התמלול המלא של When Your Calling Changes

of my answer to the question we all carry. Who am I? 00:02:11.463 --> 00:02:15.748 And I don't look back at them as wasted. 00:02:16.555 --> 00:02:20.317 The lessons, the sacrifices, and the things that I got right, 00:02:20.317 --> 00:02:24.908 and the things I could have handled differently are all part of the man talking to you today. 00:02:25.782 --> 00:02:29.439 But the path we imagine doesn't always match the path we end up walking. 00:02:29.956 --> 00:02:33.769 Some changes come from our own decisions, and some come from other people's. 00:02:34.269 --> 00:02:37.879 Some come because life refuses to follow the plan in our own heads. 00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:44.517 It's easy to blame everything on circumstances, and just as easy to blame ourselves for everything, 00:02:45.063 --> 00:02:50.511 But neither one tells the whole story And when you lose the thing that you gave, 00:02:51.432 --> 00:02:56.037 Your life's direction to Or you lose the thing that gave you direction You're 00:02:56.037 --> 00:02:58.425 left with the question What now? 00:02:59.187 --> 00:03:04.510 And the hardest one If I'm not the person I thought I'd be Then who am I? 00:03:06.351 --> 00:03:08.778 And the reality is a lot of men struggle with that question. 00:03:09.654 --> 00:03:14.362 We're taught to work, to provide, to keep moving. There's value in that. 00:03:15.206 --> 00:03:19.908 But somewhere along the way, some of us start believing our worth is tied entirely to our role. 00:03:20.547 --> 00:03:24.187 A uniform, a title, a paycheck, whatever. 00:03:25.057 --> 00:03:28.430 So when that role changes, it feels like we've lost ourselves. 00:03:29.245 --> 00:03:34.125 But what if the role was never the whole thing of who you were? 00:03:35.140 --> 00:03:40.945 The things that drew you to it That desire, that instinct That willingness to 00:03:40.945 --> 00:03:45.472 step up when somebody needs you Those don't disappear when your career changes, 00:03:46.151 --> 00:03:49.865 They can find another place to live And there's a difference between losing 00:03:49.865 --> 00:03:53.802 a path And losing the qualities that made you want to walk it, 00:03:54.938 --> 00:03:59.002 For me, something else became harder to ignore The outdoors, 00:03:59.304 --> 00:04:04.305 hunting, fishing The quiet away from the noise The connection to the land and 00:04:04.305 --> 00:04:07.875 the people who stood in those woods before us And eventually, 00:04:08.727 --> 00:04:13.115 this started Lifehunter Not just as a business or a podcast, 00:04:13.115 --> 00:04:19.354 but a way to connect the life I've lived with the lessons I've learned and the legacy I want to leave, 00:04:19.976 --> 00:04:24.649 I realized I wasn't abandoning what mattered to me, I was discovering another way to use it. 00:04:25.867 --> 00:04:31.532 Now, I don't have some magical moments in the woods where everything suddenly made sense. 00:04:32.203 --> 00:04:36.511 There have been hard changes and moments when the future looked nothing like what I had planned. 00:04:37.307 --> 00:04:41.353 You can grieve something you've cared about and feel drawn towards something new at the same time. 00:04:41.993 --> 00:04:45.394 You can be grateful for where you've been and still know you can't spend your 00:04:45.394 --> 00:04:46.678 life trying to get back there. 00:04:47.429 --> 00:04:50.378 And sometimes you wonder whether changing direction means you give up. 00:04:51.394 --> 00:04:55.904 That deserves an honest look. Not every new passion is a calling. 00:04:55.904 --> 00:04:57.604 Sometimes the answer is to work 00:04:57.604 --> 00:05:01.484 harder and stay committed, but sometimes a chapter has simply changed. 00:05:02.171 --> 00:05:06.118 And the fact that you once belonged there doesn't mean that you have to live there forever. 00:05:06.899 --> 00:05:10.424 There's a difference between quitting because something is hard and moving forward 00:05:10.424 --> 00:05:14.422 because you understand yourself differently. Only you can figure out which one you're facing. 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:18.380 For me, the outdoors is where I find that honesty. 00:05:19.273 --> 00:05:22.474 Think about walking into the woods before daylight. You park the truck, 00:05:22.474 --> 00:05:24.678 you grab your gear and step out into the cold. 00:05:25.295 --> 00:05:29.730 All you hear is the leaves under your boots, the wind in the trees, and your own breathing. 