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Why Your Calling Isn’t About Landing the Perfect Role
13 Plays15 days ago
n this episode, Ken Freire and Patrick Lowndes tackle the first part of a four-part series on discerning your calling: the "what" you're called to. They dismantle the false belief that calling equals one perfect job and offer a more freeing, biblical perspective on discovering your God-given purpose. Using biblical examples like Abraham, Joseph, and Paul, they emphasize that calling is a journey—not a destination. They share personal stories, highlight generational job trends, and introduce a practical tool to help listeners begin clarifying their calling today.
Resources Mentioned:
Timestamps:
- 0:00 – Introduction: Clarifying calling isn’t about landing a perfect job.
- 1:30 – The Myth of the Perfect Role: Why idolizing a single career path keeps us stuck.
- 3:00 – Biblical Journeys: Abraham, Joseph, and Paul as examples of God shaping calling over time.
- 5:45 – Multiple Roles Shape You: The value of different jobs in your early career.
- 6:50 – Job Tenure Stats: Millennials vs. Gen Z and how frequent moves can be formative.
- 8:00 – Moving Matters: Why taking action helps clarify your calling.
- 9:00 – Clarity of Calling Assessment: A new tool to understand your what, why, where, and how.
- 11:00 – Try and Learn: Gaining clarity through action, not just contemplation.
- 12:20 – Faithful in the Present: Using your gifts right where you are.
- 13:00 – Preview of Part Two: Up next: exploring the "why" of your calling.
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Discovering Your Calling
00:00:08
Dan Sanchez
Welcome back to another episode of The Buried Talent, the show for young professionals that tears down false beliefs and faith and work so you can unbury your God-given talent right where you are.
00:00:21
Dan Sanchez
I'm Ken Freire and I'm here with my co-host Patrick Lowndes and today we're talking about... Drum roll please Patrick. What are we talking about Patrick?
Understanding Clarity of Calling: The Core Questions
00:00:32
Patrick
Today, we're talking about clarity of calling. And we've broken it down into kind of four different questions. The what you're called to, the why you're called to it, the where you might be called to do this. And then the last question, a of people are anxious about, well, how do I step into that?
Debunking Job Perfection Myths
00:00:55
Patrick
And so today, we're going to talk about the what you're called to.
00:00:59
Dan Sanchez
What you're called to. it And And the reason you might be listening to this and reading the title, it starts with your calling isn't about landing the perfect roles. Because when we think about what you're called to do, there tends to be this false belief about calling equals one perfect job that's waiting for you.
00:01:15
Dan Sanchez
Especially if you're right out of college, you're so nervous, you're worried, you're like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? then that myth actually leaves people stuck instead of growing. And what we're gonna talk about today is like, what if there's a better way to understand what you're called to do than trying to land a specific job or the perfect job?
00:01:36
Dan Sanchez
So Patrick, start us off like, what we wanna acknowledge when, even when it comes to the appeal of the one perfect job?
00:01:36
Patrick
Yeah.
00:01:43
Patrick
Yeah. I mean, I think about you're like in college going through school or something, or even like you're in professional group, we all like to look to the successful person, whether it's an entrepreneur, business owner, know, a vice president or somebody, a director comes in and talks to your class or something. And I think we falsely like idolize like, oh, well, if I could just be in that role, like in five or 10 years or something,
00:02:08
Patrick
man, that that'd be perfect. And like, if I had that and we start to, it's almost like we start to lust after this one idea of going to be this person. But at the same time, you feel this tension of, Ooh, but am I actually like, how's that helping me in my calling for what God wants me to do?
00:02:29
Patrick
Cause I'm my own person. And i think I think we need to pause and step back and say, what is like, what what is my unique calling? What does God uniquely called me to do in my work?
The Value of the Journey in Finding Your Calling
00:02:42
Patrick
And sometimes we get so excited about the what of somebody else that we kind of lose sight of like, wow, well, what God do you give me passion and skill for that? I should I should try to, you know, I should try develop myself.
00:02:57
Patrick
And so this is with point of the show today. We just want to to start off by saying, what are you called to? And to kind of get get into that a little bit on this on first of the four-part series.
00:03:07
Dan Sanchez
Yeah. the other thing with that, that what part I have found is that many individuals, part of the reason they struggle to besides landing the perfect job is they see that they might see in general where they want to go and they want to take all the shortcuts.
00:03:25
Dan Sanchez
And like, how do I get there right away versus like not realizing there's actually a journey that needs that they need to go through.
00:03:27
Patrick
yeah.
00:03:35
Dan Sanchez
Because if they're, if they actually don't go through the journey and they're waiting for the future title, instead of walking in purpose now, they're going to get stuck.
00:03:35
Patrick
Yeah.
