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Success Vs. Purpose
131 Plays2 years ago
In today's episode, Beth and Ayla get into the difference between chasing success and chasing purpose, as well as what that looks like for your business. We cover how to find your God-given potential, how to live it our day to day, and WHY you will find success THROUGH your purpose! It can be so easy to get swept up in what the world wants you to do, but today we want to encourage you that your purpose is special, unique, and worth pursuing every time!
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Transcript
Introduction to Success vs Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Art of Intention podcast with Beth and Ayla. Two best friends turn creative entrepreneurs. This is a place for us to discuss everything business, friendships, and faith and occasionally more. We're so excited for today's episode. We think you're going to love it. Stay tuned.
00:00:21
Speaker
Hey friends, happy Monday. We are so excited to be bringing another episode of the Art of Intention to you and this week holds a topic we're super passionate about and the topic is success versus purpose.
00:00:35
Speaker
Yes, you heard that right. In today's world, especially as business owners, it's so easy to get swept up into the idea of success, family, business, money, the big house, whatever pops into your head when you hear the word success, the things that usually motivate people. But what role does your God given purpose serve in your life plan? Today, sharing our thoughts on that. So buckle up and come
Personal Updates and Exciting News
00:01:00
Speaker
along for the ride. But first, community news.
00:01:03
Speaker
For community news today, Psych, there's not really news. We're just going to give you guys a life update if that sounds fun because Beth and I were talking before we hopped on this call and life's just been getting kind of busy for the both of us lately and we have a lot going on. So we thought we would just kind of chill for five minutes and chat with you guys about just how we're doing. So Beth, how are you?
00:01:28
Speaker
I'm doing good. Yeah, as life gets busier and speeds up, it's kind of nice to slow down, like you said, for a couple of minutes and just chat and catch up. And I think that whatever you're listening to, you know, so for those of you who are listening to us right now, it's good to have a little bit of that in your day tour. We're trying to remind you to take a break and, you know, check in with yourself, check in with your friends.
00:01:49
Speaker
But I'm doing good. Busy season has officially kicked in as of a little bit ago. And so a lot of that like looking at my schedule and kind of like keeping myself from panicking. No, it's good. We got our plan. And then I'm really excited because a couple of days ago I booked a wedding in Ireland. So I'm very excited about that. I'm going to be working with a videographer who's also from Hawaii. So we're going to fly over together. So I'm very excited about that.
00:02:16
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that's gonna be so fun. I'm so stoked for you. I lowkey wish I had photography skills, because then I could just come and be helpful, but I don't know. You might just find me there anyway. I was gonna say, you should just come and just hang out, because I would love that. Yeah, I told Chris about that. I was like, Beth booked an Ireland wedding, because he's been to Ireland. And he was like, oh, that's so cool. And I was like, we should, it's in October. Do you want to just like, go meet her there? And he was like, Alo.
00:02:46
Speaker
And I was like, but listen, I was like, hear me out. Come on, man.
00:02:53
Speaker
But you learned it. Well, I kind of had my hopes up. Oh, well. I know. In the future. I did too. For what it would be, I really was like, I can make it happen. But yeah, one day, one day we'll get to travel and get together again. Oh, yeah. It's June. Yeah. But how are you? What's going on with you? I'm good. I'm in the same boat as you as far as busy season. It really just didn't quite come out of nowhere because I knew it was coming around and I actually reached out to you.
00:03:18
Speaker
the people I work for just asking for their general volume and stuff. So I was semi prepared for it, but some new clients who have come around, which is wonderful. I'm actually in the process of rounding up my list and then closing up my books for the spring 2023 season, which is great. Congrats.
