Chasing Your God-Given Dream

Speaker 1 0:02

Good morning . Good morning , welcome back to the Certain Success Podcast , matt and Joe here , and today is a big day for me and maybe for Joe too . But we're in the middle of attending virtually one of my favorite conferences in the world and , um , and I woke up just so sure of my direction and my dream and like knowing exactly what I want . And you know , we all have levels of success and whatever , but there's no way that I've reached the level that I want to reach . And , um , you know , what's the coolest thing for for me right at the moment is is how you know , in in this recent season , you know , joe and I have come together and our , our objectives , our life plan , our season of life , all these things are like so lined up .

Speaker 1 1:04

But this podcast , that was a long introduction , but this podcast is about getting clarity on your dream and then going after it , no matter what . And no matter what means it's not probably going to make sense If you , if you , have a God dream that every time you think about it it just like lights you up and I want to talk more about that . But you know , whatever that thing is , that when it enters your mind , are you thinking about it or it's . You know , you're like , oh man , I would love to do the whatever it is , and but then you are immediately like I can't do that because of X , y and Z . That's the thing that you need to go do . You need to chuck everything and go do it . So sorry for the long intro , joe . No , it's perfect .

Speaker 2 1:59

It takes us back a long way . When you're getting into sales , you're reading the books , you're learning from the gurus , you're the quotes that you learned from Henry Ford . Whether you think you can or can't , you're right , right , and it's what we're putting our energy towards . And if we want to sit here and think doom and gloom , guess what's going to come . Doom and gloom . Guess what's going to come . Doom and gloom . So we don't want to fill our days with that negative self-talk . We want to build our days with glorifying the perfect God that he is . He created us , he wants us to be happy , he wants us to have fun at what we do in our toil . You know there's scripture about that and we'll we'll talk about that in a minute . But this isn't . This life is tough enough and there's no need for us to make it harder by saying no so often to ourselves before we even get a chance to get out of the gate .

Speaker 1 2:59

Yeah , I think you know , maybe maybe a better way to sort of shine a light on what we're trying to talk about here is just say , okay , like everybody listening to this call , you know , hundreds of people are going to listen to this and they're going to go , and I and I , on a scale of one to 10 , if you're listening to this , I want you to ask yourself am I chasing my dream right now ? Not ? Have I achieved whatever the outcome is ? Am I on , like when I get up every day ? Am I moving the ball forward on chasing whatever my actual dream is ? Versus , do I get up and , you know , put on my uniform and work for the man and do whatever that thing is , and not that , not that working for the man can't be your dream . I mean , if that's your dream and we're going to talk about the trash man and like , your dream can be anything . Your dream can be to be , you know , the lunch lady at at the grade school and just loving your engagement with those kids and whatever it is . But if you're listening to this and you're pretty sure cause you and you already know the answer , Like , if you know I'm not chasing my dream , or yes , I am and if I'm not chasing my dream . Here's all the reasons , here's all the excuses , whatever it is . But like that's to me is the is the framework . It's like , yeah , and you could also .

Speaker 1 4:17

I think where you were going to , Joe , is a little bit . It's like you should bring joy to whatever you're doing . You should get up and be joyful about it today . But this , to me , is about getting really crystal clear on what God built you to do , knowing that there's going to be some fear and you're going to have to jump off a cliff to go chase it . But just the percentage of people that are actually doing that is so small . And to me , like that's what I want to do with the rest of my life , is like scream that , you know . Grab your balls and jump as we talked on the other , you know the other day , Right , Like that's my , that's what should be written on my tombstone . It's like he grabbed him like Go get it , stop procrastinating , stop doing whatever halfway life thing you're doing and go get it amen .

Speaker 2 5:19

I mean that's it . I mean that's a sermon in itself . And the two of us will tell you right up front we're not pastors of church , we're not church leaders , we're not theologians . We have a heart for Christ . And yesterday we said what Christ was saying to me on the beach and he said I want you to chase me .

Speaker 2 5:45

Everything you've ever wanted is right here and , matt , where I think it is , is that when you start your day you have to start with Christ . It's the first place I have to go to for the rest of the day to make sense . I have to go to for the rest of the day to make sense and dive into the scripture and start learning that his design for us is this freedom from our own personal hell of the daily tasks that we put ourselves into , whether it's work , whether it's whatever . It is it he .