00:03:43
Patrick
Yep.
00:03:43
Dan Sanchez
Right. And, and this journey, you could look at so many people throughout scripture, right? Abraham's a great one, right? Abraham, he was, he was living.
00:03:50
Patrick
Yep.
00:03:52
Dan Sanchez
I'm all of a sudden spacing out where he was living. Uh, don't quote me. I forgot now. do you remember Patrick where yeah, the land earth.
00:03:58
Patrick
Is it like the Palladians or something like that? But there was this huge gap of time that God had him pause. And it was like, what was it like 60 years between when he got part of his call and when he started realize it?
00:04:13
Patrick
Right.
00:04:14
Dan Sanchez
Yeah. Yeah. And like when God says in Genesis 12, like, Hey, I'm going to make a great nation out of you. And then he's like, okay, sweet. So he leaves there and he starts to go through this whole journey. And if you look actually at a map of like his whole journey, it's not like a straight line.
00:04:29
Dan Sanchez
Dude was going all over the place, doing a bunch of different things. His main role was being a shepherd and in selling different things, but like, It was crazy. Same thing with Joseph, man. Joseph, he had a dream. He had 12 kids. if you don't know the story of Joseph in the Bible, he had 12 brothers, including himself.
00:04:44
Dan Sanchez
And he was the youngest of the brothers and he would have dreams. And in one of the dreams, he's like, hey, I'm going to be ruling all 12 of you. And none of those people like that idea. None of his brothers like that idea. They actually sold them into slavery.
00:04:57
Dan Sanchez
And he goes from being sold into slavery to being imprisoned in jail, from being imprisoned in jail to all of a sudden by God's providence. Awesome story in the book of Genesis, right?
00:05:08
Dan Sanchez
But all of a sudden he's now leading second command of all of Israel and all of Egypt.
Exploring Roles Across Generations
00:05:14
Dan Sanchez
And this is how he's...
00:05:15
Patrick
Yeah. His resume was was way off. also a great person of faith,
00:05:19
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:05:22
Patrick
Again, you ever wonder how good was he at making tents when he was a professional religious guy, like a Pharisee, right?
00:05:31
Patrick
long did it take be good at actually delivering value in the market? You ever thought about that? And then it was
00:05:36
Dan Sanchez
This is the first time I've actually thought about it.
00:05:38
Patrick
And then it was still three years after he met Jesus before he actually launched into more what was supposed to do. So there's always this time of proving and testing.
00:05:50
Patrick
And what we see is it generally is multiple roles and forming and shaping. And that relates a lot to a stat that I'm going to share right now, which is some already heard this about like the average tenure that Gen you Z has versus millennials and other generations.
00:06:03
Dan Sanchez
Thank you.
00:06:07
Patrick
Millennials, which is our generation, is closer to three years. It's like two years and nine months is the average tenure in a given role. I'm probably a little, i break out of that a little bit. I've got a few of them that are like five years.
00:06:19
Patrick
But then Gen Z is actually just over two years, two years in one month, two years in three months. And what that says is like, obviously Gen Z moves a little quicker, but I want to kind of speak to this question. Like there's a positive side to that.
00:06:35
Patrick
I know a lot of the older school generations are going to say, oh, yeah, they just can't stay committed to an industry or a company. don't leave jobs, they leave managers.
00:06:46
Patrick
There's a lot you be said around the turnover challenge. But I'll say this. the benefit of moving around in your first couple of years, even getting a couple different kinds of internships while you're in college, and then your first couple of jobs, maybe even moving to different sectors, is you just don't know what you really are are called to and good at.
00:07:09
Patrick
And that's okay. And you might also find, like I'm good at running finance, but man, I hate this industry. Right. Which is cool. So you want to figure out and discern like, OK, cool. Finance. Yes.
00:07:22
Patrick
But this industry, definitely not. And that's part of the journey that we need to be thinking about as younger talent is how am I shaping myself today in my first job or two, even if it's not perfect, probably not going to be perfect.
00:07:38
Patrick
And then getting to the next question of how do I move past this concept of a perfect job just to what is it a next faithful step, right, to continue to form it to inform the what that I'm good at. So I don't know, Ken, how you can relate to that and your background too, but I'd love to hear you respond to that.
00:07:56
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, I mean, i have found many times I thought that my clarity of my calling was just going to come out of the sky and God was just going to part wisdom into my heart and mind.
00:08:08
Dan Sanchez
And then what I quickly realized was that the more I did certain occupations, what I was doing started to actually inform the why.
00:08:19
Dan Sanchez
because it was, I was able like figure out how I like this. I don't like this. Right. I, I have this analogy that people have used in the past where it says you can't move a parked car.
