00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on Episode 5 73 of the inspired Stewardship Podcast. I'm Shannon Miles from ballet. I challenge you to discover your calling and find your third option so you can be empowered to live every day to the fullest. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend and Scott made her thing is so important to recognize what is a distraction versus what is a direction for your life. This is a perfect chance to take 1/2 a step back and really listen to what's been on your heart and mind and identify what's really important to you.
00:00:46 What is the rial calling that you've been set out to do? What is it that you're supposed to be doing beyond anything else? Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the 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 Searchie podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact that way. In today's episode about impacting the world by Stuart in your time I talk with you about knowing if something is a distraction or direction for your life,
00:01:33 I give you some simple tips to recognize which of these it ISS, and I talk about why this is so important to you, especially right now, as we talk about Stuart in your time. Wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long? It turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon when you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon, and a small commission will come back to support the show just that quick.
00:02:03 If you enjoy the show when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon. Distraction versus direction You know, I I've had a lot of folks reaching out to me this week where all of a sudden they're working from home for the first time in a long time, or maybe ever, and there's been stuff going on in their life and they're trying to get clear on. Is this something that's a distraction, or is this a new direction?
00:02:36 The interesting thing is, this happens all the time with people. You know. We all have moments of time where we have to discern is something a distraction or something,
00:02:49 a new direction for our life. And don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about the easy stuff that you can obviously tell.
00:02:56 I mean truly. If if you're binging on Netflix instead of getting the work done that you need to get done for your your work and your job,
00:03:04 that's a distraction. You need to figure out a way to create some systems and processes some habits, some routines and structure that prevents that distraction.
00:03:15 Instead, I'm talking about things where you suddenly discover that the spirit is coming to you, that whether it's the Holy spirit or the spirit of the pizza you ate last night and you're trying to figure out is this telling me that I need to change directions for my life,
00:03:36 or is this just a distraction that's coming up? See, the truth is, this happens to us a lot throughout our life.
00:03:44 We talk about you know, having a midlife crisis and having different periods in her life in her early twenties and are mid forties and later where we're trying to discern kind of,
00:03:54 what do I want to be when I grow up? But I've had people at all ages and all different stages in life where they've suddenly recognized that something's going on and they aren't sure yet if this something is telling them that they need to change directions for their life,
00:04:11 or if this is just something that's gonna end up being a distraction. If you're a business owner, you run your own business or you have a side hustle.
00:04:19 This gets magnified in some ways because, you know now all of a sudden you have a new idea,
00:04:25 or at least most of us do every 15 minutes. But you're never sure. Is this new idea the Holy Spirit working on you if this is just a a new direction or is this a distraction that's gonna pull you off in the wrong direction?
00:04:39 Is this the pizza you ate last night, giving you a new idea that's really going to turn out to be a bad idea?
00:04:46 But you don't know it yet. And so there's some things that you conduce you to begin to identify.
00:04:53 Is something a distraction, or is it a new direction? I'm gonna talk about some simple activities. The 1st 1 is you need to not ignore it.
00:05:06 You need to not brush it off. You need to listen to this. You need to take a moment and create some space and some time so that you could really study the feeling.
00:05:20 And you can begin to examine not just the emotion but some of the practical behaviors and and changes. What would this look like?
00:05:28 What would it act like? Don't get me wrong. You don't need to know all of the answers before you start on a new direction.
00:05:35 But you need to have Maur than just a vague idea. A lot of times people will come in and they're like,
00:05:41 I want to start a new business. Great. What kind of business? And they don't even know the beginnings of the answer.
00:05:47 They just feel this call towards business. But if that's all it is at this point, is this vague idea You need to spend some more time with it.
00:05:55 and not brush it off, not ignore it. But spend some quality time. Second, you need to spend some of that time in prayer and reflection and listening clearly for the voice and the pulling on your heart that comes from God and the Holy Spirit.