Speaker 2 6:23

He didn't design us for it to suck . He designed it . Yeah , I mean that's the first thing that comes . He designed it for us to thrive and to go out there and go get it . And so for me and I know for you , because this morning we were , we were kind of messaging each other and you're like Joe , I got to finish up my quiet time with the Lord and I totally get that , because I do that to you as well I'm like I'm not done with my quiet time . I can't go get it , I can't go chase it until I sit still with him and let him speak to me in his word and let him speak to me in his word no-transcript .

Speaker 1 7:20

I agree with you that you have to just be completely on solid ground in your faith and your relationship with Christ , because he's opens the door to understanding your passions , understanding those things that are burning in your heart , that are like I want to go do this . Well , if , if you're in alignment with Christ , you're inviting the holy spirit into your , your thoughts , and those thoughts are about , you know , whatever . You know cliff diving , or you know , uh , you know , growing coffee in kawaii , which I don't know where that came from , but I , when I was in kawaii , I saw this coffee place and I was like I want to do that . I want to be growing coffee in kauai . I saw this coffee place and I was like I want to do that . I want to be growing coffee in Kauai . But whatever your dream is , and I believe that if you're in alignment with the Lord and you're getting up every day and you're trying to focus your attention on God and the things that he put , if what he puts on your heart to do is grow coffee in Kauai , then that's what you're supposed to go do . Like , the practical translation of that in the world is go do that . And then the first thing that you're going to it's like , well , I don't have the money and I don't know how to do it and I can't go live in Kauai and like all those things . And God's like , well , wait , I didn't say any of those things . I put it on your heart . To go grow coffee in Kauai Go Right , go , follow me , means go to wherever your heart is burning . To go Get on the plane , go . Wow . Sherry's going to be really upset when she wakes up and finds that I'm in Kauai or on the way . And that is not my dream , but I'm just using that as an example .

Speaker 1 9:07

But I want to read this Napoleon Hill quote from last night which keeps coming back up there's one quality which one must possess to win , and that is definiteness of purpose , the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to possess it . And you know I was telling you this morning that I feel like that . It's it's a wordy quote and it's like I think it's easy to just sort of go oh , that's sounds nice but and not to really like dive into it . But there's something burning in every single person who's listening to this . That's like burning in every single person who's listening to this .

Speaker 1 9:47

That's like I would love to do this thing , but I can't , I'm not good enough , there's no way , I don't have enough money . There's like all the reasons and I think we live in a world where it's been beaten down enough in all of humanity that we think that that's actually a mistake , like that . It's irresponsible to think this way , and I'm like all I want to do in the world is to bring people back to their dream and go like no , god , put that on your heart and the reason and the voices that are saying that you can't are not God . That's everything , but God saying oh no , you know why would you ? We wouldn't want you to chase your dream .

Speaker 2 10:31

That evil one . He's a bastard . And before we get to , you know you brought it up a second ago Danny the garbage guy in my neighborhood and he's one of the stories . Danny the garbage guy in my neighborhood and he's one of the stories and I haven't shared it with any of you

Finding Success in God's Purpose

Speaker 2 11:01

before . But for the last couple of years God was putting on's not like . I'm , you know , a part of a church where I'm in leadership or I'm a theologian . I have been journaling to God for the last 14 years and every morning I write to God and I share what's on my heart you know whether it's a prayer request for friends or family , writing down the scripture from that morning and just thanking God for the day . And I have thousands of pages that my kids will have when I am dead and buried one day Hopefully I'm not buried , maybe they'll put me out to sea and so I told my kids , I want a Viking funeral .

Speaker 1 11:43

I think there's only one place in the world you can still do that anyway .

Speaker 2 11:46

So I I kept saying , no , god , I'm not your guy . And the more that I kept reading scripture everyone that God chose in the Bible , especially when you look at the Old Testament and when you look at Paul in the New Testament , he's choosing people you just don't expect to be the foundation of our Christian faith . And so I finally decided on December 20 , I think it was December 27 , that I was going to set my alarm for December 28 , 2023 at 5 am , and I'm going to start writing this book , and I put a goal of having it done by April 5th of 2024 .

Speaker 2 12:25

On the morning of April 5th 2024 , I wrote the final day , and that is a definiteness of purpose that was laid on my heart by a loving God who said I told you you could do it and that's how you win . You win through having that definite purpose in your life . And , as I said , the devil beat me up every day saying you can't do this . Why are you doing this ? You're the last person who should do this . You're broken , saying you can't do this . Why are you doing this ? You're the last person who should do this . You're broken . You sin . Yeah , you're right . And on the other side , crisis , you got this . You can do this . So I wrote a story about . Do you want to answer to that ? And we can still get back to Danny the garbage guy . Any thoughts ?

