This is a short excerpt from 'Contractor Radio Highlight - Episode 101' (YouTube) in which Jory and Nathan discuss tension between drive/achievement and surrendering to life. Jory (age 46) describes learning wisdom through experience, viewing life as a personalized curriculum guided by God, and adopting an attitude of observing and learning from difficult situations rather than forcing outcomes. Nathan reflects on a prolonged difficult period from his mid-20s to early 30s and choosing to adapt rather than fight, relating to Jory's approach.
Chapters
Foreign.
I mean, you did say something there that I found interesting. That I think a lot of folks, especially in the entrepreneurial side and especially you identifying with being a, a driven person and then making a statement like, I can't make things happen.
Yeah.
Like those two ideas. So like being successful, being driven and then saying something like, I, I let life take me where it's gonna go. Those two ideas, if you think about conflicts. Yeah. Like the things that are screened at us. Right. Like 10x effort and the grind and make it happen and you can achieve your dream and all this kind of stuff, and then, then to hear you say, I'm a person who, who, who's accomplished a lot. I'm a very driven person, but I let life take me where it wants to go because I can't make things happen.
You.
That's like, that'll poke a few people in the eye, I think.
Yeah. And you know, somebody, somebody a little later on in life. And that's one of the things that I don't look my age, but I'm 46 and I've lived a lot of life and, and that teaches you it brings a depth of wisdom. And wisdom comes from experience. And I have a lot of life experience. And you're right, it seems to conflict until you experience it and you realize that, you know, I was, I was in the right place doing the right things many times, and there were massive failures and problems, and you just realize that they're there for you too. It is all for you. If you really realize that, you just back off and you're like, okay, what is it I'm to learn here? You know, I find myself in a bad situation and I, I don't, I don't fight for it to end. I ask, what am I to learn? And let me stay in it until I've learned everything I need to. And that's a very different come from.
Let me stay in it till I've learned what I need to. Man, I can't. That pokes at some stuff in my own life where I've had that own experience, like I've been in some times. There was a time in my life between, between my mid-30s. I'm sorry, my mid-20s and my early 30s. I thought, like, I was in a bad place in almost every sector of my life except for my health.
For.
Eight, almost 10 years. And I did get to a point where I just started asking myself, is this my new normal? And if this is my new normal, then I'm just going to adapt to Life being this way and I'm okay with just. I'm just going to set in it and just go with it like. Because there were those phases for me where I was like, is it my just supposed to learn something here? Is that what's going on? Or is this what life is like? Because I thought if this line, this is what life is like. I got two options. Either A, I got to end this right, get off the merry go round, or B, I adapt and make this my new normal and learn how to live in inside of this environment. And that was clearly, I made the second decision.
Thank goodness.
But I mean, it wasn't. I was not thinking I'm going to kill myself, but sure, no, no, I.
Get where you're coming from a logical.
Perspective, it was like, I either learn how to live here or you don't. What else are you going to do?
And so for me, it has, it has everything to do with belief. Like you cannot, you know, what I'm not saying is that I believe in God and that I believe that he has me here to teach me certain things. Certain things that are really hard for me. And my. Certain things, Nathan, are very different from your certain things things. That's why our lives have been so different. Our lives haven't just been different because of our, our choices. If you really believe in. And I believe a God in a God that's omnipotent, which means all powerful and omniscient, which means all knowing. If he's all knowing, he already knows the choices I'm going to make. Do I have free choice? Yes, I do. But he knows what I'm going to do and he knows where I'm going and he knows what I need to do. So I have a. There's a. There's. There's somebody in my church that taught me once that said, you know, life is a. Life is like a, like a curriculum. He uses the word curriculum a lot. And I like that because it's not like you have this set path you have to go on, but there's certain things you have to experience and, and I think it's individual. I have a very different life plan than you because I'm a very different person and I have very different things to learn. So if you believe that, which I do, then you look at life and say, it's not about all the things that we think it's about. It's about becoming. It's about, hey, I have weaknesses and I want to overcome them. I have, I have faults and I want to grow past them, and I want to make as much progress here as I can. And that has everything to do with that attitude. It's founded upon that belief. It's founded upon what I believe and who I believe God is. I don't only believe in God. I believe Him. When he says that he has a path for me, then I believe him, and I want to follow that path, and I do that, you know, in my. My way of doing that is allowing him to guide my hand. And what it means is what that looks like. And maybe it looks different for each person. I don't know. What it looks like for me is I'm just constantly aware of what's happening around me, and instead of fighting against it and trying to make it, I back off and say, what's going on? You know, is it time for me to move on? Is it time for me to do something different? That's. That's what I'm doing when I'm. When I'm allowing.
I. You know, I. I know Jim Johnson's gonna watch this, and I think he's. I. I smell a new T shirt coming.
Becoming.
I just. I just. I. I see that coming. Jim, I know you're gonna see this, and I know that you're probably gonna jump all over that, and if you do, good for you. I think that's pretty sweet.
I love that.
I'm gonna. I'm gonna shift gears here for just a little bit, but sure, man. If you're listening. If you're listening to this, before we move into talking about this, you should probably pause it, rewind it, and then just move through that little bit again, and then just rest in those concepts for a second and think about your own life, because those things Jory just shared. Absolutely powerful. And I appreciate you, Jory, for doing that.
