Episode 1259: When Your World Falls Apart

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,259 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:06] Dow Tippet: I'm Dow

[00:00:07] Tippet, author of Seven Daily Choices. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your colleague.

[00:00:21] Having the ability to make the right choices every day is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott.

[00:00:33] Scott Maderer: It's not just the big things in our life that cause these feelings. Sometimes it can be even the smallest of things, but it's important whenever we have those feelings that we stop and take a breath and we think to ourselves this pain is temporary, no matter how bad it is. It's still temporary.

[00:00:54] That doesn't mean it'll go away. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the [00:01:00] Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that.

[00:01:20] Can impact the work

[00:01:23] in today's episode about investing in yourself through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about how we often feel that our world is or will soon fall apart. I share how it's not just about the big things, it's also about the little things, and I also share some things you can do and you can always do them when it feels like your world is falling.

[00:01:45] You've heard me talk about developing your talent, and one of the best ways to do that is through books. But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read, and that's why today's podcast is brought to you by Audible. [00:02:00] Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up. And you can get a 30 day free trial.

[00:02:07] There's over 180,000 titles to choose from, and you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via Audible. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. I think it's really easy to start to feel like.

[00:02:32] Your world is falling apart or it soon will. I think a lot of times we have a lot of feelings around doom and gloom. I'm putting this out the same week as there's massive US elections for the midterm, and if you turn on the news, it's all about how this group or that group the world is going to end.

[00:02:52] Next year will be the worst year we've ever had, and this year has been the worst year we've ever. Sometimes there's personal events, things [00:03:00] that happen in your life, whether it's the death of a loved one, whether it's a change in your job situation, whether it's a change in relationships, whatever it is, there are things that can happen in our life that cause us to feel like everything is falling apart.

[00:03:18] And by the same token, there are events that can happen in the world. That, just those events going on and people talking about them makes us feel like the world is going to fall apart. A lot of my clients are small business owners, and I was having a conversation with one of them the other day. He was talking about how next year he was really worried about his business.

[00:03:45] And there's some legit reasons that he should be worried and inflation is high. Many of his clients are facing increased cost, and so some, to some extent they may reduce how they're using his [00:04:00] marketing business, but at the same time, I asked him, I said, Let's just assume for a minute that everything that you're feeling is accurate, that next year really is going to be one of the worst years ever.

[00:04:14] What should you be doing right now to make sure that you've done all you can in this moment to help, even if it's bad, to help it where it's not quite as bad? And he brainstormed for a few minutes. He mentioned maybe I need to probably do a better job of staying in contact with my current clients and making sure that they know what's happening and what's going on and what results we're getting.

[00:04:42] I'm not always diligent about communicating that, and because of that, sometimes they get a little disconnected from what's going on. And I need to make sure that I've looked at my expenses and I've cut them down to what they really need to be. I'm not wasting any money anywhere and I need to [00:05:00] make sure that I go in with a positive attitude to the meetings that I have coming up, where I'm meeting with potential new clients, and I really try to find out what they need and make sure that I can really help them.

[00:05:14] I said, Okay, those are all great things. And he brainstormed some other things but that was some of them. And I said, Now let's just ask a different question. Assume for a minute that next year is gonna be the best year ever. What should you be doing right now to make sure that next year is still really good for you and the best year that you can have it to be?

[00:05:41] And he said, The exact same things and I said, that was my point, was what you were doing now today doesn't really affect whether or not things are gonna happen in the environment. You can't control whether or not a spouse is going to pass away. You can't [00:06:00] control whether or not the economy is going to go up in flames directly.

[00:06:06] You can't control what's happening in all of your investments all of the time. That doesn't mean you can't make changes, and that doesn't mean that maybe you shouldn't at times make changes. That doesn't mean that you should just throw up your hands and say, I have no control over the world. But what you should do is focus on the things that you do have control over, and often the things that you should be doing to prepare for something that's a bad event are very similar, if not the same as those things that you should just be doing.

[00:06:40] You should just be doing because they're the right things to do. They prepare you whether the things are going badly or things are going well. It's not just the big things in our life that cause these feelings. Sometimes it can be even the smallest of things, but it's important whenever we have those [00:07:00] feelings that we stop and take a breath and we think to ourselves this pain is t.

[00:07:05] No matter how bad it is, it's still temporary. That doesn't mean it'll go away, but it'll change. It'll be different in the future. It helps to remind yourself that worrying about it doesn't really fix it. Instead, taking things on, doing actions. That can help the situation. It helps to remind yourself of the things in your life that you are grateful for, and remind yourself that it's about moving forward.

[00:07:42] It's about progress, not perfection. It's okay to be emotional. It's okay to feel sad. It's okay to feel scared, but you need to face those emotions. Admit that they're there, dig in to where they're coming. And [00:08:00] then continue to move forward. Don't necessarily push. Don't necessarily force it. Sometimes when you're dealing with something like grief, if you're not ready to deal with it today, that's okay, but eventually you need to get up out of bed and continue to move forward.

[00:08:17] You need to find the things in your life that you can actually connect to the things that connect you with others. You. Focus on the relationships, the friendships, the other things in your life, and begin to take action so that you can move forward. Because yes, the world will fall apart. Sometimes just your own personal world, sometimes the whole world, but at the end of the day, what you need to focus on is what you can do to just keep moving forward.

[00:08:51] Thanks for listening.

[00:08:52] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we [00:09:00] challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the Stewardship of Talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/.

[00:09:18] And sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent. Or if you're in the US, you can text 44 2 2 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 44 2 22, and get those tips. Until next time I invest your. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.