Speaker 1 13:19

go through your mind as a I don't know .

Speaker 1 13:20

No , I mean , I think you're you right on track with with what you're saying and and you know , I think , maybe , maybe the only thing I would comment about that is that I think it's important to note too that , like that the book is , that you finished is a huge accomplishment , vernacular of the dream that that runs your whole life , and like this massive , massive thing which is is is true , but also it can be this one particular , you know , I want to learn how to run a marathon . Okay , what's the training required to do that ? That's not your whole life , but it's . It's a big thing , you know , and and maybe , if you're , if you're listening to this and you're not chasing your dreams at all , and you're like feeling stuck , like pick one thing , like running a marathon or writing a book , that you know it's not . It can be all encompassing for a minute , but it's not the rest of your life , and that's what I was thinking about when you were talking about the book . But , yeah , talk about the garbage man .

Speaker 2 14:19

I love this story , yeah , so day 256 and day 257 are about Danny , and the first day really just talks about this guy that's . You know . He's assigned to my neighborhood . He's always dancing while he's on the side of the truck . He's Cuban . I come to find out that he's Cuban and he's just loving his music and I finally stopped and I had to talk to him and he is really the scripture that I brought up a second ago Matthew 5 , 16, . In the same way , let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven . I'm like that's Danny and Matt to think about it . He's probably one of the most successful people I've seen in his work that I've met in my entire life .

Speaker 2 15:08

In fact , the next day I wrote in day 257 , danny talked to me further and said the garbage company offered him a driver's position that offered more money . He said I don't want to do it . I won't be able to dance on the side of the truck and meet with the neighbors . I love what I do and which tells us in this world that we live in . There's the ditch diggers , there's the roofers , there's the Danny's of the world that are picking up our garbage . There's the people that are there to get your kids while you drop them off in the circle at school , and you trust them . And there's so many people that were built , designed for what they're doing and they're the most successful people at what they do , because that's what they were wired to do .

Speaker 1 15:53

That's success . That's it . And God , how many people do you meet that know themselves well enough , that know their identity well enough to go ? Like God , this is what God , god built Danny to to dance on the side of the road and like he knew that , like not not another job that might be more money is not the answer and it's going to take away his joy .

Living Your Dream With Joy

Speaker 1 16:16

You know , and I think most of us walk around not understanding that about ourselves , and you know , um , you made me think about the , the stage thing . You and I were talking before the podcast , about how we both enjoy public speaking , and and you know that you know , I built a , I built a conference business and built 150 conferences , and but what ? What made me do that ? Is like the joy of stepping on stage and the energy that I get from the room full of humans and the adrenaline of .

Speaker 1 16:58

I famously would not script what I was going to say . If at all , it would be the absolute last minute , but you know , I was inviting the Lord to give me the words , like I knew , I didn't know what it was that I was after until until it happened , and for most people that would be like horrifying , um , but to me , like that was my expression of who I am and how I , how god works in me , you know , and um , but but I I think the main reason I wanted to bring that up , though , is to talk about the fact that that I think it can be seasonal , and , you know , maybe there was a time 50 years ago , where you would start a career and stay in the same job until they gave you , you know , the , the golden watch at the , at the end , or something . But you know , we live in a world of seasons now , and so I ran that business for 10 years . You know , covid kind of killed that business , but there was a million things I could have done , the pivot and whatever , but like I knew it was the end of that season , and so I think that's another piece of it too is to go like this is what God's putting on your heart to go do right now , go chase it with everything you have , but also be prepared to pivot .

Speaker 1 18:11

We took we already did a podcast on that but like no , that um , you know what , whatever God's telling you to do right now , like that's going to be a season that Brooke's going to dry up . My , my Elijah is one of my favorite stories in scripture and when the book dries up , he just shown you to move . It's not like you did anything wrong or there's any problem , or you should be shameful about quitting , or like when the season's over , you go .

Speaker 2 18:37

Yep , Yep . You had said something , though this morning about when you walked off stage and your wife is there to greet you and it touched you , just to share it with me . Those are those confirmations of I'm in the right spot and and , if you don't mind , you know your , your beautiful wife , Sherry , shared with you something when you came off the stage one time what , what , what was like ? What was that like ?

