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How to Move Forward Even When You’re Not Sure
22 Plays15 days ago
In this episode, Ken Freire and Patrick Lowndes wrap up their four-part "Clarity of Calling" series by tackling one of the most paralyzing questions young professionals face: "How do I move forward when I'm not sure what to do?" They share personal stories of uncertainty, unorthodox first jobs, and how obedience to God often starts with a small step, not a complete roadmap. This episode highlights why waiting for perfect clarity can be a trap, and how God's guidance often comes after we've already started moving.
Resources Mentioned:
Timestamps:
- 00:00 - The Burden of Not Knowing the "How": Ken and Patrick discuss the anxiety young professionals feel about career direction.
- 01:45 - Patrick's Unlikely First Jobs: From driving a city bus to cold-calling credit card sales, Patrick shares his journey.
- 03:39 - Ken's Story of Serving Without Pay: Ken talks about trusting God's calling even in unpaid internships.
- 05:02 - God's Direction Comes Step by Step: They explain how God rarely gives us the full plan upfront.
- 06:03 - Giving God Your "Yes" Today: Why obedience in the present is more important than clarity about the future.
- 08:20 - Three Practical Ways to Move Forward: Ken shares tangible steps to take when you're unsure.
- 09:57 - The Power of Wise Community: Patrick encourages surrounding yourself with people further down the path.
- 10:35 - Invitation to the Frontier Operators Community: Learn about the free resource for connecting with like-minded professionals.
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Transcript
Intro
00:00:09
Dan Sanchez
Welcome to Buried Talent, the show for young professionals that tears down false beliefs about faith and work so you can unbury your God-given talent right where you are.
00:00:20
Dan Sanchez
I'm Ken Freire and here with me, my co-host Patrick Lowndes. And today we're talking about how to move forward even when you're not sure. And Patrick, the reason we're talking about this is because I don't know if you remember this.
00:00:32
Dan Sanchez
I remember this being a young individual. I was so concerned from being in high school, having good grades, and then from having good grades, all of a sudden, now going into college and like, I have to have good grades and know exactly what job I'm supposed to have and make sure I land a solid job.
00:00:51
Dan Sanchez
And the anxiety killed me. And if you've been listening to this whole series, right, part one, we've been talking about the what. Part two, the why. Part three, the where.
00:01:02
Dan Sanchez
The how is the last part of where people get stuck because they feel like they need to know how do they actually get there. They want to have clarity on where to go. And many times I have found some people just don't move because they don't have a lot of clarity and they feel stuck.
00:01:19
Dan Sanchez
So how do we address this?
00:01:21
Patrick
Yeah. Well, Ken, there's some stats I kind of want to to to start out with. This is one of the most ah difficult times in history for college graduates to land a first job.
00:01:35
Patrick
So the stats don't lie on this, that it's difficult for people to get into their first job like more than ever before. It's not like, oh, phone in that that first job because you automatically, you know, you have your degree and just pull a slot machine and boom, I've got my job.
00:01:50
Patrick
There's a lot more people stressing about this. And I like to just give an example from my own story. Like when I was in college, I don't, I think people get surprised when they hear this about my background because they know about like the software stuff and oh, you sold a company and investor bla blah, blah.
00:02:04
Patrick
But what they don't know is when I was in college, I drove a city bus. And so you might be thinking like, what? Like, yeah, I was a bus driver. had a class in the CEL.
00:02:13
Dan Sanchez
That's awesome.
00:02:15
Patrick
I drove those accordion buses. And this is me in like my, you know, my senior year of college. And some people are like working on their internships and blah, blah, blah, and all these things. And I'm not saying internships are bad.
00:02:27
Patrick
I'm saying was I had a pretty clear vision of what God wanted me to do. And I knew that could get decent pay with this bus driving gig, of all things.
00:02:37
Patrick
But when I graduated, here's what i want to get to. Certainly there was some anxiety. i When I graduated, I was also engaged to my bride, Bethany. And I was taking some of the first steps, but I was certainly, i feeling anxious about like, man, how are you going to let me pursue the thing you're calling me to?
00:02:57
Patrick
when don't even have a solid job that's going to support everything. my wife, Bevany, her fiance at the time, she was trusting me that God was going to provide for us.
00:03:07
Patrick
But I was selling a credit card, merchant processing stuff to shop owners, literally walking in like, hey, where's the manager? Where's the owner? Like I was that guy. And so I had some, some difficult and some kind of shady first jobs to kind of cut my teeth.
