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. How's it going, pursuers? So, this
is gonna be a quick one. Quick episode. It's
8 .30 on Sunday, and I've been pretty busy recently.
So, my pain has been high, work has been rough,
and I'm still trying to do all things unto the
Lord. It is hard, and sometimes it sucks. And
recently, I feel like I've been missing the mark.
I wanted to be a little vulnerable this episode.
I feel like that I say a lot about, like in the
last couple episodes, I've been talking about,
do all things as unto the Lord, strive for excellence.
while at the same time, I haven't been being
excellent at my full -time job. A big part of
that is because I don't want to be there for
the rest of my life. So that kind of got stuck
in my head, but the big thing I want to do is
this. I want a podcast, I want to have my own
coaching brand, and I want to serve people the
way I believe I've been called to serve. but
I'm also in this season right now. And I believe
that whatever you're doing, whenever you're doing
it, you should be doing things as unto the Lord.
And what that means is you're working for Christ,
you're working for Jesus, you're working for
God. And if that is true, if God is your boss,
then you should be doing the... best you can
possibly be doing. And I haven't been doing that.
So, to not be a hypocrite, I want to come on
here and, or to stop being a hypocrite, I want
to come on here and just tell you guys, confess
and just say, I haven't been practicing what
I preach, and I'm sorry. The thing with why I'm
recording at 8 .30 at night is because on a Sunday,
and normally I try to record Saturday morning
is because I've been working this weekend to
try to meet to get closer to meeting a deadline.
Because we've already pushed the project I'm
working on out for a couple months out than what
it was originally scheduled for. And my boss
finally told me that he was skeptical we were
going to get done. And I asked him why and he
said because he doesn't feel like we were Caring
about the deadline at all doesn't feel like anybody
really cared that he said deadlines that seem
to be like a suggestion to you guys and that
really kind of hit me because that question that
put my integrity in question and It felt like
my integrity was on trial and it was going to
lose So I Decided that there was one one thing
that came up that had to be done by Monday So
I took the time to do it to get to get it done
and get it done So I did that yesterday and today
I worked a little bit to try and get ahead of
the game for tomorrow for the week I'm also taking
Thursday off. So like I can't Take a day off
and not work over the weekend this month anyway,
and I Am actually really proud of myself just
because I never worked on the weekend. I don't
feel like I've ever worked over the weekend.
It's been eight years that I've worked at this
company. So I just want to, again, be honest
with you guys. I told you this was going to be
a quick episode. But I also want to tell you
about my pain because in the very first thing
in the episode, I was saying that my pain has
been high and it's true. There was a day a couple
weeks ago, maybe I mentioned it already, but
I, on the previous episode, but I was, it brought
me to tears. I had to walk away from my desk
and just cry and ask for, ask text friends, text
the men's ministry I'm a part of, and ask for
prayer, ask for support. When I see my pain,
for those who don't know, I should have said
this first, but I have a condition called Muscular
Dystonia, and if you haven't been listening to
this episode, Muscular Dystonia is like a writer's
cramp, and mine goes essentially all through
my body, affects my face, but mainly my arms,
mainly my upper body, my arms up into my shoulders
and my neck, and my legs a little bit, and it
sucks. And I wanted to say like I'm talking to
you guys who I'm trying to talk to you guys who
have chronic pain and chronic conditions because
I know how much it sucks to be in pain but also
not wanting if you're on high achiever like me
if you're a person who wants to do all things
that's unto the Lord like I do It's really easy,
one, to use your pain as a crutch, and then two,
it's really easy to try to ignore the pain and
try to be tough and push through it, and neither
of those are the answer. The answer isn't to
lay back because of the pain, the answer isn't
to continuously push yourself past your limit.
Because that just puts you in more pain. But
there is a middle ground in there where we can
endure the pain that is our reality. We can endure
our reality. We can endure the pain and pursue
excellence. That's what we got to do. We have
to. We don't really get a choice. We have to
endure the pain. And you pray, you ask God for
strength, you ask Him to guide your steps and
to keep you calm. It's easy to get frustrated
whenever you're in pain. Trust me, I know. But
doing all of these things unto the Lord, it doesn't
mean ignore your pain. To me, it means acknowledge
it. acknowledge it in the things that you do,
and do what you need to do in order to do those
things well. I know this may, I didn't prepare
as much for this episode, but I want to ask you
a question. Where are you missing the mark? Where
are you saying one thing and doing another? Like
me. Like I'm trying to stop. I want you to write
that down. What is the area of your life where
you know you can be doing better in an area that
you should be doing better? What's that area
that there's no excuse? You know it and it's
been nagging at you and you feel it in your spirit
that you know that you're lacking. Maybe that's
in your prayer time, maybe that's in scripture,
maybe that's at your job, maybe that's at...
Maybe that's just a mystery that you're a part
of. Maybe something completely different, maybe
with your family, with your relationship, with
your parents, anything. Just pick one to start.
Just pick one area that you're missing the mark,
that you know you could and should be doing better.
And it can do better. Somewhere you know that
what you're doing is subpar. You know, you can
do better. I Don't I don't I'm not saying any
of this again to burn you out I don't want you
to get burnt out even though I think burnout
is just a part of it's part of our lives. It
happens Unfortunately But it does happen. I think
it also helps it also teaches us where it teaches
us of limits and teach us where we can improve
so that maybe we won't get burnt out in that
way again. Because we'll learn how to delegate
or learn how to mentally endure the stress of
the situation. I don't want you to burn yourself
out, but I do want you to be better today than
you were yesterday and better tomorrow than you
were today. And so on and so on and so on and
so on. That's the goal. It's not to be perfect.
It's not perfection. It's excellence. And excellence
is one that exceeding expectations is also continuously,
continuously striving to hit that mark. striving
to do better tomorrow than you did today. The
only way we can do that is to strive for growth.
It's just want to do better. And if you believe
you can do better, you can. All right. That's
where I'm ending this episode. It's actually
10 minutes. Almost on the dot. So, guys. Thank
you for listening to this episode of the Pursuit
of Calling Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode,
you know, share it on social media, share it
with your friends, give it a five star review
on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And guys, don't
forget, I'm giving away one free coaching session,
one free discovery coaching session to anybody
that clicks the link in the episode show notes.
If you're on YouTube, thank you for watching
on YouTube. Alright guys, I will see you next
week. Peace. Keep pursuing your calling. Do it
well.