Heeding the Call to Adventure: Following Your Purposeful Journey

Foreign. Hey everyone. Welcome to the Meaningful Revolution podcast. I am your host and certified high performance coach, Sean Butner. And this is the show where we inspire you to follow your meaningful pursuits, to have a ripple effect of good out in the world. In today's episode, I'm really excited to share with you because it's all about heeding your call to adventure. And if you've ever had, you know, that fire in your belly or that hunger for something more in your life or song in your heart, or that yearning in your soul, that's the start of your purposeful journey. And anyone who's ever been successful at the highest levels has the this call at some point in their life and they're able to successfully transcend who they were into who they need to be in order to contribute more or to pursue the these meaningful, transformative and fulfilling pursuits. If you've ever had that restless feeling that you should be doing something different in your life, or you've had dreams of how you could be living or how you wish things were, but you don't know how to get there yet, or you have that realization, maybe that you're living a life that you didn't choose, but a life that's expected by both people around you, then maybe you're not listening to the call to adventure, that call to fully live your life, that call to really make a difference in a way that's politically yours. So if you're not able to figure this out, figure out how to listen to and heed your call to adventure. That's when you feel like you're not really authentically yourselves. And so you struggle to fully fill yourself in the world, or you don't feel confident asserting yourself in the world, you feel less confident taking on what the world throws at you, all the curveballs, all the hurdles, all the bumps. Or you end up living a life of resentment, of regret and frustration because feel like you just never fit in, or you felt like you were put in and had to hold a place that wasn't out of your choosing, out in the world. And so you never feel like you lived in your full potential. And I can relate to this as a high performance coach. My journey starts on the highway, right? My car is packed full of clothes and packed full of books and other essential living. And I'm driving from the Midwest to California. And part of that journey for me was I knew three years before that that I could be helping people in a more impactful and fulfilling way. But I didn't know what to do. And so I'm working this corporate job, doing software and really enjoying the parts of that job where I was mentoring people and not enjoying the kind of mindless, busy work that consisted a considerable amount of that just day to day job. And I remember daydreaming about having more of a direct working relationship with the work that I was doing and how I was helping people. And so I started to research just how to change, honestly, like I had some financial difficulties, I wasn't really happy with where my career was going. I needed to really figure out what I wanted in life so that I could go and make some moves towards it. And so that led me to High Performance Academy and this epic question I'll share with you. And if you heard my story before, you'll know what this question is. But the question is, are you living your truth? And we talk about living with purpose, doing meaningful works, meaningful pursuits, and it's all predicated on are you living your truth? I didn't like the answer that I had at that point in my life. And so that perspective, that question was the kick in the butt that got me to commit that, okay, I need to change something because I will literally go nuts if things do not change going forward. And so I had a three month plan, plan to leave that job to start a business where I was more directly working with people, helping them with their student debt. Because that's something I was super interested in at that point and executed that plan. And things didn't turn out the way that I initially thought they would. But I remember on that drive on the highway with all my stuff, heading out west, feeling the excitement and that, that feeling like you're really living your life and that the world is yours to mold and yours to shape and that I was very proud of making that choice and committing to seeing what happened, taking that bet on myself and being like, hey, how's this going to shake out? And that's the power of this purposeful journey. And it's not to say that it all works out perfectly for everyone. If you're, you're wondering why haven't I heeded my call to adventure? Or why did my call to adventure when I started not go as well? It takes, number one, an incredible amount of belief in yourself in order to start that journey. You have to overcome resistance and fear. Fear. And you really need to believe in your capacity to handle whatever comes at you to be able to learn what you need to learn to move forward. Because if you don't adapt, you don't change who you Are you're not going to be able to make that transition successfully and we could talk about how that could break down. But I've seen this with people I've coached and friends and people out in the world world. So I, I think that's true. I think also not all stories in everyone that heeds their call of adventure ends with happy endings or success, right? There's different amounts of capability, of resilience, of circumstance, right. So sometimes it's out of our hands if we have a family we have to provide for or if we have a sick parent or there's things in the world that are important, that are meaningful, that can also delay or change the timeline of this journey. Also, when we heed the call, there's a certain amount of tests and resistance that the world will just throw at you. Resistance being like, if I quit my job, I'm going to be financially bankrupt with any rent. And that's a belief, that's a fear. And the resistance there is to actually do the work, to figure out how to not have it, to have your plan B, to have what will ultimately help you get into action. And that also requires creating a plan. So this isn't going to be, you're not going to say, oh, you know what? Fully commit to what I know is in my heart, in my guts, in my soul that I need to go out and do and then the next day be like, just kidding. This is an act of consistent commitment over time in order to realize that dream, that ambition, that, that feeling and sense you have for yourselves. So I'll leave you with that. I have four things that can really help you heed your call to adventure, that call of your heart. And here we go, right? The first thing is figure out what's authentic for you and your soul. I knew that I wanted to help people from a very young age. I was going through some old art projects from grade school at my parents house earlier this year and a couple of different books that I made over the years. It was I want to ride bikes, play video games and help people or I want to be a writer and play tag and help people. So it was pretty interesting to see that as a kid I had this idea that this