00:03:35
Speaker
Yeah, it was such a quiet January to like May. So I'm really excited to be rounding it out. And it's just like, I won't get into too much of it yet. Cause there's still lots of potential with it, but just some super ideal clients and a new international client possibly outside of like the US as far as international. So yeah, it's been cool. This could be a whole other thing, but it's just like, you know, sometimes when you start your business,
00:04:03
Speaker
non-ideal clients are coming around, not non-ideal, but you've got a person in mind who you'd like to work for, but sometimes you just like do all this other stuff before it comes up. But now it's like super great clients reaching out to me. One of them was actually recommendation, which just makes my day. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. So I've been pretty busy between my part-time job and that, but it's been fun. You and I are the same in this. We love being busy.
00:04:29
Speaker
It's been really good, but I think Chris and I are going to try to like go camping or something when I kind of get settled and yeah, just take a pause and touch grass. So probably in the next couple of weeks we'll be doing that. I love that. That'll be so fun.
Defining Success and Purpose
00:04:44
Speaker
So okay, success versus purpose. So when I was preparing for this topic, I decided I wanted to do a little digging and actually get some definitions. So like we said before, it's easy to sort of overlap the meanings of success and purpose. So I wanted to look at what those actual definitions are. So I'll just read those off real quick. This is just dictionary.com.
00:05:07
Speaker
But when I looked up success, it said, the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, the accomplishment of one's goals, the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like. And then when I looked up purpose,
00:05:23
Speaker
The definition for purpose was the reason for which something exists or is done, made, or used as a verb to set an aim, intention, or goal for oneself. Isn't that amazing? Like seeing the both side by side. I thought that was really cool because
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, again, like I said, they can be overlapped, but I found the specifics of success saying like the attainment of wealth, position or honors, and then purpose to set aim, intention or goal, the reason for which something exists. Oh my gosh.
00:05:58
Speaker
I love that. That is, that is so good. And I will say this is just a great example of why I love to just go back to simple definitions when I'm starting to like ponder something or trying to make a decision on like where I stand on a certain topic. And it's exactly because of this. Like it's so awesome. I love that. Thank you for
00:06:18
Speaker
Finding those definitions and sharing them because that's perfect. I think a lot of people confuse purpose and success like you were saying, you know, they say the purpose of life or the purpose of a job is to find success.
00:06:33
Speaker
But the truth is you're already successful if you're pursuing your purpose. And this is kind of like my stance on this topic, you know, what I'm going to be delving into, you know, and I know that you are too for this episode. You know, success I think also has so many levels. So I would say start with pursuing your purpose and you'll see what kind of success is in store for you. But we'll dive more into that throughout the episode.
00:06:58
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And well, I think the reason this topic really resonates with me is kind of just from personal experience, really. I, well, okay. Side to Andrea before I get into my main point.
00:07:10
Speaker
The last six or so years of my life, I've looked back at it and I've always considered myself successful. Isn't that crazy? Through crazy stuff I was doing, whether I was working a ton and going to school or traveling and being kind of penniless and ruthless and then getting married, all this stuff, I've usually been able to pause and consider myself
00:07:31
Speaker
successful because of my demeanor and my disposition, my general attitude towards life. Not to say things have always been peachy and easy. Some stuff's been really hard, but usually when I look, it's like I've always felt successful. I thought that's cool.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah. And would you say that you felt success? I know we'll get more into it, but you felt successful because you were pursuing purpose and not just success. Yeah, I totally think so. And I guess with that, the time I felt the least successful was just when I was finishing up junior college and everyone was headed for like a four year college into careers. And I started to think that way. It started to be like, well, should I do something with this degree?
00:08:13
Speaker
Should I shoot for this career? And that's when I felt the most turbulent and like kind of lost. And it's just because that wasn't really the direction for me. Wow. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I wasn't even planning to make that point. But yeah, like I was like, Oh, cause I, I was a psych major and I was like, well, I can go to this school. I can go with this degree. Um, I didn't want to go into therapy. So I was like, I could be a professor. I could do this. And none of that really just aligns with who I am.