Speaker 1 19:12

Well , you know you're gonna make me cry again . I was crying when I was telling you about it . Because it's okay , well , it's so . I'm glad you brought it back because it's so pivotal to this conversation about living your dream is because that's when you know you're living your dream , is when it just like fills your heart with so much joy that it makes you want to cry than once .

Speaker 1 19:42

Sherry didn't always come to those events , but when she was there , she would see me on the stage and she would just see like me , at like my absolute nuclear amped self , and like you can't fake that . And it's not about uh , uh , you know , wanting , you know , well , I certainly like the sound of my own voice , but it's not about like , oh , look at me , or whatever . It's not that , that kind of thing , it's just this like energy that I get from all the humans . And oh , and , like you know , walk up the stage at least once . I can remember exactly . And she was like , wow , like that's what you should be doing all the time and again , like whatever , when you're listening to this , like there's a thing that's that's your thing , like for Danny , it's what Danny should be doing all the time is dancing around , you know the trash truck . What I should be doing all the time is standing on a stage , which is funny .

Speaker 1 20:32

Ironically , I've been sort of like hiding from the stage of late and and I think that was a season and there's a lot more to that I think that was a season and there's there's a lot more to that . But during that season , like there was no greater thing that I would rather do than be in that moment at explode , had the same song every day and uh , I knew the song beat for beat for beat for beat . I knew how many steps it was going to take for the song to end , so that my foot hit the stage when the song ended and everyone that anyone listened to this that's been to explode would be like I can never hear that song again because I played it so many times . And but so like it's like finding that thing and just like not letting go of it , even when it's just hard as hell and and you feel like you can't make it and all that stuff .

Speaker 2 21:24

It's the runner's high of what we were wired to do . I mean , I used to run in my 30s and I do the 5Ks , the 10Ks , the 15Ks . I never did a marathon , I don't know why I didn't . I beat my body up enough doing those smaller races . But I did a ton of races when my kids were younger and I could tell you that during a lot of those runs I'd get the runner's high that they talk about .

Speaker 2 21:53

And for me that runner's high was my breathing cadence , my stride , my peace , my focus . We're all together on the same sheet of music and you know listening to music in my ear and let's just say it's . You know the theme of Rocky , you know , and it's like I'm in the movie and I'm in that cadence and I'm running . I'm in the movie and I'm in that cadence and I'm running . And for a short little Italian like me , you know to run fast I have to do double time to keep up with some of the faster runners because they got a longer gate . But for me and for you and for anyone listening , it's that cadence , it's that runner's high and you know when you're in it and you were in it when you were on stage . I've been there when I , you know , was able to speak on stage . When you're , when you're driving through to get to the goal , to get to the end , and you know you're in the right place and everything is falling into place , that's when you know , know you're doing what you're wired to do .

Speaker 2 23:05

Now for Danny , maybe one day he's , you know , ahead of culture for the garbage company , where he has finally realized that he can teach other people that type of joy in their work , and so I mean I pray that for him . If that's what his desire is , is that he finds another season . I hope everyone realizes , if you're on this and you're listening to this , this isn't about if you love what you do . Maybe you should look for something else just to see if you love something else . If you love what you do , rock on . But if you hear that voice inside you , maybe it's the Holy Spirit in your case who's saying I really want this for you . This is what God designed you to do . Let's do it . I encourage you with all my heart . Go after it .

Speaker 1 24:00

I got one more . I got one more thing I got to share with you .

Speaker 2 24:05

Not sharing it with me . You're sharing it with this entire . You said hundreds of people are listening to this . I'm I'm praying that there's eventually thousands upon thousands of people that get to hear our voices .

Speaker 1 24:16

Yeah , oh yeah , it's already there . If you think about over time too , you know , um , but what I wanted to read to you is something that , um , our guy jamie winship said , which is said joy is where the spirit is and fear is where the enemy is . And so when , when you were Joe , I was thinking like that's the filter . The filter is joy . So if you are just filled with joy , you get up every day to go do what you're doing , then you know you were living what you were put on this earth to do , do .

Speaker 1 24:58

And if , if it's anything less than that , if it's , if it's not an 11 on the joy meter , you really need to be starting to think about , like , and praying about and asking the Lord about like , what am I supposed to go do next ? And think about what are the things that make you burn , like there's a reason that those things make you burn and stop and stop ignoring those feelings . And then , but the but the second line of that fear is where the devil is . That's that thing Cause , when you , when you , when you think about the things that bring you joy , that you're like oh , I wish I could go do this thing .

