True Calling Project | Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life and Career

When looking at taking risk we consider the chances of failure.  Obviously, some risks are not worth taking.  But what about when we are not taking risk because we are afraid of failing at being accepted, or being praised, or being told we're doing ok? Many people do not take risks because they are afraid to find out that they may not be "good enough" at what they love to do.  But here's the thing.  We can never truly "fail" when we are expressing and creating on the level of what we love and believe is important.  Sure there are methods that are better than others, but in finding out what works better, and what doesn't work at all, we are merely gathering information to take the next step or turn in our process.  We are failing forward.  Taking the small "failures" and using that information and experience to step further into our creative and expressive selves.  In this light, there is no failure.  Just doing.  Learning, evolving.  Failing is a part of moving forward.  And it's unavoidable. 

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

We all have them. So why are we surprised when things keep getting in our way? What if problems never stopped?  What if we just graduated to better problems? Problems can be a teacher.  They can show us context and what we prefer.  They can show us discernment.  We spend a lot of energy and time attempting to escape from what we assume are issues.  What if the real problem is our perception of them?

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/ 

Tiffany McLain is a licensed therapist and the mind behind Hey Tiffany. It’s a site that helps therapists launch their private practices, with a focus on first-time entrepreneurs and first-generation college graduates.

Tiffany wants to help people who are trying to do something that their families have not done before; people who want their own income stream, a flexible job, a good lifestyle, and to give back.

A lot of people struggle with money, and not just acquiring it. Many people, particular those of us who are called to help others, have a fear around money… and that’s not a healthy relationship. You can’t start any venture, or help people, if you don’t have the right resources.

“Fear is the number one obstacle that comes up around money.”

Therapists shouldn’t feel guilty about, or afraid of, charging fees. It’s not a zero-sum game where you do better and, as a result, everyone else does worse.

In fact, making more money means that you can reach more people, do more good, and have a greater impact.

The other part of developing a healthy money mindset is understanding that it’s okay to spend money. You have to invest in yourself and your practice if you want to grow and reach more people.

“It’s okay to be afraid. Most of us are afraid! If you can find someone who is doing the thing you want to do and invest in them, you’re going to be just fine.”

Tiffany was kind enough to create a special resource just for you in the True Calling Project audience. You can find this free resource at www.heytiffany.com/truecalling.

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Resources:

• Connect with Tiffany: tiffany@heytiffany.com | Facebook
• Pick up an exclusive, free resource at heytiffany.com/truecalling
• Ask Tiffany: A Video Series for Therapreneurs!
• Pick up your own Five Minute Journal
• Check out Tiffany’s favorite podcasts:
• • Smart Passive Income
  • Online Marketing Made Easy
  • Selling the Couch
  • Practice of the Practice

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Production & Development for True Calling Project by Podcast Masters

When we ask for something are we really sure that we want what we are asking for? Why do we find disappointment when we get things we are asking for? Why do we have tendencies to self sabotage and keep us from experiencing abundance? Many times we seem to have a subconscious tendency to block ourselves from what we want because we don't actually believe that we deserve all the good things we want. Do you tend to dismiss compliments and have a hard time taking them?  Do you suffer from not being able to have the "right" partner to come into your life?  Lack of money? Good job hard to find? Honestly ask yourself if you are really ready to receive the things you are asking for and are ready to do the work and make the sacrifices needed to get them.

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

When we think of ego, or being egotistical, we tend to think about someone who is self aggrandizing or is being self promoting, or self absorbed.  But what about the other side of ego problems?  Minimizing your own value and worth.  Playing the victim, being a martyr, and drawing empowerment from devaluing yourself or being overly negative about your situation.  Allowing your identity to be someone who "can't do it" or "isn't capable" or "can't be self dependent".  We are all equal in terms of being worthy of receiving and giving love.  And when we are on the downside of ego self we are in a position to withhold from the world and others.  That's just as harmful in the long run as someone who is outspoken and rude.  Maybe even more so.