yearning to be helpful in some way, however, whatever that means. But that's probably why I'm a coach right now. That's probably why I'm a coach right now. It's probably why I have this podcast and I'm looking forward to getting back into interviews and why this is all happening right It's a way the mission of this podcast is to help you live a more meaningful, fulfilling, authentic life that's in alignment to who you are. And that's the help that I'm trying to do here. So you need to be very crystal clear on that. If you take a look at some other folks say about being clear. Evan Carmichael talks about knowing your one word for your brand, for your mission, for your purpose. His is believe. He wants people to believe in themselves and believe in the good they could put out in the world. For this is, I hope that if I could sum this up in one word, it's to be more purposeful in your life, to do things on purpose. And so that all aligned with what you want in the world, of course. But knowing that for yourself, your one word, if you're going to borrow Evan's thing or knowing your big message like Brendan Burchard, he's got three words, let's live love matter from his car accident story. And I won't go into that now, but shout out to Evan. Shout out to Brendan. Really getting clear on the one or three things that are super important for you to exist as could be very helpful on heeding your call to adventure, you know, because if you have 50 million things and you want to do 50 million things, that's another way that people tend to fail. They get off focus or pulled a distraction because they're not clear on the guiding principle. And that's what we want here. Second thing is to find a mentor. Sometimes having that extra perspective can shake you out of what's normally going on for you. For me in that story I told, it was going to that seminar, getting asked that one question crushed me, but also kicked me in the butt to say, you know what, I need to figure out what my truth is. If I know, I don't, I'm not living it at that moment. And mentor a teacher, a coach sometimes can be very helpful. And if you're like, who do I need to follow? Or who can help me really in my purposeful journey. If you liked what you've heard here in this show and through the other podcast episodes, I do offer a free one hour high performance strategy session and we can help dig in and figure out what you really are, about your authentic you and how you can realize that out in the world. So if you're interested, there's a link below the show notes here to sign up for a free one hour strategy session. Make sure you do it soon. They tend to fill up and then, you know, you get put on a waiting list and that always is a bummer. But yeah, definitely check that out. If you're looking for some different perspective or a process to help you really sift through and discover your one or three words, because that's part of what we do on that call. So it's super helpful. Anyways, find them out. If you, if you go with me, fantastic. If you want to check out Evan or Brendan or another coach or another person that, that you think might be able to help, I'm all for it. It doesn't have to be me, of course, but getting in discussion with somebody else is really important and just getting clear on who you are, what you want in the world. Coming up with that plan, which is the third point, their point is to make a plan, is to set a deadline and work backwards on what you need to make that deadline. A, heck yeah, we're going to do this right? And again, sometimes the coach can help you get clear on that, or a mentor or friend. But ultimately setting the deadline and setting the milestones that need to happen for that deadline to be successful, for you to actually act on it is really key. And I'll be honest too. When I was leaving that first job in corporate America, before I headed out west, like I said, three years before I actually left, I knew that I needed a change. And a lot of the work in those three years was getting clear on what I actually wanted. And it was creating guidelines that I missed. And if you create a deadline and you're like, the conditions aren't met, great. Really. That's a time to reassess. Was it circumstance? Was it just not right timing? There, There are a million ways we could mat meet a deadline or a plan. But I will say for me, I kept setting new deadlines and eventually it, it clicked, right? Eventually I'm like, I need to make this happen. Need to make this happen at a soul level. And that's ultimately what led to that final deadline being met. Getting all my ducks in a row, which actually took longer than I thought. So there, there's that too. But ultimately making it, making a deadline and either having a yes, no can really help you get into action. And that's what we really want for there. And then the fourth thing to think about is to ride the dragon, right? You have to follow through on the plan, the plan to leave that deadline and the plan afterwards. Like, how long are you going to be testing out your new business? How long are you going to be trying this new thing? What are the conditions for you to say, hey, this failed, or what are the conditions to say, oh, I should continue to go on. That's very important. Important. And then also like obligations, like, what do you need to make meet your obligations while you're figuring stuff out can be really helpful. But I call it riding the dragon because there will be days where you will feel exhilarated that you've taken steps and bold steps towards realizing your aspirations. And you'll maybe in the same day, maybe in the same hour, will have a freak out and be like, did I completely kill the person or destroy the person that I was to try something new and I'm not going to succeed. That struggle is real. That's another great reason to have a mentor or a coach to help you when you have those kind of freak out moments. And ultimately the act of becoming the person we need to become to realize our dreams, aspirations, to listen and heed that fire in our stomach, the song in our hearts, the yearning in our soul is going to change who we are fundamentally, right? You will change throughout this process and that can be very scary, especially if you have old identities that weren't really serving you. You have to ride that dragon and feel the exhilaration and that sense that you're living your life and to also realize that there's going to be bumps along the way. Ride the dragon. All right. After all that said, again, remember, we need to figure out what's authentic to you and your soul should find a mentor, make a plan and then ride the dragon and implement if you want to, heed your call to adventure, that call of your heart so you can live your full life with that. Guys, if you are interested in continuing the conversation on purpose, you can check out this other episode in the show, notes on finding and living your purpose. This is Sean Butner saying, go out there with more joy in your life, more growth personally, and more impact to your communities. And we'll see you in the next episode of the Meaningful Revolution podcast. Sam.