What If Your Current Challenge Is Actually Leading You To Your Greater Purpose?

These felt enormous. And there were times in my life where I was like, I just got the short end of the stick. And that perspective did not get me anywhere. But you know what did? When I started to believe that God blessed me with these challenges so I could understand a multitude of people that I would not have been able to understand if I wouldn't have gone through these experiences. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the show. It's time for another quickie, because there's always a time to fit in inspiration. And Chris and I have 11 more days left of our summer at the lake house. And while it's winding down, and I know that it's coming to a close this summer, even though there's a lot of summer left, don't freak out if you're in the Midwest. I remember being like, don't say summer's over yet. Are you kidding me? We wait all year for this, but we're excited to also get back to our Newport beach place and have all of August left. But as it's winding down, we're fitting in our last couple weekends of wake surfing, which, for me, you guys, if you don't have a hobby or some sort of sport or something that you're learning or trying to get better at, I'm telling you, I think it is, like, the biggest entrepreneurial hack of a lifetime. It is the only time that my brain shuts completely off, and it's like I open up this completely different side of my brain, and I love, love learning a new skill. It is the most incredible way to deal with stress and to just, like, wash the day away from, you know, everything that maybe you dealt with. If you live by a body of water, if you live by the ocean, if you live by a lake, I'm telling you, the fastest way for me is to go get in the water and get kind of that stressful day off or whatever you were dealing with or reset. So that's what we're up to right now. And I'm actually sitting in the parking lot of a coffee shop that I always go in and work at in this area that we're in, which is Green Bay. And I need to be in the environment of energy, because as great as it is to have a lake house and. And do all the amazing things that you get to do there during the week, I really have to dig in to go try to find some energy Monday through Friday to go work somewhere so that I can get in the buzz and be around people, because that's just how my brain works. Like I was telling my husband the other day, this coffee shop we were sitting in, he, you know, he's sitting across from me and it's like super busy in there and there's like all of these like noises and people talking. And the crazy thing for me is understanding, you know, like how you work best. And I said to him, I get so focused when there's so much going on around me when I'm at home and it's quiet because let me just tell you, it is quiet and serene at the lakehous house. I'm so distracted. I'm like, should I go do yard work? Should I go unload the dishwasher? And this is me at home too, in our California house. I have to go seek the buzz all of the time. So I'm excited to get back to California. I'm grateful for what we did at the lake house. I'm so grateful that I got to get better at wake surfing this summer. I am so grateful that I got to really drop in with some incredible friends here. I'm so grateful that I got to see friends and family and we still have some really fun family things left. We're actually celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary. We're going to celebrate it on August 4th. We're throwing a party for them. So that's been a fun distraction too also is planning that and planning some fun karaoke, dancing, all sorts of fun stuff. So then we head out, we take our four day road trip back to California, which Chris and I love this four day road trip because we listen to so many books and podcasts and talk and dream. It's almost like a little reset at the end of summer. Like what do we want for this second half of the year? So if you guys don't have something like that in place, I highly recommend it where maybe for the day you just go unplug and get away from everything. And for us that's in the car. We try to not go on any social or anything like that and just really tune into each other and to books and podcasts and dream and it's the coolest way to kind of go, what do we want for the second half? Because I know that we do that the new year. But do you have a time to go and do that for, for the second half of the year? I would look at your calendar right now and be like, okay, this will be a day. I'd love to go do this with friends or a partner or, you know, if you don't have A partner, go book something with a friend or book a day on Zoom. Even though I don't highly recommend Zoom, try to get in person as much as you possibly can. But what I want to chat with you today about is for the last three years at the lake house, every single summer I re listen to the book the Comfort Crisis and it's by Michael Easter. After I read this book, I had to have him on my podcast. So you can go and tune into the past podcast episode on Earn your Happy, which you're listening to right now. And you can type in Michael Easter and go listen to that episode or go grab the book on Audible. Like if you love to read books, go for it. But I love the Audible because there's. He does so much storytelling in it that I just love listening to the storytelling. But this book is required reading for me. Writing once a year, I actually think I should do it two or three times a year. I'm not even kidding. It should be like my morning wake up read because it is such a reminder of how our comforts and our lack of challenge. I know some of you are like, wait a minute, I have challenge. Our lack of physical challenge and new challenge is actually scientifically making us depressed, stressed and anxious. And he talks all about choosing different challenges, physical or not mental challenges too, but mostly physical, and how that can really help us in our everyday life be happier, feel more fulfilled, and just be more present in our life as well. But the stories that he tells, like, it's gonna rock your world. If you haven't read it yet. If you have read it, I highly recommend doing it again asap. So this is what I'm doing right now on all of my walks is listening to this book again and remembering the more challenge you have in your