00:05:30.404 --> 00:05:34.904 No supervisor, no crowd, no title attached to your name, just you, 00:05:34.904 --> 00:05:37.328 the land, and whatever you've been carrying. 00:05:37.996 --> 00:05:41.804 Stay out there long enough and those thoughts are going to start to surface. 00:05:42.391 --> 00:05:46.464 The questions that you've been avoiding, your family, the things that you'd 00:05:46.464 --> 00:05:47.935 wished you'd done differently. 00:05:48.603 --> 00:05:50.449 The woods doesn't fix those problems. 00:05:51.381 --> 00:05:56.734 You can sit in a stand for 12 hours and climb down with the same bills and bullshit 00:05:56.734 --> 00:05:59.264 that's waiting for you at home, but the outdoors gives. 00:06:02.384 --> 00:06:08.512 You something hard to find anywhere else, and it helps you find perspective. 00:06:09.261 --> 00:06:13.302 It reminds you that you are more than the worst thing that happened to you, 00:06:14.102 --> 00:06:18.339 more than the job you lost, or more than the plan that fell apart. 00:06:19.301 --> 00:06:24.576 A deer doesn't care what your job title was. The lake doesn't care how successful you look. 00:06:25.244 --> 00:06:29.358 And the woods just gives you room to be honest with yourself. 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:34.528 And sometimes that's where the next chapter begins. Not with a big announcement, 00:06:34.528 --> 00:06:37.248 but with a quiet realization that you. 00:06:38.858 --> 00:06:43.478 More so what you're searching for, and that it might not be behind you, 00:06:43.478 --> 00:06:45.237 but

it might be just up ahead. 00:06:46.148 --> 00:06:49.138 And I'll be honest, that's what Lifehunter has come to represent for me. 00:06:49.911 --> 00:06:53.088 Some of the most important things we bring home from the outdoors have nothing 00:06:53.088 --> 00:06:57.918 to do with what we've harvested We bring home stories, lessons about patience, 00:06:57.918 --> 00:07:02.568 humility, respect Talk about moments with our kids, our fathers, 00:07:02.568 --> 00:07:04.817 our friends, and sometimes with ourselves, 00:07:05.821 --> 00:07:11.301 Lifehunter is a place to talk about the things men keep to themselves The doubts, the mistakes, 00:07:11.870 --> 00:07:15.648 the things we are trying to get right before we run out of time And maybe to 00:07:15.648 --> 00:07:21.578 help somebody realize that they're not alone The desire to serve that drew me 00:07:21.578 --> 00:07:25.443 to law enforcement didn't make those years meaningless. 00:07:26.152 --> 00:07:29.228 And finding meaning in Lifehunter doesn't mean that I'm rejecting them. 00:07:29.774 --> 00:07:33.332 Those chapters belong all in the exact same story. 00:07:34.288 --> 00:07:37.528 I've learned that you don't have to erase your past to make room for your future, 00:07:37.528 --> 00:07:41.782 and you don't have to call those years wasted just because the road changed. 00:07:42.693 --> 00:07:46.560 If they taught you discipline, responsibility, and how to read people, 00:07:47.290 --> 00:07:49.711 they did their job that's growth. 00:07:50.769 --> 00:07:55.092 Now, I have to admit, a change in calling gets harder when people depend on you. 00:07:55.745 --> 00:07:59.258 Finding a new calling doesn't mean you get to chase a passion and let everybody 00:07:59.258 --> 00:08:02.495 else absorb the consequences. There are still bills, promises, 00:08:02.971 --> 00:08:04.620 and people you need to show up for. 00:08:05.277 --> 00:08:09.758 A real transition takes planning and sacrifice. Sometimes you move one small 00:08:09.758 --> 00:08:12.932 step at a time while still meeting the responsibilities you already have, 00:08:13.293 --> 00:08:16.699 and sometimes you build something on the side before you know what it can become. 00:08:17.374 --> 00:08:20.758 That's not glamorous and nobody gets to see the late nights or the doubt, 00:08:20.758 --> 00:08:23.214 but that's where the real work happens. 00:08:23.915 --> 00:08:28.898 The people who love us don't need to have every answer. They just need us to 00:08:28.898 --> 00:08:31.607 be honest, take responsibility, and keep showing up for them. 00:08:32.313 --> 00:08:36.568 I want the people in my life to know a man can watch his plan change and still 00:08:36.568 --> 00:08:38.036 build something meaningful. 00:08:38.708 --> 00:08:42.742 That your worth isn't limited to one job or one title. and that you can look 00:08:42.969 --> 00:08:48.449 at a hard chapter and say, this isn't what I expected, but I'm still responsible for what I do next. 00:08:49.525 --> 00:08:53.028 I know this is one of the shorter podcasts, but still meaningful, 00:08:53.028 --> 00:08:56.808 still quick, and still appropriate, or I should say important. 