00:08:30
Dan Sanchez
Right. And when it comes to trying to figure out your calling, right, it's just very similar. Just like you can't move a parked You have to be moving to figure out what your calling is.
00:08:40
Patrick
Yeah.
00:08:40
Dan Sanchez
Go try different things, go do different things to see where it is. Now, There's different ways that you could figure that out. And we actually, by the way, have built an assessment.
00:08:51
Dan Sanchez
So if you feel stuck on the what, we created a free tool to help you. It's called the Clarity of Calling Assessment. And it walks you through the what, why, where, and how of your calling. So it touches on all the four things.
00:09:03
Dan Sanchez
Today, ah obviously, we're focusing on the what. and and But you can take this assessment and see where you land right now and where you're struggling with.
00:09:11
Patrick
Yep.
00:09:11
Dan Sanchez
And it could be a good starting point, but it's not the end all be all. You need to be taking action and need to be moving forward in order to see truly what God wants you to do within his grand story and his purposes.
00:09:24
Patrick
Yeah, no, it's good, Ken. And I'll just, I'll call out, there lots of different kinds of assessments, things like the Strength Finders or like Enneagram, or one of our favorites is the Working Genius, know, ways that you work.
00:09:36
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:09:37
Patrick
There's lots of different kinds of assessments on, you know, specific skills that you have.
00:09:40
Dan Sanchez
Thank you.
00:09:42
Patrick
This assessment's much more on how clear is my calling? How have I discerned that so far? And so don't know of any other one like it that's less focused on the specific gifts or skills and more on the general direction of where am I going.
00:09:57
Patrick
So try that out. The one thing I was going to say, Ken, really appreciate is the analogy of where the what of what you're doing is kind of like a ship.
Practical Steps to Embrace Your Calling
00:10:07
Patrick
moving and God and his God and the Holy Spirit are like the rudder.
00:10:11
Patrick
If you're kind of stagnated and stuck and like paralyzed with like, oh no, what is that first job going to be? You're kind of like a ship that's docked and anchored, not moving anywhere. what was actually more helpful is get a little bit of motion, get some of the examples of the things that you're good at and start to build your portfolio of skill sets, trying different projects out, working in different industries.
00:10:35
Patrick
And if you do that in college in your early you first five years of your career, it's really going to open up the ability for God to steer you just like the rudder of a ship. So I love that analogy. And the park car is certainly one.
00:10:47
Patrick
like the ship one too with the rudder.
00:10:50
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, and absolutely. So a practical next step, if you're listening to this, is start, just start finding skill sets that you would want to learn, that might get you excited.
00:11:01
Dan Sanchez
Now, here's the thing that I want to make sure I caution you of as you hear us, right? What we're not saying is bounce into every other whim of job that you can get every three months, right? Because it actually takes a while to build a skill set.
00:11:15
Dan Sanchez
But there might be certain things that you do that, like, is really enjoyable and hard and that's okay. Things could be hard and enjoyable at the same time. But there might be other things that are just like insufferable for you.
00:11:28
Dan Sanchez
So for example, you might like say, hey, I'm gonna take sales job because I heard that that's a good skillset to have. And you start doing it and you're like, oh dear God, I am dying ah a thousand deaths.
00:11:40
Dan Sanchez
Listen, my encouragement is try it for at least three months, six months, right? Cause you gotta learn the skillset. It takes a while to learn. And then even after that, if you feel like still dying a thousand deaths,
00:11:51
Dan Sanchez
That may not be your thing and that's okay. Right. Patrick and I have landed sales somehow for careers, but like, man, we've, we've learned to enjoy.
00:12:01
Dan Sanchez
So all that to say, Just remember, calling isn't about one perfect job. It's about faithfully using your gifts where God places you today and wherever he places you today.
00:12:14
Dan Sanchez
So make sure you don't find yourself being like, oh my gosh, I don't feel like I'm within God's call or God's will right now. It's like where you're can you. Today, in a powerful way.
00:12:26
Dan Sanchez
There are people that you could reach their co workers that you could have gospel conversations with. And then there are ways that you could work in very excellent in the lane that you're in right now.
00:12:37
Patrick
Yep, and your what does take time. But what's cool about the what is as you start to discern, okay, here are the things that I think I'm good at, and here's the things that I think give me some energy, or even just things that are hard that I can deliver value better than other people.
00:12:54
Patrick
When I start getting all those things nailed down, it's easier to discern your why.
Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
00:13:00
Patrick
And that's what we're going to hit on in the next episode. So come check us out on part two, and we're going to dive into the why of your calling.
00:13:07
Patrick
Thanks so much.
00:13:09
Dan Sanchez
Dun dun dun. I was just being cheesy there. ah Check out part two.