00:08:36
Speaker
Now, and I think it was just that pressure of like your career your career and then I stepped out of school and immediately went into like Travel and on the ground missions and that was so much more. Yeah, like
00:08:48
Speaker
So against the grain of what the people I was with school in school with were doing and perfect I've always been like yeah, but yeah anyways I don't know random point to make but I thought that was kind of cool But again, the reason this topic resonates with me is in the last couple years I've also been interested in business owning beyond what I do as an editor.
Navigating Success and Happiness
00:09:07
Speaker
I mentioned this before I love coffee would love to own a shop something with books something with home goods like I would just love to own something but sometimes yeah away from it because I
00:09:17
Speaker
I see what it can do to someone and not like I've seen this a lot, but I've known people who own businesses who make the good money. They make six figures. They get to travel. They're successful, but they're not happy and not, and beyond not happy. And I'm not saying not stressed. I know I'm aware being a business owner is stressful. Like I'm not saying that, but like unpleasant
00:09:41
Speaker
to be around and unkind. And like, not to sound mean, but you know, just like they're successful, but they're not happy.
00:09:48
Speaker
It's hard for people to work for them and they don't get to enjoy the little things in life. And I'm not saying this is every business owner. I've worked for some amazing people who really thrive with it and do a really good job of all of that. I'm just saying I would have a fear of kind of losing myself in stress. Cause I can, it's pretty easy for me to be stressed and then like things like my marriage and my friends, it's easy for me to be like, I can't deal with that right now. I'm working in my business. That's small. So I'd be scared of kind of losing myself. So,
00:10:17
Speaker
I suppose I kind of correlate success with really who you are. It's like the classic thing you hear with celebrities. They have everything they could ever want, but oftentimes are happy. And I wouldn't want that to be me. So yeah, exactly. And I mean, I totally agree. And I love that you made that point. And that's kind of like where my brain was just now, even in like the vice versa of that, like someone can be not making a lot of money.
00:10:42
Speaker
you know, but if they're maybe making a big change in their community and people are drawn to them and want to help them, not only that, but if they're just living their God given potential and their purpose, even if they don't look successful to others, if they have purpose that they're pursuing, it brings a different type of success and ultimately joy and contentment in their life.
00:11:03
Speaker
Anyways, yeah, so all right, let's talk about finding your purpose. What a question, right? It seems like no matter who you meet, everyone is just out there trying to find their purpose. But you know, of course, like we're gonna say today, they confuse purposes and success. But since it's such a big topic to tackle, and we can go on and on about it, let's talk to business owners and entrepreneurs and generally anyone working right now. Let's talk about
00:11:32
Speaker
purpose in business. Oh, yes, perfect. Let's, let's do it. Let's get into it. Well, the first thing I suppose I'd say is whether you've already started your business career, or if you're thinking about taking the leap into self employment or anything like that, or again, like Beth said, if you're just generally working
00:11:53
Speaker
but thinking about purpose. The first thing I would do is pray, but not to give the most basic answer ever. To be specific about it, pray and ask all these specific questions. Okay, are you ready for this? I thought very hard about these and I feel pretty good about it. So ask all these specific questions. Ask him, what gifts have you given me? Who did you create me to be? How can I best store this business and use it to glorify you?
00:12:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Who do you want me to reach when I go to work every day? How do you want to use me every day?
00:12:31
Speaker
You'd be surprised to hear what God thinks of you and the potential he's given you. This was an exercise that a speaker I was once learning from did that basically just had us like sit in silence and ask really simple questions like, what did I like in my childhood? What gifts have you given me? And it's really crazy how much you can learn about yourself with that. And I am a big believer that the little things like that are the things God put there for a purpose.
00:12:54
Speaker
And it's totally good to look into that. Oh my gosh. I'm so on the same page. I think so too. And life is so fast paced nowadays. And with social media, it's so overwhelming. People forget to do the most basic things like sit down and just ask those questions to themselves.
