Second Calling: Life Purpose for Professionals at an Inflection Point

What's keeps us from pursuing purpose? For many, it's what's inside of us. Our fears, worries, even negative expectations keep us from moving forward.
Maya Nazareth knows all about this. When she started practicing jiu jitsu, she realized that the available gear was made for men, not women. As an aspiring entrepreneur, she saw an opportunity, and she started her own business making fightwear for women. There were many obstacles to overcome. The first and foremost was inside of her. Her internal chatter told her that she shouldn't do this and that she couldn't do this. In this episode, Maya shares how she overcame this barrier to launch a successful business.
In this episode, you'll learn about:

• The importance of finding people pursuing purpose in a similar way
• What it means to gamble on finding purpose
• How our internal chatter blocks us acting on what matters most
• Building the muscle of believing in yourself
• How to use purpose in branding

Maya's links:
LinkedIn
Alchemize Fightwear
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Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

Living in a digital world has many advantages, but living purposefully isn't one of them. Digital distraction affects us and our relationships in so many ways. What can we do to overcome it and live a life that matters? 
Ed Cyzewski is a writer and thinker who explores the boundaries of theology, spiritual practice, and daily living. His book Reconnect: Spiritual Restoration from Digital Distraction guides readers in living deeply in a shallow world. In this episode, he shares his thoughts on the many ways that digital distraction pulls us away from living meaningful, authentic lives and what we can do about it.
In this episode,  you'll learn about:

• The effect of digital distraction 
• How to figure out what matters most in life
• Choosing intentional versus reactionary actions
• Connecting contemplation with purpose
• Why social media is toxic for living purposefully

Ed's website
Reconnect book
LinkedIn

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Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

(Part two of a two-part series)
Have you ever wanted to get away from it all for a wild adventure? If you did, what would  you learn about yourself? How would you be different?
Logan McDonald did this. He was a student in my class his senior year. After he graduated, he planned to hike the Appalachian trail by himself. Logan graciously agreed to a two-part interview--one shortly before he left for the trip and the other right after he got back. He shares with us thoughts about why to do such an adventure and what can gotten out of it. 
In these episodes, you'll learn about:

• The connection between challenge and purpose
• Grit, gratitude, and purpose
• The value of solitude in discerning what's important
• Finding purpose even in social interactions
• How challenging difficulties change us

Logan's Instagram page
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Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

(Part one of a two part series)
Have you ever wanted to get away from it all for a wild adventure? If you did, what would  you learn about yourself? How would you be different?
Logan McDonald did this. He was a student in my class his senior year. After he graduated, he planned to hike the Appalachian trail by himself. Logan graciously agreed to a two-part interview--one shortly before he left for the trip and the other right after he got back. He shares with us thoughts about why to do such an adventure and what can gotten out of it. 
In these episodes, you'll learn about:

• The connection between challenge and purpose
• Grit, gratitude, and purpose
• The value of solitude in discerning what's important
• Finding purpose even in social interactions
• How challenging difficulties change us

Logan's Instagram page
***
Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

Which aspects of your life do you need to manage to have more purpose? Naturally, we think of money, time, and energy. But, what about the space that you live in?
Shawna Scafe, at Simple on Purpose, teaches people how to live on purpose. One of her main tools is decluttering. Decluttering is much more than just getting rid of things. It forces us to understand who we are and what is important to us. It's also a way of gaining control over our lives. Finally, we can set up our space to support our purpose as we understand it. Shawna shares her deep insight into this topic with us. 
In this episode, you'll learn about:

• The devastating effect of "safe" jobs
• Decluttering and purpose
• Using space as a resource, just as we do money and time
• How to remember your why
• Nine areas of life in which to find purpose

Instagram
Simple on Purpose website
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Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

Leadership in intrinsically bound to purpose. The best leaders know their own purpose, and they lead others with purpose. How can leaders learn to be more purposeful?
Ryan Sanders approaches this issue from both a theoretical and an applied perspective. As a business school instructor, he knows the research literature on leadership. As an executive coach, he has plenty of hands-on experience helping leaders. From this background, Ryan shares a wealth of ideas about finding and using purpose as a leader. 
In this episode, you'll learn about:

• Why leaders need to continually ask "why am I doing this"
• Purpose vs. money as a motivator for leaders
• Good and bad reasons for getting into leadership
• The ego and purpose
• Creating vs. helping others as two basic forms of purpose expression

Ryan's LinkedIn page
Educate, Innovate, and Inspire Consulting
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Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

In life, we go through different seasons. What about purpose? How does it reflect these changing seasons of our life?
Jonathon Tucker played competitive soccer, started up a soccer coaching business, and became a teacher. In all of these, he had to work out what purpose meant in that stage of life. Each stage taught him something new about purpose. From his experience, he's developed a model of how purpose unfolds and what we can do to have more of it--at any time of our life.
In this episode, you'll learn about:

• The cyclical nature of purpose
• Why purpose is necessarily idiosyncratic to the person
• How to equip people for purpose
• Becoming disillusioned with conventional success
• Learning lessons from any situation

Jonathon's LinkedIn page
The Purpose Cycle book
Jonathon's Indiegogo page
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Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

Purpose is usually talked about as a destination. "What is the purpose of my life?" But, is it something that can be experienced every day? What does purpose mean as a day-to-day experience?
Zach Mercurio spent two years studying how janitors found purpose and meaning in their work. Even though they were doing menial work, some of them found greater purpose in what they did. This research gave him deep insight into the lived experience of purpose. It involves less of what we actually do and more how we do it. This powerful idea opens up the door for any experience--no matter how seemingly mundane--being deeply purposeful. Zach explains how we can do this in our own lives as well. 
In this episode, you will learn about

• Being educated for purpose vs. success
• Extraordinary people doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways
• Purpose as a lived experience 
• Why organizations must actively maintain purpose
• The importance of helping people know that they matter

Zach's LinkedIn page
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Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

What do you do when you hit absolute rock bottom in your life--when you've lost all that matters in your past and in your future? You start living out any purpose that you can find.
Shay Walters is a wife, mother, and a nine-time convicted felon.  She delved into the abyss of drug addiction. Having lost custody of her son and facing a possible two-decade prison sentence, she changed her life around completely. She gave up her previous impulsive ways of living only for momentary pleasure. She committed herself to vision for her life that was bigger than her.  Now, out of prison, she and her husband run an out-treatment rehabilitation center for others in addiction. 
In this episode, you'll learn about 

• Why some young people don't engage purpose
• How to live purposefully with few, if any, resources
• Having a bigger picture for your life
• Using the problems of our past to help others
• How a sense of entitlement can block finding purpose

Shay's Prison to Purpose Facebook page
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Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]

Awareness is an often overlooked aspect of experiencing purpose. This raises the question of how awareness increases purpose, and, conversely, how purpose increases awareness. It also ties purpose into mindfulness and other contemplative practices.
Cortland Dahl works in the intersection of science and the spirit. In science, he is a research scientist working at the prestigious University of Wisconsin Center for Health Minds. He's spent his career studying contemplative practices--even going on a one-year silent retreat. He brings a wealth of insight about the relationship between the brain and our experiences of purpose.
In this episode, you'll learn about:

• The relationship between mediation and purpose
• How we experience purpose in everyday life
• The power of reflecting on our own mortality
• Looking on people who inspire us
• How post-traumatic growth can lead to purpose

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Find more at my Instagram page. 
Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at [email protected]. Would enjoy hearing from you.
Want to start your own podcast? This podcast is edited and produced (and music too) by Josh Gilbert. He does a great job and is a joy to work with. Contact him at   [email protected]