more than what is expected and doing it well
and doing it consistently. Now, I didn't think
at the time that I was serving anyone. In reality,
this is way back, before I was doing this excellence.
I didn't think I was serving anyone. In reality,
the apps I develop have end users that I'm striving
to serve with excellence now. Therefore, I get
to do my job well. I get to do my job well in
order to serve them well. And in turn, that means
I'm serving my God well. With the help of ChatGPT,
I found a study that was done in 2018. It was
conducted by the Barna Group in partnership with
Abilene Christian University. These researchers
surveyed 1 ,459 employed U .S. Christians who
considered their faith very important. The study
found that 82 % believed Christians should act
ethically at work. I don't know what the other
18 % are doing. And then 58 % aimed to do excellent
work to glorify God. Isn't that amazing? That's
more than 50 % of Christians. And man, I really
want that to be more. I want it to be, honestly,
should be 100 % of Christians should aim to do
excellent work to glorify God. I have a quick
excerpt from the Bible. It's Colossians 3, 23
to 24. For Christ you are serving. You know,
even if you're not a Christian, you got to think
about this. And I hope you're still sticking
around. I know this is a pretty Christian faith
heavy episode. And that's not every episode.
But even if you're not a Christian, I want you
to think about this concept. If you want to live
a happy, successful life, what's one thing you
do need? What's one thing you need? Other people.
Remember, your calling isn't for you. Now you
might be wondering, I haven't been talking about
my calling this whole time. But I have been.
Your calling isn't for you. It's for the people
you've been called to serve. When you're living
in your calling, that means you're serving other
people well. And maybe you're not always going
to do it with excellence. We're human. We're
not perfect. But living in your calling, living
in your purpose, you're not going to do that
sitting at home in your bedroom by yourself.
You're not going to do that. Just going on a
walk every day by yourself. Now going on walks
are fantastic. Don't get me wrong. That's just
something I thought of right now. But you're
not going to do it by yourself. You need other
people. And a lot of times to live in your calling
well, not only do you need other people that
you need to be serving alongside, but also there
needs to be somebody that you're serving. with
your calling. I'm not saying that your job is
your calling. I'm saying your calling goes with
you wherever you go. And if you're doing your,
if you're living in your calling well and with
excellence, honestly, that's just a good thing.
I, um, ah, man, I want you to think about, well,
I shouldn't just say it's a good thing. It's
an excellent thing to live in your calling well,
to have the work ethic that you believe that,
um, Doing excellent work glorifies God. I want
you to try this. Write down three things that
you can do to serve with excellence. Maybe there's
an area that you volunteer or work where you
see a gap. How can you fill it? Maybe you're
working toward a goal of starting a business
or raising money for a cause that serves others.
How can you do that more effectively? I want
you to sit with this. What can you be doing now?
To serve with excellence. Maybe you're already
serving and there's some way that you can be
serving better, like I said in that first example.
Or I shouldn't say serving better, but a place
for you to improve. Let me give you a quick example.
This one is new for me. I just learned this literally
yesterday. I had a coaching experience with a
friend of mine, Jesse McCullough, who's been
on this podcast. I gave him a call a little bit
ago yesterday. because I was dealing with a situation.
Some clients don't always... I mean this with
all love in my heart, with all the grace that
I have for them. There's been instances where
clients cancel their appointments pretty close
to the appointment time. And I got frustrated
with that at first, right? and I was more thinking
about what they can be doing better rather than
what I can be doing better in order to serve
them. That's something that Jesse helped me think
about. He goes, you're putting all the weight
on them, but what happens if you take some of
that weight and put it on yourself? What could
you be doing better? what i came up with um now
that they are they already get email reminders
but then there is the opportunity for me to manually
send them text reminders and just be like hey
hey i just want to check in that you're ready
to go tomorrow hey i'm ready to go if you are
and that was a mindset set shift i had to have
in order to serve these people i've been called
to serve well now there are tools that will do
this um for me but I want to see, I want to do
it first to see how effective it is. And also
it's another opportunity for me to grow. So I
just want you to think about that. How can you
be serving with excellence? How can you have
that mindset shift that what you're doing isn't
for you, but it's for those you've been called
to serve? I hope this episode made sense for
you guys. I want you to kind of mull this stuff
over. I've been, um, guys, I really appreciate
it. If you would share this episode out and if
you, um, honestly, like if you, if you liked
this episode, if you like this podcast, if you
even like me, give this podcast a five -star
review because I honestly love doing this. I
love having these, um, I love doing the interviews.
I love setting up my notes and having these solo
podcasts. And in order to keep doing it, well,
I shouldn't say in order to keep doing it, but
man, I'm just thinking, I want more people, I
want more people that if you believe this is
helpful, I just want more people to hear what
is being said if you believe it's helpful. And
if it is, awesome. If you don't think it is,
Leave it a review. Leave me a review. Let me
know. Leave a comment. Let me know. Shoot me
a text. Let me know. Guys, I hope you enjoyed
it. Thank you for listening. Share it out on
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And real quick, if you're stuck in an area of
your life, if you want to get from where you
are to where you want to be, You can sign up
for three free coaching sessions right now. So
go ahead. There is going to be a link in the
description of this episode in the show notes.
So go ahead, click the link, sign up for the
next available slot, and I'll talk to you soon.
All right.