00:13:10
Speaker
Even if you're listening out there right now and you're not a Christian, it's still a good idea to sit down and ask yourself questions like this about yourself, whether it's through journaling, writing, you know, meditation, whatever, just self-reflection.
Reflecting on Purpose and Gifts
00:13:23
Speaker
Ask yourself who you'd like to be. What are you good at? Do you like to work with your hands? Do you like being around people? What can you do to help others in your career or your job or your business? Learning about yourself really is such a beginning step
00:13:39
Speaker
to solidifying, discovering what your purpose is. Absolutely. And yeah, like, like Beth said, really just take some time and yeah, learn about yourself. And once you have a clear vision for the purpose of yourself and your business, that to me becomes priority over success. And truthfully, I think success will follow. So I thought Beth that we could give some examples maybe of us in our businesses, uh, just to kind of help people understand, cause this is a lot of like,
00:14:08
Speaker
finding your success and purpose, know about yourself, but like, what are some kind of day to day, basically, what's the purpose of your business and how do you live that out each day? I suppose. Hmm. Well, that's kind of, kind of a big question. I know just in my brain. I feel like that is what is your purpose, Bethany? But more so like when you started your business, I guess, what, what really fueled that? And then how do you live it out? I guess.
00:14:33
Speaker
Yeah. Well, yeah, I think I understand. Um, and in all honesty, I'm still figuring out my purpose in my purpose in life and also just in that. And I'm sure I'll never like fully have my purpose just like laid out in front of me. I think it's going to slowly unfold. You know, God's going to reveal it like chapter by chapter. Um, and so that's just, that's just what this business was. I felt like God was closing a chapter that I was trying really hard to pursue one that would have looked successful on my end, but honestly it wouldn't have been a pursuit
00:15:03
Speaker
of my purpose. So I really, I just came to a crossroads and I had to choose obedience to God or choose to go with what my will wanted and what I thought other people wanted me to do. Not an easy choice, let me tell you. And not an easy choice to defend either when people have already kind of made up their minds about your decision.
00:15:22
Speaker
At the moment, the purpose of me pursuing photography is to serve people in a way that I feel like I'm best able to do, to bring them joy, the light of the Lord. And it also gives me the freedom to serve God in other areas of my life as well. I know we actually plan to talk about this a little bit in another episode.
00:15:40
Speaker
But when I got married, I realized that a lot of my one on one time with God was now spent caring for my husband and the additional like household responsibilities and stuff that I have to do. So choosing entrepreneurship has allowed me to be more present for my husband, but most of all, really go
00:15:58
Speaker
literally wherever God calls me to be and do whatever he calls me to do and I felt a huge burden that I had to relieve of these distractions that were pulling me away from God and I'm talking about my potential career that I was originally pursuing because that career honestly would have been 100% my entire life. I would not have let myself be available for anything but that.
00:16:19
Speaker
I'm a workaholic, so I have to make tough choices with my career and my job to make sure that God stays at the center of my life. I don't know if that makes sense or if I sum that up well, but that's like the heart and the purpose behind my business and making this decision right now in a very summed up way. I could go on forever and really dig into it, but that's generally.
00:16:40
Speaker
The reason right? Well, I love that too. I love that like you explained what of it is I guess outward facing like yes serving your clients and being Jesus to them and that way and of course, you know all the things about like Photography, you know freezes at the moment. That's so important. Like I love exactly
00:16:57
Speaker
But I love how much of it is inward facing, like time with your husband and like caring for your household. I really, and like the freedom to be able to do that, that self-employment with you. I really, I like that perspective. That's kind of cool. Cause I kind of, I almost went a different direction for it, but for me, I'll be honest, the start of my, my business, I'll talk about editing. Well yeah, that's my business.