life. You're probably happier now. I know some of you are gonna argue that because sometimes money stressors and things like that are truly just massive, horrible challenge. But at the same time, it does make you rise up and become a different person with a different skill set. And it talks a lot about how are you handling the challenges. You know, when you have challenge, are you. Are you coping with them in a destructive way? Hey, been there, done that. Still succumb to things like that frequently. But this is such a good reminder of how we can cope and deal with those challenges. And I had put out a video talking about the bigger the challenge, the bigger your purpose could potentially be. And I don't think it's even potentially. I think that the bigger the challenges you have in your life, sometimes even the bigger the traumas, the bigger your purpose and calling that has been put on you is. And some people might be thinking like, why in the hell now did I go through all that I went through only to have to show up for other people even more? In this way, everything that we feel and everything that we have and everything that is surrounding us is coming from how we choose to perceive the challenge that we've gone through or the challenge that is in front of us. And if you haven't read my book, this may come as a bit of a surprise, but When I was 18, I was kidnapped in Mexico overnight. And there's a lot of things that happened during that particular 12 hour stint of being kidnapped and held captive. And I will tell you that when I came back, I didn't have the tools quite yet to perceive it as I'm going to end up using this challenge and many other challenges. Growing up and going bankrupt as a family and a lot of other things that happened going on. Watching my mom's best friend die in a drowning incident and almost drowning myself. There were a lot of different things that I could have said. Why is this happening to me? Why is life like this? Why is it always so hard? Why is everything a struggle? Why are we always broke? Why are we always giving each other the same hundred dollars to borrow and nobody can get by? Why, why, why? Why is this so hard? And instead, once you get the tools, I'm telling you, I started to see every single moment of trauma as a moment to be able to teach people and understand the shoes that they are standing in and understand where they came from and understand how if I could get myself right, like not graduating high school, thinking I'm stupid, homeschooling through high school, but only making it through the ninth grade, like, feeling like I was completely always behind. Growing up in a more restrictive religion where I wasn't allowed to hang out with anyone outside of my religion and if I left, I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone that I, you know, grew up with all of these challenges, you guys, I had some big challenges. Now, to some people, these are not big challenges. I understand. Because everything is about, you know, in comparison to what you've experienced. But for me, these felt huge. These felt enormous. And there were times in my life where I was like, I just got the short end of the stick.

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And that perspective did not get me anywhere. But you know what did? When I started to believe that God blessed me with these challenges so I could understand a multitude of people that I would not have been able to understand if I wouldn't have gone through these experiences, I feel like I can have such massive understanding and compassion for people and still tell them, hey, you might feel like the underdog, but this is exactly why you are supposed to figure it out, to show everyone that you can do it and to eliminate all excuses. So if you have had a massive challenge and if you're in one, it's because you are sent in the world. You are sent out to the world. Your purpose is to be an excuse eliminator for people. You are here to be the proof for everybody else that is a big ass calling on you. And I pray that you step into those shoes no matter how long it takes. This is not easy, but you have more of a bigger blessing waiting for you on the other side than most people who have not had these experiences to the level in which you've experienced the low and is the exact reflection on the other end in which you are going to experience a high and the blessing. And so I pray that you look at all of these challenges and experiences as the reason why you are absolutely going to have to do what you know you need to do to reach back and pull those people up and eliminate all of their excuses. Because everybody has a purpose. And I believe that we're all in pain until we start to step into that purpose. I think God's like, hey, I'm gonna keep hitting you with even more challenges. Because it's, it's like exactly what you need to make you stronger. This is the exact school that you need to make you better, but you have to perceive it as school. And you have to perceive the challenge as the way. You have to know that the obstacle is the way, right? Ryan Holiday's book. Go grab that book. The obstacle in front of you is the way out. You just have to figure out how to solve it. And the bigger the challenge, the bigger the calling on you. So I love you guys so much. I hope that you take these steps to move forward. I hope that you know it's going to take a lot of time. I hope that you free yourself of this pain that you're in or of this struggle or of this feeling of like, God, why am I not doing this? Or why did this happen to me? Because you have the opportunity to do it. No matter how small that first step is, no matter how long it takes, no matter what challenge is in front of you. I know that you wouldn't have been given that challenge if the call on you wasn't huge. And this has to be the belief that you adopt. In fact, that is your new mantra. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the calling on my life. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the calling on my life. Keep moving through, you guys. Pray, do whatever you need to get through. I don't believe it's a curse. I believe it is a future blessing for you to reach the masses and help them out and be blessed bigger than you could ever imagine. So I'm sending you guys so much love, and until next time, earn your happy. Bye, everyone.