Recounting their early youth, Michael and Chris discuss what they've learned about not quitting, taking criticism, and the wisdom of learning how to "kill their darlings."

-- Michael intro

-- Chris’s track and field story: a great metaphor for his brokenness

-- Michael’s football dream hit a blockade / The experience led him towards a career in music and an ideological stance against quitting

-- We distinguish between failure of grandiose dreams vs failures of personal passion projects

-- Michael’s expands on a story from episode one: an actress he knew was hurt by external forces that attempted to force her down an improper career path

-- Chris reveals how painful it is when art we create with passion doesn’t impact others / It’s hard to be a good self-critic

-- Michael’s difficulty listening to his own recordings / A cautionary tale: how to navigate the temptation to correlate success and accolades as an actor with one’s true self-worth

-- How finding your identity in the Father frees you as an artist

-- The push to be a constant self-promoter can be a pitfall, especially for believers / How to guard yourself from this risk

-- Chris’s need for Christian relationships to ground him and direct him away from over-focusing on around-the-clock career advancement / The difficulty in forming new church friendships in Los Angeles / Being a workout-aholic

-- Michael talks about the true calling of believers and shares a beautiful story about an interaction with a resident during his service at a homeless shelter

-- Outro

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Chris's work can be found at Cmobmo.com

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