00:17:19
Speaker
But I don't know what else I was going to say. I'll be honest, the start of private photo editing for me was to have dual income. It was fully monetary based because I wanted to do some kind of side hustle. But after editing for you, Beth, actually as my first client,
00:17:38
Speaker
I learned how much I love, love, and I love the people that are getting photographed and the part I get to be in their story so far away from some of it. It's a small part, not to be like, I contributed.
00:17:53
Speaker
It was just so cool to be a part of people's stories in this way. And I grew to really care about each new photographer I brought on to. It grew from there. I slowly got more clients. And what really did it for me, it was also including like mothers and wives who were some clients that I got. And there's really something gratifying.
00:18:12
Speaker
about giving them literal time back into their day to be with their families and it can kind of be redundant in the photo editing community like giving you back time giving you back time you can kind of forget what that is but like it's your time however you spend your time is how you spend it and you're never getting it so valuable yeah and especially have a soft spot for mothers I can't tell you how many inquiries I've gotten
00:18:35
Speaker
There's like a little question I ask on my main inquiry form that's like, what are you hoping to gain out of outsourcing? And almost all of it is more time with my kids, more time with my kids. So it fills me with so much joy and purpose to actually help them gain back valuable time to sew back into their families or if their wives back into their husband. Some of them are single and it's back into whatever other hobbies or aspects of their life or growing their business more. The more I actually got to see that live out,
00:19:00
Speaker
was really, really great. And I also agree with you. I don't think this is my one and only, I know this is not my one and only purpose on this earth, like photo
Pursuing Joy in Business
00:19:09
Speaker
editing. I'm so passionate about so many things from business owning to on the ground missions work to motherhood and more. So I love that you said your purpose is unfolding chapter by chapter. And I definitely see that coming around. Like I'd say in this chapter right now, it is growing my business.
00:19:26
Speaker
being present as a wife and caring for a household and all of those things. And basically, I'm doing a lot of things, but doing each thing well really feels like what this time is. So I guess with that, it is chapter by chapter, and then just so long as you're aware of what your purpose is, each chapter you're in. I think that's really cool. Exactly.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, you could say, you know, doing it all with intention. Oh, absolutely. I love it. We love intention over here. We couldn't tell. Love that, love that. You know, and so while we were chatting, Ayla and I, between ourselves and kind of brainstorming about this topic and
00:20:05
Speaker
just chatting about how we were both really passionate about this, finding out what the other person's thoughts were. We realized that we really wanted to highlight why it's so important to choose purpose over just worldly success, like what the world's view of success typically is.
00:20:21
Speaker
So we're going to kind of jump back and forth and list the pros and cons of choosing to chase purpose. I talk a lot about getting distracted. I think I've mentioned the screw tip letters like three times on the show already. I need to read it, dude. I need to do it.
00:20:37
Speaker
Oh my gosh, you do, you do. I'll send you a copy or something. But yeah, anybody, you can find it on Amazon. Everybody who's listening, like really, it's called The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. You'll love it. But anyways, I mention it a lot because that book is phenomenal at reminding you how anything can become a distraction that pulls you away from God. And ultimately that means it's pulling you away from your purpose.
00:20:57
Speaker
So choosing to have a firm understanding on the difference between purpose in life and just success in life and choosing to keep your main focus on pursuing purpose will ultimately lead you to have success and joy and make a difference in the world. So that's like my first pro of choosing to pursue purpose and why it's important.
