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. Alright, welcome to this episode.
It's actually a pretty special episode of the
Pursuit of Calling podcast. I'm going to move
the mic a little bit closer to my face. Okay,
I think we're good. Okay, first I want to say,
you can get three free coaching sessions right
now. So they're calling coaching sessions. If
you don't know what that is, this whole podcast
is about the pursuit of calling. Your first introductory
coaching session will be all about... Just really
talking about your goals. And then, honestly,
we can even get to the point of starting to create
a plan for you to accomplish that goal. And it
only takes 30 minutes. Well, 45 for the intro
for it to go over some other things. But, you
know. I didn't rehearse that, so if you couldn't
tell. Anyway, there's also some merch out there.
You can go on and you can get 10 % off your first
order using the code PURSUE10. You can get it.
It's also on a banner on top of the website.
That's code PURSUE10 to get 10 % off your first
order. You can go ahead and go to shop .pursueacalling
.com now to get your merch, your shirt. You can
get a hoodie. You can get a hat. We got it all
over there. We don't got it all, but we got three
things. It's pretty decent. Okay. But next, okay.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room right
now. I'm in a different room. I'm not the elephant
in the room. That's rude. But I'm in a new room.
I'm in a new home. I think I mentioned in previous
episodes, I moved. I moved recently. So that
was exciting, tiring, exhausting, and we're not
done yet. You can tell there's boxes behind me.
If I move more, you see more of a mess. If I
move my chair, you see less of it. If you're
not watching on YouTube, you should definitely
go ahead and watch. You should definitely watch
the video on YouTube. There's definitely more.
I think there's some data out there to say whenever
you watch it, you retain it better. Maybe that's
completely wrong. I'm talking out of my butt.
But yeah, if you want to see my smiling face,
go ahead. Go to the YouTube video. And, you know,
it's the same name as podcast on the channel.
Okay. But let's dive into what this actual episode
is about. This is episode 101. I dropped the
ball last week. Last week was episode 100. And
I looked afterwards. I was like, what the heck?
I've been doing this for 100 episodes. Not for
100 weeks because I took a hiatus and missed
a few weeks here and there. But 100 episodes.
Like, that's crazy. And thank you for everyone
that stuck around, some people that are new here.
And guys, if you haven't gone back and listened
to some old episodes, I'm going to give you a
chance to, well, you can go back whenever you
want, but I'm going to give you a little tidbit
of one of my favorite episodes that Sean and
I did together whenever the podcast was called
Technically Short. However, I'm getting a little
ahead of myself. First, I want to talk about...
For those who are new here, I want to talk about
how this podcast even started. This podcast started
with a joke. Pastor, my friend, Ed Newell, he
made the joke that Sean and I, who are very dynamically
different people, that we should show on our
podcast because of how different we were. He
likes to jump in head first. I like to, uh, I
like to get the data. I like to have information
before I, um, even dip my toe in. Um, you can
get the, uh, and like, we would have stupid conversations
about like, I think our stupidest conversation
was probably about which was best, an air mattress
or a regular mattress. Most like dumb, stupidest
conference, like argument we ever, we ever had.
It was like, we weren't mad at each other. It
was just a heated debate that we had over mattresses.
We don't have that recorded, unfortunately. But
it would have been a great episode about nothing.
But I told that to Ed, and he was essentially
like, you guys could talk about plants, and I
would listen to it because it would be hilarious.
And he just wanted something to laugh and listen
to. And I was like, that's kind of funny. Maybe
we should. And then within that time frame...
This woman I know, Michelle Croyle, who has her
and her husband, I believe, do marriage coaching,
I think. Marriage counseling, coaching. But she
is part of other networks. But I talked to her
about my coaching. She coached me. And she even
told me that I should start a podcast to get
myself out there. So then my wheels really started
rolling. Because I was already thinking about,
you know, I want to be a coach. I want to get
myself out there. And this was a couple years
ago now. And I don't know. My wheels started
turning. Eventually I talked to Sean. I was like,
hey, I think we should do this. And he was ready.