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Someone asked me recently what I expected to come out of the podcast and videos I am doing.  I thought I had explored my "why" but I hadn't really thought about what exactly I expected from the production of the podcast and video themselves.  Strangely, or maybe it isn't, I actually just like making the podcast episodes.  I really have no expectations at all.  What if we did more of that?  Acting and creating without analyzing and worrying?  What if I did it more?  What if you did it more?  What if we all have something of value to share no matter what medium we use to express it?  What if by sharing our unique gifts and words we could actually change the world?  What if?

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Josh Garrett is a personal trainer and entrepreneur. He runs Cincy 360 Fitness, which won Best Personal Training Studio in City Beat's "Best Of Cincinnati" 2017 contest. Fitness programs include nutritional guidance, strength training, innovative cardio exercise, and recovery techniques, AKA The 360 Approach.

Josh defines fitness as being able to take on whatever life throws at you. It’s all relative to who you are, what lifestyle you have, and what you want out of your life. The same can be said for personal development. Throughout this episode, you’ll notice there are a number of similarities between physical fitness and personal development.

Josh started training because he wanted to help people lose weight – but he fell in love with the layered facets of training; he fell in love with empowering people, and the people themselves.

Josh didn’t start his career as a great trainer. Like strength training itself, Josh was only able to improve as a strength coach by pushing his own boundaries. Real change starts to happen after we find our boundaries, challenge ourselves, and overcome them.

Change doesn’t happen all at once – it’s progressive – and the world doesn’t change when you reach a new threshold. You change, then you look forward towards a new threshold. This is true in fitness, and this is true in personal development.

Because self-improvement is a marathon, not a sprint, you need to give yourself time to recharge. You can’t push your body past a new boundary every day, and you can’t perform at your best if you aren’t living a balanced life.

No one ever achieves personal or physical mastery, but you can have fun with the process! You have to have fun, or you’ll be miserable at every step… and no one’s true calling is to be truly unhappy.

“Stop chasing other people’s goals and start determining what your goals actually are – and what you’re willing to sacrifice to get to them.”

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Resources:

• Connect with Josh: Cincy360Fitness.com | Facebook | info (at) cincy360fitness (dot) com

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Production & Development for True Calling Project by Podcast Masters

Why are we in such a big hurry to get somewhere?  Why do we tend to look into the future to be somewhere we're not?  Or go somewhere we aren't?  What if in our process we are exactly where we need to be?  What if things are the way they are supposed to be until we fully learn what we need to from them?  If my process is 12 steps and I'm on step 3 but want to get to step 5 or 6, how can I learn from steps 3 and 4?  Letting go of judgment and perception of our current experience to better allow us to embrace what the present moment is showing us.

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

When we see people who we view as "successful" we want what they have. Instinctively, we want to know what they did to get there.  What tactics did they use, what tools did they adopt, what strategies did they employ. We're looking in the wrong place.  While these are important aspects of success, these are not the reasons for success.  We don't see the process that person went through to get where they are. The mindset, the behaviors, the actions, the setbacks, and the process as a whole.  The mindset and the process is the glue that holds it all together.  It contains and helps the process take shape.  This cannot be bought or taught.  It must be experienced for each individual person.  Focus on the glue.  Focus on your process and allow yourself to be in it and learn from it.

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Death by overthinking.  Paralysis by analysis.  Why is it that we tend to think we can get all the answers to our questions, and find certainty, before we take a chance, make a move, or dive into a project?  When we stop trying to see our process all the way through and predict all the contingencies, we are more able to see the clear, logical, next step right in front of us.  By taking that first step we'll see something, and get information, that we didn't see previously. Then we'll make another choice based on that viewpoint and move to the 3rd step.  And so on.  Less deliberation and more action!  Get to it!

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Is it too late to start a new venture or career at this stage of my life?  When is a good time?  Is there a perfect time?  When allowing ourselves to imagine something new, our minds tend to tell us the reasons we can't.  One of the most common blocks we can run into is age and perceived timing.  However, there really is no perfect time to do anything.  There is just time.