00:21:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And one unique thing about God given purpose is that yours is unique. So you have the chance to create change in your family, in your community, or even the world. If you stick to whatever makes your purpose uniquely yours, that's a huge benefit of choosing to pursue purpose over, over success, especially worldly success. Like Beth said, I feel like you, I've gone off about this on this podcast before, but I feel like the world
00:21:46
Speaker
especially North America has created such this like structure of school school school work work work and then you die basically and and I'll get into this I wrote this out later uh for this show so I'll I'll get into it but yeah not everyone is built that way by any means Chris and I talk about that all the time how even the public school system for boys it's
00:22:08
Speaker
doesn't line up with how young men are designed and just things like that. So basically, if you're ever struggling in this whole way that success has been set up in the world, it's probably because you were meant to do something completely the other direction. And again, that ties it back to God-given purpose. No one person is created exactly the same. You are beyond unique in so many ways. So it shouldn't be surprising when
00:22:34
Speaker
the things that you love the most or the things that you find your purpose can sometimes be crazy. Sometimes it is being an employee and going to your job every day and working hard and doing your very best there. Sometimes it's starting a business and sometimes it's like delving into art. Sometimes it's yeah, like serving internationally, whatever it is. So I really love that. God given purpose makes it uniquely yours.
00:22:55
Speaker
Mm-hmm, exactly. Yeah, definitely a big benefit of that for sure. And another one I would say is that focusing on your purpose can definitely help with imposter syndrome. This is something that I think you and I personally have struggled with and deal with very often throughout all my days.
00:23:17
Speaker
Exactly. Especially social media, man. But anyone, that being said, anyone in any career or part of life can suffer from feeling imposter syndrome. But if you know that you are doing what you are supposed to do, then money, pro-season, comparison with others, doesn't matter. Because you can root yourself in the confidence that you are where you're supposed to be, and you will blossom, or your time to shine will come. And just overall, you aren't on your own timeline. You aren't on someone else's timeline.
00:23:46
Speaker
You're on God's timeline actually so you are on someone else's timeline. I love that on God's time that oh my gosh that's such a good point. I actually deal with this so much currently especially I'll make this point quickly because I still have a lot of things to say but again your 20s is such a crazy time and
00:24:04
Speaker
Yeah, I was saying this the other day like sometimes your 20s is wild when you look at people in your mid 20s like there's some people married with a house and kids there's some people working really hard there's people still in school there's still some people like clubbing and like drunk on a random Thursday morning like it's so crazy where everybody is at and sometimes kind of often
00:24:25
Speaker
for no reason, because I know this wasn't meant for me, but I'm kind of like, should I have gone the more education route? Should I have gone the more career way? Because about a year ago was the time that my high school graduating class was all getting their bachelor's and on, and people are going for their master's, and I'm like, if I ever decide to go that way again, I'm going to be behind. What is that?
00:24:46
Speaker
like what is behind like at the end of the day and not only would that not bring me joy maybe it will at another time but definitely not anytime soon and then it's the same with other businesses that have started but they started you know like a year before me and they're more brick and mortar and like all this stuff it's so
00:25:05
Speaker
easy all the time. And I think especially for your twenties and maybe early thirties to be like, well, they're doing this, they're doing this. And it's just like, again, God's time, he doesn't care about what he does care about what other people are doing. But, you know, as far as you, he's not looking at you going, well, your friend finished school. What are you doing? You know, so long as you're tuning in with him every day, you know, there's really nothing else you need to be worried about. And I think I have to remind myself of that a lot.
00:25:33
Speaker
Yep, the biggest cure for imposter syndrome is to just go straight to God and just say, what's my purpose? Or just go straight to your own vision board. If you already did the process of praying about what your purpose is and you know what you're supposed to be doing, just go back to that and just say, it doesn't really matter because my time to shine is coming in my own way by pursuing my purpose. And then the last kind of,
00:26:02
Speaker
somewhat point I'll make. It's a bigger point, so bear with me. It's a good one. This is similar to what Beth just said, but you will find a lasting joy and fulfillment in pursuing your purpose. And when I say joy, Christian kids might get this because it's something that's talked about in youth group a lot, but there's a difference between happiness and joy.
Maintaining an Eternal Perspective
00:26:22
Speaker
Happiness can come out of situations. You can be out with friends and feel really happy, but that might not last the next day when you go into work and you're kind of down
00:26:30
Speaker
But joy is something that's really rooted in your heart and it's there in all seasons. Joy is there during the hard times when, you know, maybe your husband lost his job and you're not sure what you're going to do the next day. There's definitely, you're not going to be happy, but you can still have joy in your heart. And the thing with that is money, it can buy happiness, but it cannot buy joy. We see it all the time.