He was ready to do it whenever I told it to him
the first time. I was the holdup. I had to be
convinced, I guess, that it was a good idea.
And also that I would be good at it because I
have more introverted tendencies than not. I
was thinking about whenever I was writing out
these notes, it caused me to reminisce about
past episodes. One of the funniest episodes I
think we did. was about relationships. I remember
Sean talked all about his favorite woman, the
woman he was looking for, and he started naming
off all these different hair colors. Literally
named essentially every hair color on the planet
Earth. And it was hilarious. If you... If you
don't know Sean, that's okay. You can go back
and listen to the episode. I forget what it's
called, but it's something about relationships.
It's the only one we ever did. So you'll be able
to find it back there in the backlog. Go ahead
and check it out. But one of my favorite episodes
that him and I did together was the episode him
and I did with Meg Croyle during our long, long,
long season of Why Are You Here? And this series
is actually what shaped the pursuit of calling.
It's what, uh, caused me to really love talking
about purpose and calling. Why, like, why are
you here? Why are you on this earth? Like, what
is your purpose? What is your calling? And so
I got to talk with, I think at least 10 people.
We got, Sean and I did, uh, about this specific
topic. We got different angles, different, uh,
different, uh, different opinions even. And it
started to mold my opinions and my thoughts,
gathering all this information. And eventually
that concept turned into what Pursuit of Calling
is now. So I want to say Meg's episode was episode,
was part eight. And that's insane. In her episode,
she got really, really vulnerable with Sean and
I. She started talking about her past fight with
depression. She also talked about a mentor in
her life that when she was young said, purpose
comes when you look for it. And that opened up
her eyes to how purpose can be seen in everyday
circumstances. And I think that's one of the
big things, again, that honestly shaped the podcast
that I'm recording right now. The podcast, not
the episode, but the pursuit of calling as a
whole. And how I started to think about purpose
being everywhere that you are. The way that she
said purpose comes when you look for it. It's
like when you look, you take a mundane task,
a seemingly mundane task, but you look for the
purpose in it, you'll find it. If you look, what
is the purpose in me going to school? What is
the purpose in me doing my job? What is the purpose
of me going to church? What is the purpose? of
me reaching out to a friend when they're in need.
Not that that's mundane, but you get the idea.
We all see life through a particular lens. And
I remember she said she sees life through the
lens of relationships. She's always seeing life
through that lens. And man, I said I didn't know
what way I... what lens I was using to see life
through. And I think, I don't, I honestly, I
didn't like write that in my show notes. I didn't
think about it that much. And, but if I had to
say something right off the top of my head, which
is dangerous, I would say, does this help me
pursue my calling? Does this help or pursue?
And I don't know if that sounds selfish. Like,
I say my calling, like, I don't want to say,
it's not like, will this benefit me? Because
like I said before, your calling's not for you.
But it's like, will this, what I'm doing right
now, will this serve other people in the way
I've been called to serve? Or maybe the way I'm
serving people, I want to serve, or maybe it's
just like, huh. I don't know, that's something
I need to think about more before I start rambling
and I shouldn't try to make something up on the
spot because that wouldn't be genuine. So why
haven't I had more people on the podcast? If
having these conversations is what molded Pursuit
of Calling into what it is today. Why haven't
I had more people on? And I've thought about
it. Maybe it's laziness. Maybe I just keep making
excuses. I don't think that's exactly it. Or
maybe that's not all of it. But I know a big
part of it is because I wanted to hone the skill
that I'm using right now. I wanted to hone the
skill of being able to look into the camera and
talk. have my own notes and be able to create
a message that I can share to benefit those who
are listening, who those who are listening, uh,
to what I have to say so that you actually learn
something relatively to just having some background
noise. So like this is off the cuff right here,
but what can you be doing? Man. Hmm. What is
a skill that you've always wanted to get better
at? Something that would help you in the long
run. I'm not talking about juggling. I would
love to learn how to juggle. I'm not talking
about a cool fringe skill. I'm talking about
maybe you want to get better at public speaking.