Beth Luwandi is a psychotherapist, master communicator, host of the Midlife Love Bytes! podcast, and recent TEDx speaker. We discuss the process of creating and delivering a TED Talk, and the message she wants to share with the world.

The theme of TEDxGustavusAdolphusCollege was “Life On Purpose.” As a speaker, she was tasked with condensing the science and experiences of her talk into 12-15 minutes, which was later condensed further to 10 minutes, and memorizing the presentation (and, of course, overcoming her anxiety).  

• If you ever have to give a big presentation, here’s a hot tip: practice it in front of real people! You might feel vulnerable, but the real-time feedback and experience is invaluable.

Her talk is called “Stop Talking! How Communication is Actually Ruining Your Relationships… and What To Do About It.” It’s the culmination of years working with couples on love, loss, and relationships.  You can watch it here.

You will learn why talking often makes it difficult to establish and maintain a sense of empathy and closeness, and how Beth’s four-step process – Clean, Non-Blaming Communication (CNBC) – can shift your relationship and strengthen your brain. Beth goes into detail on this topic in episode seven of her podcast, too.

You can get in touch with Beth, enjoy her work, and learn more about her practice at BethLuwandi.com.

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Resources:

• Here’s the TEDx Talk:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT1o2esE_88

• Start a conversation at BethLuwandi.com
• Listen to the Midlife Love Bytes! podcast

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Production & Development for True Calling Project by Podcast Masters

Why is it so hard to make a decision sometimes?  Am I making the "right" decision?  How will I know if I am?  Making decisions, even seemingly simple ones, can be difficult.  The hard part isn't the decision, it's letting go of the need for certainty and answers that's hard.  Letting go of judging our situation.  Choosing the best option.  Having faith that we'll get the answer or results we need.  The only thing for certain is that if we don't make a decision and act, nothing will happen at all.

When we attach a label to ourselves we limit ourselves.  Commonly overheard in conversation.  "Are you an introvert or an extrovert?" or "What do you do?", we are frequently asked.  "Well, I'm a this doing that."  What happens to our sense of self when we aren't being defined or categorized?  More importantly, what types of unnecessary limitations are we putting on ourselves when we label and ourselves and put ourselves into a box?

When it comes down to it, much of what sustains long lasting change is simple routine.  Simple, boring, routine.  It's what separates us from dedication to the process and from going off to our impulsive directions.  It's a grind.  But can we love the grind?

Today’s guest, Domenic Nappa, shares the unique path that brought him from blue collar worker to yoga instructor, and how yoga benefits our physical, mental, and emotional health. We also discuss why our society is kinda screwed up, and what you can do to rise above the noise.

Domenic grew up scoffing at yoga, and he had a lot of misconceptions. He worked hard, went to the gym, drank beer, and ate steaks. Yoga looked like feminine stretching and he didn’t see a place for the practice in his lifestyle, but he was wrong.

Experiencing meditative yoga practices, as opposed to more intense physical practices, completely changed Domenic’s perspective. It focused and invigorated him.

“Meditation is so much more than an empty mind – it is a focused mind."

We live in an incredibly noisy world, and shutting out that noise is a huge challenge – but with that challenge comes an opportunity for growth. A lot of people think meditation is just about emptying your mind, but it’s really about focusing your mind on the most important things.

Domenic mixes his life experience and his passion for yoga into The Concrete Yogi, a yoga lifestyle brand that encourages men to improve their lives by incorporating the greater philosophy of yoga (in whatever pratice makes sense to them).

If you’ve never done any yoga and you want to learn more about the practice, head to a local yoga studio (they’re pretty easy to find if you google “Yoga Studio near me”) and ask the owner or instructor if they have any packages for someone who is completely new – and then go to as many studios as you can. Experiment to find the teachers or the styles that resonate with you.