00:26:54
Speaker
People with so-called success, money, fame, mansions, all the things can still suffer from sadness, anxiety, wanting more out of life. And what they want to be is really pursuing their purpose. And even if they're trying to do that somewhere along the line, they mixed that purpose with success and they've lost that joy. So, so good. And I guess to kind of like continue with that, God doesn't really call you actually to collect money, fame or riches on earth. He calls you to greater purpose.
00:27:23
Speaker
to live for eternity to affect change here on earth and in the hearts of man and to store up your treasures in heaven and I do this all the time thinking for eternity again anytime this game this kind of goes more into talk about stress rather than purpose but it kind of can align like
00:27:40
Speaker
When I get stressed in my business, I'm pretty quick to like stress out sometimes and be like, I'm behind. I have to like, and I have to catch myself quite a bit and be like, I'm thinking about today. I'm thinking very much on how this is affecting me this week. And once I kind of pause and think about what am I doing for eternity? How's my relationship with God?
00:28:00
Speaker
How's my marriage to Chris? How are all these things? If those are falling, that immediately becomes more priority because the work that I have today and tomorrow is going to pass, but my life, it's eternal. You're sewing into that all the time. It's not to say you're not allowed to
00:28:18
Speaker
You know, you still want to put intention into your day to day, but the minute you're festering and like worrying over it, it's time to like realign your focus back to eternity. Oh my gosh. Yes. That's so good. I heard this amazing sermon once about purpose and
00:28:34
Speaker
I'm majorly paraphrasing this, so if you're wearing the sermon I'm talking about, I'm making the main point, but it's this amazing sermon I heard once about purpose, and basically the preacher is telling a story about what could possibly happen when you go to your judgment in the throne room. This is a core speculation, I'm not saying this is what happens, but it's a really interesting kind of perspective, I guess parable, that you could say.
00:28:57
Speaker
But basically, a man walked up to be judged by God before entering heaven, and the man said, like, here I am, look at all of the good works and deeds I've done. I spread the gospel, I saved 100 souls, and I helped the poor, and I dedicated my life every single day to spreading the gospel. And God basically said, that's great, but actually, I'd never asked you to do that. I asked you to be an accountant and to work in this office and be a light for me there, because there was no light for me there, and you would have saved 1,000 souls.
00:29:26
Speaker
if you had just done that and like i said i'm very much paraphrasing and it's not to indict fear and be like what you're doing is wrong like it's not to make make anybody scared that they're not doing the right thing but basically um the point is you may think you have to do something to have purpose or be successful especially as a christian
00:29:46
Speaker
You might be like, I have to go to the bush of Africa and spread the gospel and that's what I have to do. And God never told you to do that. He asked you to be a mother and to raise children who are going to go do that instead because he didn't design you to go do that. But your children, if you raise them in a godly household, they might be the ones to go do that. And sometimes that can be hard if that's the thing you want to go do, but God's can calling you.
00:30:09
Speaker
to, um, completely something else. Yeah. And I would, I would say I totally agree. And, but it goes every single direction to that. Like if you want that white picket fence and you know, you just want this cushy life, just make sure you're double checking if that's what God has planned for you. You and I both were talking earlier about how we thought, you know, we were going to go.
00:30:29
Speaker
and get those four year degrees and then go into those careers at one point in our life. And it's like, as cushy and nice as that sounded, that wasn't what was meant for us for a variety of reasons. You know, that's, God said no to that for us. So whether it is to be a parent or whether it's to go and be a missionary in Africa or go and do something in your hometown or, you know, have a nine to five job, it doesn't matter, but make sure you figure out what it is. Yeah, I love that. And that leads perfectly pretty much into me, like rounding out
00:30:57
Speaker
This point is, again, like we said earlier, everyone's designed for different things. I keep coming back to missions because that's what I did, but not everyone is designed to be a missionary. Not everyone is designed to be a business owner, all these things. This could be a total thing, but I wanted to quickly talk about the seven spheres of influence. Have you ever heard of that?
