Break Out of Your Rut: 5 Questions to Reclaim Your Passion for Life
1. Are You Stuck in a Career You Hate?
Last week I had the privilege to interview Nicky Billou on Spotify’s #1 Podcast for Christian Men, the Men in the Arena Podcast. Nicky is the Founder of the Thought Leader Revolution Podcast and author of The Thought Leader’s Journey, which was the subject of our interview.
Our interview is perfect for any man who is working a job he hates or feels stuck in. It is for any man who relates to this quote from Nicky’s book: “The truth is, I hate my job. When I was growing up, my dream was to be successful, to gain a lot of knowledge and wisdom along the way, to help people and inspire others.”
2. Are You Stuck in Someone Else’s Rut?
Jeremiah 29:11 is a verse many have memorized but few live by, “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
Are you drowning in voices telling you that you are doing a great job while you sink deeper and deeper? Maybe you’re living your wife’s plan for you. Maybe you are fulfilling your children’s plan. Or, trying to live up to the expectations of a parent? Anything less than living out God’s plan in Psalm 139:16 is mediocrity at best and sin at worst:
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
3. Are you willing to Start Dreaming Again?
A decade ago, I found myself in this position. It wasn’t until I started dreaming again, daring to ask God for guidance, that it was finally revealed to me in a Central Oregon coffee shop.
It is never too late to dream again. At age 65, one man began franchising his dream with his $105 Social Security check. At his age, many have resigned to take their retirement pension and drift downstream with the rest of humanity. Aren’t you glad Colonel Harland Sanders realized only dead things drift downstream!
Today, Kentucky Fried Chicken operates more than 5,200 restaurants in the United States and more than 15,000 units around the world.
Acting on your dream isn’t nearly as difficult as daring to dream again at 35, 45, 55 years old, or older.
4. Are You Willing to Take the Necessary Risks?
Do not ignore fear. Do not listen to it either. Fear is not fact. George S. Patton truthfully warned, “Take not counsel of your fears.” Never let fear drive you away from God and His's dream for you.
We launched Men in the Arena without help, loans, or venture capitalism, targeting the most fiscally-neglected group in the Church, during one of the worst economies in American history. We trusted God and went for it. All in. Two months later our home was in foreclosure preceding and my night sweats were in full force, my nightmare in full view of all!
The words of Jesus (Matthew 19:21) are guttural when experienced in full view, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
What is the worst that can happen when you (and your bride) decide to go for it? To resurrect a dying dream. When I ask that question, I get the same lame excuse, “I could lose my house?”
Lame because that answer removes God from the dream—completely.
So what? You lose your house and in doing so, at least you are pleasing God, impressing your bride, and living out your faith in Jesus with abandon. I have never been so afraid and so alive as those early days when we depended on God for every check to come in and man to engage.
5. Are You Ready to Break Free? Do this!
Here are three ways to identify your dream. To unpack this more, listen to my interview with Nicky here.
1. Discover your message.
2. Find an itch that no one is scratching the way you can.
3. Define your Avatar, people who have the itch.
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Living the Dream,
Jim