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Resources:

• Connect with The Concrete Yogi: Facebook | Instagram
• If you’re near Hollywood, Florida, you can take a class with Domenic
• Get Swole with Dash Kellner & SWOLENORMOUS
• Learn more about The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Amazon | ArtOfLiving.org

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Production & Development for True Calling Project by Podcast Masters

 Getting older doesn't have to mean losing what we used to have.  If anything, getting older can bring us an invaluable sense of awareness of who we really are.  My kids, my marriage, my job, my physical changes, are all things that remind me that I can't compensate like I used to when I was younger.  Age has called me out!  Embracing the truths, seeing the weaknesses and shortcomings for what they are.  Growth points. 

Stop waiting to get motivated to make a change. Motivation is fleeting. Act. The more you do something new without needing to be motivated, the more momentum that will build. Momentum trumps motivation. Motivation is as fleeting as a sugar rush. It's temporary. Stop looking for it to save you. Act. Think and feel later.

Kat Love is a website designer and strategist dedicated to helping psychotherapists get more clients (she designed my beautiful website!). We discuss struggling to find your purpose, how she ultimately discovered a calling, and how empathy influences her web design.

“I was struggling to figure out what I really wanted and who I really am for a long time. Some of the figuring out of what you want to do and what you’re passionate about is only going to happen through experience.”

Kat chooses to focus on therapists and helpers because they have been an incredibly positive resource during her journey, and she’s grateful.

Her experience drove her to this calling, but empathy makes her good at it. She is able to empathize for her client’s clients because of her time as a therapy client, and this helps her design sites for people who might be in a crisis, suffering, or just stressed out.  

One of the questions she will ask therapists is “what do you want your clients to feel when they’re on your website?”

The end result is a website that helps psychotherapists connect with their ideal clients, and helps people who might be struggling find the right help. You can learn more about her services at KatLove.com.

“It’s not just a business for me – it’s also a mission. I want to help therapists connect with their ideal clients… because I think therapists are awesome and because I know that clients need the help. If I can help that happen, then that’s awesome.”

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Resources:

• Connect with Kat: KatLove.com | Twitter

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching? Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Production & Development for True Calling Project by Podcast Masters

Today we’re talking to Rachel Desrochers, the Chief Gratitude Officer at Grateful Grahams. She has a powerful story about how gratitude saved her life and inspired her business, and her attitude is absolutely infectious.

“I started Grateful Grahams because gratitude saved my life.”

Rachel started Grateful Grahams in 2010 with a few goals: creating her dream job, spreading the message of gratitude, and working with small batches to ensure a great product each time. She also wanted to create a healthy, vegan treat for her father, who experienced a dramatic lifestyle change after battling prostate cancer.

She’s grown impressively over the past seven years… But she’s not even close to finished with her journey.

Rachel isn't a planner; she's a doer. She makes business decisions that she believes will be personally fulfilling, support her team, and help her customers eat healthily.

A fear of failure doesn't limit her. Instead, excitement about new opportunities and love for her community propels her.

“I wake up every day and I do work that I believe in. I feel like I’m impacting my community… and that fills my cup.”

The gratefulness isn’t a schtick. Rachel is one of the most authentic and transparent people to come on the show. She has a genuine love and appreciation for her family, community, and team.

She calls herself the Chief Gratitude Officer because the title doesn’t create a divide between her and her team. She works with them throughout the process and endeavors to create a workplace that helps people be their best selves.

Rachel doesn’t just want to be an employer – she wants to be a relationship-builder and a world-changer. She’s off to a tremendous start.

Hungry yet? You can order some delicious and healthy Grateful Grahams online. They ship to anywhere in the U.S with a flat shipping fee.

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Resources:

• Connect with Grateful Grahams: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter
• You can order some delicious and healthy Grateful Grahams online. They ship to anywhere in the U.S with a flat shipping fee.

Interested in learning more about how I can help you through coaching?  Find out more at www.johnharrisoncounseling.com/individual-coaching/

Production & Development for True Calling Project by Podcast Masters