Maybe you want to grow in confidence. Maybe you
want to have a... Maybe you want to start seeing,
like, what is the purpose in these everyday circumstances?
That's a skill. What is that skill? Or maybe,
like, you start thinking about, what's a skill
that can help me be more aligned with the calling
that God has for me? And maybe if you don't know
what your calling is, it's a skill to continuously...
Pursue your calling. It's a skill to be that
disciplined. It's a skill to have that determination.
That's really what it is. It's not just willpower.
It's determination. To be able to do these things.
One big thing that I learned in this, I wrote
down though, like funny, one big thing I learned
in the last, these last 100 episodes is how to
endure. I've learned how to endure pain. That's
honestly true. It has nothing to do with the
podcast, but it kind of does at the same time.
I think we talked with Lee Hanio episodes ago
about how to endure and how your endurance in
one area of life is going to help you in another
area of life. And how I've endured my pain of
muscular dystonia, I believe, has also helped
me endure this podcast. Now it makes it sound
like it's a burden. And some days maybe it feels
like that. But no, this podcast is a blessing.
I've endured putting episodes, I've endured the
thoughts of doubt that I could do, that I could
even do this and grow this podcast. Like downloads
are still really low. I'm going to be honest
with you. And that's because I haven't grown
the skill. I don't believe I've grown the, maybe
I haven't grown the skill. Maybe I just haven't
put enough reps in. I've heard you have to do
300 episodes. 300 episodes is usually when everything
starts to pick up. So I'm like a third of the
way there. I got a lot more determination to
go. And I don't really know why that is. Maybe
that's just how long it takes for algorithms
to pick you up. Maybe that's the length of time
it takes for you to realize what you need to
actually do to grow your podcast. I don't know.
But I heard 300. So that's the goal is to hit
300 and hit our next goal is 150 and 200, 250.
Like we got milestones in here. We're not going
to say 300 and then we're never going to get
there. But anyway, I wrote down that it's okay
to be in a valley, but it's not okay to stay
there. And the reason I wrote that down was because
downloads are low. I do have doubts. And just
like everyone does. I think a few episodes ago
I had a very vulnerable update for you guys.
I just wasn't feeling all that great about the
podcast, about coaching. And just because I haven't
been active in it. Or maybe I haven't been putting
as much determination into this product. I don't
know. That caused me to shift again, and now
I have a new vigor. I don't know. I'm not going
to tell you what's going to happen. I don't know.
But I want to happen. I want to continue podcasting.
I want to continue to get better at this. I want
to have more guests on. No promises on any of
those. I don't know if I'm going to get better.
I assume I will if I keep doing it, but I might
be wrong. I'm going to keep pushing forward.
I want to be honest with you. Just before I started
recording, I reached out to a hopeful podcast
guest to do a pre -interview. Here's hoping.
To wrap up the episode, guys, I want you to go
back and listen to Meg's episode. I mentioned
it earlier. I'll link it in the show notes. So
I want you to take notes on that because it's
one that you should definitely take notes on,
listen to multiple times, and share it with your
friends. And again, I want to mention as we wrap
up, again, about the promotion I'm doing for
three free coaching sessions. You don't even
have to show up to all three. You can show up
to the first one. If you don't like it, boom,
gone. There's no obligation to pay, nothing.
It's free. What do you have to lose? Not really
anything. So, guys, I want to make sure that
you know that you can share this out on social
media. If you're on YouTube, go ahead and smash
the like button. And if you use Instagram, Facebook,
X, whatever, share it out on those platforms.
Make sure to comment on Apple and Spotify and
wherever else you can comment to get your word
out. The algorithm picked this podcast up so
we can get downloads up and get more people to
pursue their calling well. oh that was good all
right guys all right pursuers i can't just keep
saying that again all right pursuers i'll see
you next time peace