A conversational podcast episode (June 4, 2021) in which Josh Trent and guest Cal Callahan discuss how people discover their purpose. Callahan emphasizes small, iterative steps (“micro breadcrumbs”), paying attention to activities that bring joy, saying no to draining obligations, and designing life around fun and curiosity rather than external expectations or purely financial incentives. He also discusses practical trade-offs (e.g., outsourcing social media) and the role of financial security as both constraint and enabler.
Chapters
How do people find their purpose?
Well, it's a little bit what you were talking about before. It's not going to hit you upside the head. It's not going to. It's not going to fall in your lap. What your purpose is. Your purpose is like a series of these little steps. And if you can pay attention to the things that make you feel really good and take that step and the things that you constrict a little bit, like literally, you feel it in your body when it's a no. Yeah, but we're not tuned. A lot of people, we're not tuned into that. If you can just really start to pay attention to the things that bring you joy, that make you feel alive, that's part of the path.
But it's like a breadcrumb. It's not.
It's a fucking. It's even smaller than a breadcrumb.
It's a micro breadcrumb that's in.
Don't. You may have an idea of where you want to be. Make it an aim, make it really wide versus a goal. A goal feels like it's a flag on the ground. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to get. That's where I want to be. You have no fucking idea what makes you feel really good right now. Here. Can you be here now in what is really good? Okay, pay attention. Start to gather those things that make you feel really good and start to pull away from the things, move the things out of the way that are. No. And it really becomes that simple. But we're not taught that. We're not. We're taught find your purpose, but they don't. They don't give you the simplicity like anything that's. This isn't complicated, but it does take discipline because you gotta get quiet. You gotta stop listening to other people's opinions, their feedback. This is about you, what makes you feel good. If you have a podcast and you have a newsletter and you have a website and you don't really like doing social media, maybe you do just a little bit, maybe you hire someone to do that. But for me, I don't like it at all. And so I haven't. You probably noticed I don't do much of it. You probably noticed because you don't see me on there. You see, the Wednesday workouts are fun for me, but for me it was like a drain of my energy. And, you know, I have a podcast and I kind of have a newsletter. It's more just about the podcast. That's Upcoming. But for, you know, three months, it was more about what I was going through, what I was learning, and I was sharing that. And for me, that became such a heavy lift. It's like, I don't want to do that. So I said no to something that most people would say, you can't. You got it. You should have a newsletter. It's going to get to more people and they'll share it with their friends if it's really good. And you got to get out there on social media. You got three posts a day, and you got to post on your story and you got to share your lifestyle and this. I get all that.
Well, that's. That's driven by Gary Vaynerchuk and people that have money invested in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You got to watch where you're getting your advice from.
Well, and it's fair. And there is some. There's some truth to that, to that. Helping build you. Because I do want to have impact.
Yeah.
You know, I think that's important as part of the. It's not just doing this for me, although that's the biggest reason I'm doing, is for my own learning or unlearning. But it's like, what are those things that you're doing just because you think it's what you're supposed to do. And can you remove those from your life without completely, you know, having it create this house of cards effect?
Yeah.
And if you can, I encourage you to start taking those steps. Start weeding the garden. If you can do that, you'll start to get more clear on the things you want to do. And it doesn't mean fucking quiet, quit your job and do like that may come. But, you know, when I was trading, I started to recognize that all I wanted to do in my free time while I was on the trading floor, because it was really slow, I was reading about weight training, I was reading about nutrition, I was reading about lifestyle, reading about all this stuff. So I started to pay attention. Oh, this is. That was the next step for me. I started coaching people. When I left trading, it was really easy for me to leave trading in that sense because I had a second chapter. A lot of people don't have that because they haven't paid attention to what really, you know, without anybody telling you what to do, what are the things you are reading on the Internet? What are the things that you do in your free time? What are the things that bring you life? Who are the people you really enjoy being around?
What do you see that Blocks people's purpose. In my opinion, it's media, phone opinions and thoughts of others parental example that got passed down. There's an onslaught to our mental faculty that literally guards us. For some people, it's like we've heard this thing, you know, the graveyard is the richest place in the world because all the dreams of people that have unfulfilled them is trillions of dollars that sit in the graveyard because people never had the courage to act on their dreams. So what do you see, you know, what do you see in your work? What do you see in your podcast? What do you see in the world that blocks people from actually really going towards their purpose?
It's mostly the money thing. That's. That's the big crutch. And I don't speak from personal experience because when I left, I was fine. When I left trading, but there's that. I've seen it with my old trading buddies and they've done well, but not super well. Actually, a couple have done certainly well enough, quote unquote, to leave, and they haven't because they're still making pretty good money and they just can't get off the tit. It's a steady income. They get health insurance. So much of their happiness of what they're supposed to do in life is wrapped around being able to provide financially.
Which is a real thing, which is real.
But they're also not introducing other things in their life that light them up. So they don't love what they're doing, but they're not doing anything to open up the aperture to see what else is out there. And so it's really that stuck. I'm comfortable. I'm comfortable right now. My job's okay. I have fun outside my job. And it's like your fucking whole life can be filled with joy. And you don't know that because you haven't experienced it. And that's okay. And I wouldn't have understood that until I actually experienced it. And I, and I today, I do experience it has nothing to do. I would say it has very little to do with the financial comfort. I mean, I think that helps for sure that I don't have to, quote, unquote, earn a living, but I still have to make choices every day on how I'm going to spend my time and being an achiever. Like, I am holding that in check and putting that, like, what am I trying to achieve? Is it financial success anymore? Because I don't care how much money you've made, there's always more to be made, especially if you're not in the right rel. I fucking see a lot of that. And when I see it, it pings me like, don't be that like what? Have what you need but spend. And what happens is other opportunities start to come about that you didn't even know were there. And by the way, they could be worth a lot of money and you're loving what you're doing. And even if they don't turn out to be a lot of money, you're having fun.
Yes.
You're just having fun. You know, and I talk with my partner Ty a lot about this and you know, we've worked together for a little over a year on the brand and we're working on some other things and he helps me with the unlearned ventures and really doing like the deep dive due diligence on that stuff. And he fucking hates it when I say this. Okay, so I'll just say that we haven't quote unquote, achieved a lot by traditional standards. Right. When you have bring someone in to take over all that stuff. But it's been by design, I would say by maybe soul level design. Because what we've really tuned into probably since September is are we having fun?
Yeah.
And he comes here in this room at least twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. We spend most of the day here riffing on things. It could be about the podcast, it could be about some deals, it could be about anything. But we're in such a beautiful energy here and we really cherish the time together because there's such an energy and there's so much joy that comes out of that. It's like none of the other stuff matters. Are we having fun? This stuff will fall into line. We will start to do some things that are going to be amazing. And he's working on a project right now that could be the thing that we would have never found had we been nose to the grindstone for sure. And it could be know financially massive.
Yeah.
But that doesn't. I don't even care cuz it's so fun.