00:03:23
Patrick
I mean, Ken, I don't know where, where this hits you in your story, but that's just a little snippet of like the unorthodox way that I got going my career and kind of caring about like a very diverse set of people, very diverse skill sets and sales. But yeah, what, what's been your background?
00:03:39
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, you know, for me, it's I remember working with my dad just trying to with his furniture business. And then I went to an internship where you and I both met. And ended up working there for seven.
00:03:48
Patrick
Yeah.
00:03:49
Dan Sanchez
You know, I tell people I worked there for seven years. I was ministry. But like for four of those years, I wasn't getting paid. It was like an unpaid internship. And every year I remember thinking, how am I going to keep surviving doing this?
00:04:03
Dan Sanchez
But I felt like God wanted me there and I was learning new things and I was helping a lot. at the ministry that I was working for. So I wrestled with that quite a bit until finally, like I landed a paid position there at the organization and I wasn't making a lot, you know, and was just like, how am same thing, like how am I supposed to provide for this?
00:04:17
Patrick
Yeah.
00:04:24
Dan Sanchez
But the biggest thing I remember But my story and your story is that I had to shift my mindset of like, like we talked about last episode, not the shiny object. I'm making hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:04:38
Dan Sanchez
I had to ask myself, Lord, what do you want me to do? And how can I just take the right next step and move forward and just discern that right next step?
00:04:46
Patrick
Yep.
00:04:50
Dan Sanchez
And that was the biggest thing that I realized is that in order for for me to find my calling, I can't do it by just sitting around. I actually have to move. I have to do something.
00:05:00
Dan Sanchez
And that's how you actually get clarity. For most of you, you're stuck. You're not sure what to do. Just take the right next step. And God doesn't give you a to Z. He typically just gives you B, then C, then C.2, then D.
00:05:14
Dan Sanchez
You know, like that's how he typically does it.
00:05:17
Patrick
Or like, i mean, mean, just imagine being Abraham. I know we talked about him earlier. Imagine being Abraham and God's like, hey, I want you to get up and go. Like this just happened for me somewhat recently.
00:05:28
Patrick
was the company that acquired my startup. I was there and God was like, hey, you need to he leave. And I made sure I, you know, spent some time. I had transitioned things over, trained up the team I was I was building. But man, God didn't actually tell me exactly what I was going to do.
00:05:45
Patrick
And so sometimes that question of how what's way more important than, know, is the step one, two, three? If some of you are like you love the control of your life and your schedule and your five year plan.
00:05:57
Patrick
had a pastor one time tell, say, from the pulpit is like, you know what God revealed to me as a planner? He's like, your five year plan is none of your business. Like he just said, it's none of your business.
00:06:09
Patrick
And he said, but what is your business? This is it. Is giving me your yes for today and for this week. And give me your yes for the next month. That's your business. And are you saying yes or you trying to architect something way out?
00:06:23
Patrick
And and you're hearing this and you're like a little bit of a a control freak, like maybe like me type A, maybe really go get her a planner. Like be humbled.
00:06:30
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:06:32
Patrick
You are not Lord of the universe. You're not even Lord of your own universe. Like stuff happens and messes your plans up all the time. So I think for, I think as we think about this question of how should I work out my calling?
00:06:43
Patrick
So important, Ken, just to ask this question of like, God, what do you want me to do? What's the next thing that want me to And get good at saying yes there. Because I think if you get good at hearing that, we we'll be able follow him in the bigger tasks and the bigger asks that he puts on us.
00:06:58
Dan Sanchez
Yeah. You know, love, I believe it's Proverbs 16.3 or 16.5. don't quite remember, but it says, commit your ways to the Lord and your plans will succeed.
00:07:08
Patrick
Yep.
00:07:08
Dan Sanchez
And many times we have that backward. We have it backwards. We think if we commit our plans to the Lord, our ways will succeed. But it actually says commit your ways, meaning commit your actions, commit your heart, commit you.
00:07:22
Dan Sanchez
And your plans will succeed, meaning that like all those plans that we have in in play, most of them are always going to move. They're going to shift because God has other plans for you that are higher than our ways.
00:07:32
Dan Sanchez
ah His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And we need to be at a place where I have found, because I'm control type A, right? Control freak. I tell people I'm a recovering perfectionist. I have a plan.
00:07:44
Dan Sanchez
The Lord is only going to give you the next step if you ask him for it. Right?
00:07:49
Patrick
Yeah.
00:07:50
Dan Sanchez
way that that happens is that you have to commit your ways to him it's not just about our stuff it's not about what we want it's about what he wants and when does that he's like okay cool i'm going to start showing you a little bit of the plan one of the ways that i have learned this ultimately is to say lord i trust that i'm going to work today faithfully at what you're doing
00:07:55
Patrick
Yep.