00:31:18
Speaker
I don't think I have. We learned it in Youth with a Mission, the Christian organization that I was with for a while. And when I Googled it, it had the founder quoting that. So I'm not sure if he designed it or if it's like a known thing. But anyway, the seven spheres of influence are basically seven places where Christians can be placed. And again, that's to say I get really up about the topic.
00:31:42
Speaker
sometimes Christians really think like I have to go preach the gospel I have to go preach the gospel and I mean you do you know throughout your life and everything you do I am someone who thrives doing really uncomfortable on the ground mission yes I do really well sleeping in a hut getting very little sleep yeah very hot environment with like you know no control everything you own is on your back and you're going in like
00:32:06
Speaker
building houses in the bush. I thrive very well in that environment. I love doing that. A lot of people don't. A lot of people would be miserable if it's like, hey, you have to live in the bush and you have to walk a mile to get your water and you're going to be building houses all day and it's for no pay and you rely on God for your finances. Some people are like, um, not me. And that's not a bad thing at all. You were just completely called to go into something else. So
00:32:30
Speaker
Although through these really quickly, but these are basically the seven places that Christians can find their purpose and something you could probably roughly fit into.
Exploring Spheres of Influence
00:32:39
Speaker
They are family. Some people are called straight up just a family to be mothers and fathers. And you can be called to multiple of these, by the way, but these are just kind of what they are. Family, religion slash church, working for your church, doing whatever. Education, government, media.
00:32:56
Speaker
arts and entertainment slash sports, and then economics, business, science, and technology. Those are kind of rough, right? Like that kind of sums up everything that there is to do. So your purpose can be hiding in any of those, like media, doing, doing the news, working for the government, working for economics, all of those things might like spark something in people. And it's not to say, well, that's not purposeful enough. It's, it says right there, like that's all of the places you can find your
00:33:23
Speaker
your influence in. And I just love that. Like I love the concept of, yeah, the brick and mortar business owners can be spreading the gospel just as well as the people are flying overseas to go preach it. So that was pretty much my last point to make with all of that.
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. Totally cool. I actually hadn't heard about the seven spheres of influence before. I like that. Thanks for sharing.
Final Thoughts and Engagement
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah. And then just like you said, you just ended that with what the next point I was going to make too, which is overall the ultimate purpose is to spread the gospel, whatever you're doing in your life. And again, you and I are actually interestingly enough going to touch on this a little more in another episode.
00:33:56
Speaker
But whatever you choose to do, whatever you feel called to do, just make sure that you can be focusing on the main purpose of your life, which first and foremost, spread the gospel, serve God with all your heart, soul and mind. And then whatever he has in store for you in the world, serving people, helping people, whatever you said, like economics, whatever, maybe missions, whatever. But yeah, that's like what to focus on.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like we really rounded out our thoughts well on this. You know, overall learn the difference between success and purpose and how they look in action and figure out what your purpose is and make sure that you are keeping that at the forefront of everything that you do. Yeah, absolutely. We love talking purpose and intention over here.
00:34:36
Speaker
And we'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well. If this topic resonated with you, if there's more you'd like to hear about it or just something you'd like to share, a personal story about what success means to you. We love, love, love listener stories over here. So don't hesitate to reach out to us on Art of Intention podcast on Instagram. You can email us. It's also Art of Intention podcast. If you know Beth and I personally, you know where to find us and share. We'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
00:35:01
Speaker
Yeah. Make sure you're following us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, then cast or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you can give us a five star rating, leave a comment. We love it. It makes a big difference. And until next time. Bye. Bye.