Speaker 2 25:37

It's it's just fear that knocks it . He knocks it out of you so fast . It's like ah , that's , that's , that's irresponsible , that's foolish . You know , but when I , when , when riding average joe the journey home , uh , the thing that I think I shared with you was this I don't want to get to heaven and see the face of god , our christ say well done , faithful servant .

Speaker 2 26:05

But Well , there's going to be a bunch of buts , I think I know , and one of those was just listening to my voice . This is what I shared for you to do and you didn't do it . I was like I don't want to disappoint God and in through that process I got to tell you it allowed me to dive deeper into scripture than I ever have in my in my life . You know , I didn't just write a scripture and then say , okay , let's write a . You know a story around that . I had to read the scripture before that and read the scripture behind it and see the context of what the scripture was saying . And through all that I was like see the context of what the scripture was saying . And through all that I was like , huh , I'm learning more , and I think that's really if there's anything I can say on a personal level , god is like , yeah , that's really what I wanted you to do . I wanted you to dive deeper into my word , and so that was a . That was one of the good outcomes .

Speaker 1 26:57

No , you were . I mean , yeah . The punchline which needs to be said is that all this dream chasing and heart wrenching and you know , all this stuff at the end of the day , the objective is no Christ , be more like Christ and become what God made you to be be . But I think that I think it's pretty easy to translate that , too , to go like well , what's what's the fastest path to becoming what God made me to be is like , well , listen to your , to what's burning in your heart , and go . Do it in spite of all the fear and the .

Speaker 1 27:37

You know , the insecurity and the and the lack of belief and and the . You know , and I love . I love the conversation about how that levels up too , because when you , you know , and I love I love the conversation about how that levels up too , because when you , you know , when you're younger , sometimes that journey might only be a month , you know , but you know after you know , you and I are chasing things now that are going to take years to execute and it's , it becomes , you know , a heavier lift to live that faith out .

Faith, Fear, and Dream Chasing

Speaker 2 28:06

I saw a poster , something online and I've seen it a few times , and it says no Christ , no Peace , n-o spelled N-O , n-o no Christ , no Peace fell n-o-n-o no christ , no peace . And right below it it says k-n-o-w no christ , no peace . So it's almost goes back to whatever you focus on grows . Wherever we put our energy without christ in our lives and for those that are listening without that foundation , no Christ , no peace . He's not there .

Speaker 2 28:44

It's going to be a struggle , but when you know Christ , you will know the peace that you probably hear from our conversation that Matt and I are having today . We're on fire and we're on fire for a reason . It didn't just happen , we didn't just self-combust . It is happening for a reason and our prayer is that you take this journey with us as we continue to have these conversations , and see how powerful our loving God really is in our lives and he wants us to do exactly what he designed us to do and , by the way , he didn't design us to do one thing . Once you figure out something and you've got that widget figured out and you become a pro at it and you love it and you're like now I'm bored with it , guess what ? He's got another one for you .

Speaker 1 29:33

Yeah , it's time to level up . And you know , and , and yeah , I think the I know for me that I have fallen away too many times from whatever I was chasing because I lost my faith , and not completely , but you know in part , and , and , and so this , this idea of you know , this , this notion that you can do nothing apart from Christ , the translation of that for me in this , in this dream chasing podcast , is like you won't have the gut to stay in it through all of the pain and the fear , without that depth of faith . And that's the , that's the certain success factor . Right , it's like you're never . You're way , way , way , way less likely to get to the objective . You're way more likely to quit as soon as your faith fades .

Speaker 2 30:36

Yeah , and you know , one of the people that I listen to a lot is Rick Warren , and he states it in a way that just makes sense , and it's this If we say to God , god , I'm afraid , I'm just too fearful to do it , that's a form of atheism , because you just told God he's not big enough . That's a form of atheism because you just told God he's not big enough , and so , whatever it is , give it to him and you can do all things through Christ , who strengthens you .

Speaker 1 31:26

Yeah , I think you know . I think you know the it's . It's a positive confession to tell I'm , I'm afraid , I don't know how to do this . I need your help . You know that's the . The the more accurate definition of confession is like tell him what's going on , yeah , and not that he doesn't know , and then you know that's where the resurgence of that power comes from . So , dude , it's been good today . Thanks for being with us guys on the Certain Success Podcast , and we'll see you back here real soon , god bless .