00:08:03
Patrick
yeah
00:08:11
Dan Sanchez
So when you're not sure what to do, right?
00:08:13
Dan Sanchez
Like if you're like working, you're not sure what to do. Here's some practical tips that I use. Number one, I just work faithfully right where I'm at. Do everything I can with excellence, with perseverance, with full of being full of joy.
00:08:21
Patrick
That's
00:08:26
Dan Sanchez
The second thing is that I just start asking mentors and people around me to work together, to help me find and navigate my path. And the third one is community. Like I want to make sure I'm around and surrounded by people who are going to push me to learn more about how God designed me, how God wired me.
00:08:44
Dan Sanchez
And also that like they're pushing me to grow closer to him and be more excellent at my job. Patrick, what but are some other thoughts you
00:08:51
Patrick
it I mean, it reminds me of one of my life verses is Proverbs 13, 20. It's he who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
00:09:01
Patrick
So my question is like for you, like if you listen, hopefully not with your friends or something to point at them, but like who around you is like not that wise. And you should ask yourself, like how much time am I spending with people that are like, ooh, I don't think I want to.
00:09:08
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:09:13
Patrick
I don't want to going down that path. And the problem with a lot of young people is as we're coming out of the bubble of college into the workforce, is we kind of had this microcosm of people that were in the same stage of life.
00:09:25
Patrick
It's so, so important to find people 10, 20, 30 years down the road. And part of it, the wisdom in that is you can sort of look ahead into a journey and a career path. I've done this number of times and said, wow, I really don't want to be in that industry because I don't want to deal with what that guy is dealing with.
00:09:42
Patrick
And so you can sort of look ahead down the path.
00:09:42
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:09:45
Patrick
actually, that's part of your discernment process and the how is interviewing people and not just like job shadow kind of stuff, but even just asking them, hey, what is it like in this industry? What is it like serving the Lord in this sector or in this in spot? So those are just a couple tips I like to give. But surround yourself with people be able to can help you be more wise and people that you like look up to and to become like.
00:10:09
Dan Sanchez
And for some of you who are listening to this, you may be like, Patrick, Ken, that's awesome. But I don't have that kind of community. I don't have those kind of people around me. Right? Like, what can they do?
00:10:20
Dan Sanchez
And we actually have a free, um have a community that we can work with you guys. And and it's a free community. You guys can join it. You guys can hang out. It's called the Frontier Operators Community. Patrick, can you tell people about it?
00:10:32
Patrick
Yeah, sure thing. So we designed this online community to have some live like sessions and kind of talking with each other. But it's designed for people that are in their 20s and their early 30s.
00:10:45
Patrick
So you don't just have a bunch of people at the same same but you can join it when you're in college. But the cool thing about it, Ken, is that we we have people sharing their stories, what they're dealing with, what they're struggling with. But also, this is the encouraging part, is what are some of the lessons that we want to pass on to myself from five years ago or three years ago, like what I would have told myself?
00:11:06
Patrick
And in addition to that, we've got some training. You and I have run some training on the Business Operator mini-series. So it's like a free 10-part course there people can go check out.
00:11:17
Patrick
And then we're even tinkering around right now with some GPTs to help you develop your portfolio. So again, maybe you're early in career, college, or your first career. maybe you're in your first real job outside of school and you're like, I want to kind of build out my skill set a little bit more. ah ah There's some ways to do that. And we have some ways to to to help you with that, with the GPT, but maybe more important is the people. It's like, who's in your life, who knows about you.
00:11:43
Patrick
And so hope and prayers, you're going to find people that are kind of crazy committed to unbearing their talent and using it for the kingdom of God. And so So yeah, so in addition to like the clarity of calling assessment, you probably already filled out by now if you're like that's what keep mentioning. I'm like, yeah, because you should do that. It's free. But also finding people that you can walk with that are wise.
00:12:05
Patrick
And of those people that are a little, i mean, there's people that we're going to invite in that are 10, 20 years past us, right? So we all want to be able to learn from each other in that. But that would be what I would say about that, Ken.
00:12:16
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, absolutely. So for those of you who are listening to this and you're like, I want that community. I want to start figuring out my calling, my clarity, get purpose, be with people who have been down the road you have been.
00:12:29
Dan Sanchez
Come join us. Come check us out. This has been the four-part series of the Clarity of Calling. Again, check out the show notes, check out the free community, right? So that you can come join us, hang out with us and ultimately live in a way that you're glorifying God and working within your design.
00:12:47
Dan Sanchez
Hope you guys have a great day.