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. Okay, guys, this is going to be
a quick episode this week. As you can tell, I'm
in a little bit of a better mood this week than
I was last week. Last week, I was feeling overwhelmed.
I was feeling stuck. I wasn't sure. I had so
many priorities and not sure which one was actually
the top priority because all the priorities are
important. I just didn't know what to do, and
that's kind of what I was talking about last
week. But I want to say I'm doing a lot better.
I want to thank you for your prayers. I want
to thank you because I honestly believe they
worked. This past week has felt much more manageable.
If you're watching the video, you're watching
me pull windows across the screen. I'm not looking
at the camera. Apologies. Let me adjust. Cool.
And this past week has been a lot more manageable.
And I want to share some of the things I've been
doing to overcome that paralyzing feeling of
having a million tasks, but not knowing where
to start. I want this to be an encouragement.
The biggest thing that helped me, the biggest
thing that helped me was prioritization. Now,
I said I had so many tasks and so many tasks
and so many priorities that weren't just tasks,
but they were like projects. And the tasks within
those projects are the things that I wanted to
do and things I wanted to accomplish. And I didn't
know what to do next. I think I told you last
week, Andrew, my friend Andrew and I talked and
he was talking about Bible study. He was doing
with the other staff members at Amplified Church.
And they're talking about the analysis paralysis
or exactly what I was going through, being paralyzed
by having too many priorities, by having too
many things to do. And they're essentially what
they came to the conclusion of was just do something
and just start. So that's what I started with.
I just did something. And even if it was the
wrong thing, then I would find that out. But
luckily, that wasn't true. I realized what my
priorities were. My priority, I'm moving soon.
My priority was getting things set up to move,
asking people to help me move, figuring out where
I was going to get a washer and a dryer, because
that was really important, and I got that figured
out now. And all of those things, and today I
was setting up utilities for whenever I move.
All that stuff is really important. But the way
I prioritize those things was through a to -do
list system. I use an application called to -do
list. You've heard me talk about it maybe on
this podcast before. I love it because it allows
me to break things out into separate projects
and prioritize them using whatever method you
want to use. But you can flag them from P1 to
P4, from priority one to priority four. And that
helps me be like, okay, I'm going to do this
task tomorrow because usually I like to prioritize
the day before for the next day. And I'm going
to do this tomorrow. This is maybe going to be
done at this time. And this priority one, that
means like there might be other things to do
that day, but this is priority one. This needs
to be done first. Or this is the thing that absolutely
needs done in Priority 3. Maybe it's important,
but it won't be the end of the world if it doesn't
get done. Something... I know I'm talking fast.
Like I said, this is going to be a quick episode.
Honestly, some unexpected things happened earlier
in this day. I'm just going to be recording this
quick episode because I didn't have as much time
to prepare. And that's life. However, something
might, now getting back to it, my therapist,
Brittany, told me, because I was trying to plan
out, I was getting overwhelmed because I wanted
to plan out my weeks. And she said, if planning
out your week seems overwhelming, just try a
day or two. Just try to plan out the next day
or the next two days and see how that goes. Because
where I would get stuck is I would try to plan
out a week, two weeks, a month ahead. And then
I wouldn't be able to stick to that. And then
I'd get overwhelmed. Or I'd get discouraged because
I didn't stick to the plan. Because life happened.
Unexpected things would happen. So what I'm finding
the easiest for me is to sit down the night before
and plan out the next day or the next two days
of the priorities of the things I want to get
done. Recently, it has had a lot to do with moving
and actually less to do with a podcast or my
business. But I've actually been even more motivated
to get into my podcast and into my business because
of my life actually having some systems to it.
I'm remembering a quote right now. I think it's
from James Clear. Man, what is it? Oh, here we
go. You do not rise to the level of your goals.
You fall to the level of your systems. That's
a quote from James Clear, the author of Atomic
Habits, which is one of my favorite books. I'm
going to reread it, actually. I'm actually thinking
very—now that I'm just thinking about it, that
should be a book I reread at least once a year.
But I'm going to— But that's a book that's just
talking about how to create habits, positive
habits, in order to live that satisfactory life.
To live a life, in my mind, living a life of
peace and not of chaos. Because I like when in
Scripture there's a verse that says, where there's
no vision, the people perish. And where there's
no, in my mind, where there's no forward thought,
where you're not thinking ahead. and planning
for the goals that you have set out and creating
the habits and the systems in order to achieve
those goals. If you're not doing that, those
goals are either not going to get achieved or
going to become really hard to achieve. So my
challenge to you is to think about the systems
in your life, your priorities, maybe in context
of this episode, the prioritization systems of
your life. of how do you prioritize the things
that need to get done? Maybe you're not as much
like me. I'm very systematic. I like having to
do, I like doing the same thing. I like having
the same systems every day. If I wake up at the
same time, go to bed, I try to go to bed at the
same time. I read before, I have a night routine.
And I like to think that, I would love to think
that everybody worked exactly like me, but I...
Not sure that's the case. I know everybody has
habits and everybody has priorities. So whenever
you're thinking about your priorities, whenever
you're thinking about the things you need to
get done from day to day, what is your system?
Do you have a system? Or are you just trying
to remember all the things that you need to get
done? I've been there and it sucks. And you probably
don't get everything done. So my challenge to
you for this next week is to reassess your systems,
figure out how you can best prioritize what needs
to get done for the goals that you want to achieve
to help you get from where you are to where you
want to be. The whole point of this podcast is
to essentially help you get... from where you
are to where you want to be to help you achieve
the goals, the vision that you have for your
life. And having these systems, these prioritization
habits is an extreme part of that. All right.
Thank you guys for listening to this episode
of the Pursuit of Calling podcast. If you liked
this episode, go ahead and share it out on Spotify
or I guess, no, share it out on Instagram, you
know, all the Instagram, Facebook, wherever you
use social media and give it a five -star review.
on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else
you listen to your podcasts. All right, guys.
Thank you for listening to this episode again.
Keep pursuing your calling. I'll see you next
time.