00:06:15 Take a walk outside in the nature. If you can spend some time in prayer and contemplation, sprint some time listening to what's on your heart and then next,
00:06:28 you need to actually talk with some other people. Wise counsel is found in seeking opinions from others. You need to seek out whether it's a coach,
00:06:40 whether it's a friend, whether it's all of the above, and you need to lay out some of those details that you went through and what you're not asking for.
00:06:49 What you're not listening for is just sheer approval. This isn't about someone else looking at you and say,
00:06:54 Oh, yeah, that's a great idea. It's also not about someone saying, Oh, no, that sounds way too risky.
00:07:00 It's about someone who listens to you and really knows you deep down and listens to the passion on your heart and listens to the ideas that you have and They also try to listen to what the spirit is telling them so that they can reaffirm that calling or not reaffirm it.
00:07:24 One of the interesting things I've found over the years when I work with people on finding their calling is that time after time after time,
00:07:32 they've actually had, ah, multitude of signals that this was a new direction and not a distraction, because the message came to him through their own heart.
00:07:41 But it also came to him through others and through the word of others, leaning, reaching out to him and saying,
00:07:47 Hey, this is something you should do, So seek the advice of others and then the last one is,
00:07:54 Once you've made the decision that this really is a new direction, follow through on it. Take action,
00:08:02 begin to move in that direction. Don't do it in a risky way. There's plenty of ways you can move forward.
00:08:08 Instead, what amounts to a smart way but take action, begin to move forward, begin to develop the idea.
00:08:18 Begin to actually test it and see if it works and go out into the real world and see what happens and what comes back at you,
00:08:27 because the interesting thing is, oh, you'll receive challenges. You'll receive difficulty. You'll receive people that say your idea is stupid,
00:08:35 but you'll also receive signals that it's not, You know, in a time like this, when there's a pandemic around the world and there's all of this chaos and uncertainty and fear and doubt going on,
00:08:52 this is so important to recognize what is a distraction versus what is a direction for your life. This is a perfect chance to take 1/2 a step back and really listen to what's been on your heart and mind and identify what's really important to you.
00:09:11 What is the rial calling that you've been set out to do? What is it that you're supposed to be doing beyond anything else?
00:09:19 And as you begin to hear that, speak to your heart. This is a great time to begin taking action because the truth is there are lots of people that need your help.
00:09:30 There are lots of people that need your service. There are lots of people that need your ideas. There are lots of people that need for you to do what you've called to do.
00:09:41 That is what the world needs. The world needs more people living out there calling. That's what we bring peace and stability during this time.
00:09:51 That's why it's so important that you have the confidence and the guts to do it and do it now.
00:10:00 By the way, there's always chaos. There's always distraction. There's always things that can go wrong, even at the best of times.
00:10:13 You're one of the things I've pointed out to. People is right Now. If you're hurting because of this,
00:10:17 if you've lost your job, if you've lost a source of income, if you've got somebody in your family who's sick,
00:10:24 it's serious. It's a disaster. It's an emergency. It's something that you're really having to face and deal with.
00:10:32 But the truth is, if you had somebody who was sick six month of months ago, if you lost your job six months ago or if you lose your jobs six months from now,
00:10:43 it's still an emergency. We've always got the chance for new problems and new emergencies. That's part of what comes with life.
00:10:51 We are not promised an easy life, but what we are promises the opportunity to create a relationship with God to develop ourselves to invest in ourselves,
00:11:04 invest in others, develop in influence and make an impact. That's what we talk about here weekend and week out.
00:11:12 And right now is a great time to really take that time to figure out what in your life has been a distraction up to now,
00:11:23 instead of a direction, What is it that you need to carve out of your life so that you can really focus on the things that are most important and go forward and do the things that you have been called to do?
00:11:35 And don't let fear stop You. Don't let money stop you Don't let time stop you, but create the things that you need to do to be a good steward of your resource is so that you can go out and do what you've been called to do.
00:11:52 Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener,
00:12:04 we 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.
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00:12:44 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world.