00:08:56.808 --> 00:09:02.648 And today, I'm thinking about this. I want you to ask yourself three questions. 00:09:03.716 --> 00:09:08.588 And it starts with, what are you going to do when your calling starts to change? 00:09:09.088 --> 00:09:12.518 And here are three questions that are worth taking with you. 00:09:12.518 --> 00:09:18.079 The first one is, what was it about your original calling that mattered to you in the first place? 00:09:18.941 --> 00:09:22.063 Was it the job title or what was underneath it? 00:09:23.319 --> 00:09:26.518 For me, it was, did you want to serve, protect, build, teach? 00:09:27.127 --> 00:09:33.430 Those values may still be around and belong in your life, even if the work changes. 00:09:33.610 --> 00:09:38.987 But find what it was that mattered to you in the first place with the calling 00:09:38.987 --> 00:09:43.334 that you had, or the calling that you have, or the calling that you want. 00:09:44.473 --> 00:09:49.937 The second, are you holding on to what you're calling is or what you feel you're 00:09:49.937 --> 00:09:55.925 calling is because that path feels right or because you're afraid of what it means to let go. 00:09:56.921 --> 00:09:59.731 You got to do me a favor though. You can't answer that one on a bad day. 00:10:00.546 --> 00:10:04.267 Some commitments are worth fighting for, to be honest. But if fear is the only 00:10:04.267 --> 00:10:09.486 thing keeping you there, it's really worth an honest look. 00:10:09.659 --> 00:10:13.477 And I'll admit that was one of the things that I struggled with was the fear 00:10:13.477 --> 00:10:17.443 of changing from something consistent to the fear of changing something that I love. 00:10:18.368 --> 00:10:21.483 And I'm happy that that change came. I really am. 00:10:22.427 --> 00:10:26.467 The final question is, what is the next right step you can take without pretending 00:10:26.467 --> 00:10:28.487 you have the whole future figured out? 00:10:29.270 --> 00:10:33.437 Maybe it's learning a new skill. Maybe it's an honest conversation. 00:10:33.437 --> 00:10:36.591 And maybe it's finally taking that idea seriously. 00:10:37.042 --> 00:10:40.757 Whatever it is, make it a real step. And I mean that. 00:10:42.102 --> 00:10:47.031 Lifehunter for me was one of those steps. It was an idea that I wanted for a 00:10:47.031 --> 00:10:49.311 long time and I was always scared to follow. 00:10:50.334 --> 00:10:54.501 It's not my calling is what I kept trying to tell myself. But the more I do 00:10:54.501 --> 00:10:59.200 this and the more I get into it, it's one of the most important things I feel I've ever done. 00:10:59.439 --> 00:11:01.900 And it's one of the most important things I feel I could ever do. 00:11:02.552 --> 00:11:03.916 There is a calling to this. 00:11:04.924 -->

00:11:08.571 And it's not the calling that I grew up. When I was in kindergarten, 00:11:08.571 --> 00:11:12.081 I drew a picture of being a police officer, because that was what my calling 00:11:12.081 --> 00:11:15.538 felt like up until the age of 49. 00:11:16.188 --> 00:11:19.793 I mean, that's 49 years of my life with one calling and one perspective. 00:11:20.508 --> 00:11:27.457 And here I am now at the age of 50, and I've realized that my calling has changed. 00:11:28.654 --> 00:11:29.408 One more thing. 00:11:31.158 --> 00:11:35.843 Every experienced hunter knows the woods doesn't owe you an outcome. 00:11:36.826 --> 00:11:39.463 You can do everything right and come home without filling a tag. 00:11:39.805 --> 00:11:44.071 You can sit through all the cold mornings and the wet boots waiting for a shot that never comes. 00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:50.223 And when it doesn't come, you have a choice. You can call the whole day a waste, 00:11:50.850 --> 00:11:54.013 or you can look honestly at what the day gave you, what you learned, 00:11:54.013 --> 00:11:55.523 and what you'll do differently next time. 00:11:56.106 --> 00:12:01.185 Life honestly works the exact same way. We get attached to a certain career, 00:12:01.907 --> 00:12:03.515 a certain picture of success. 00:12:04.147 --> 00:12:09.403 And when reality doesn't match, we can spend years staring at that empty space 00:12:09.403 --> 00:12:14.281 where we thought our future was supposed to be and miss what's still in front of us. 00:12:15.347 --> 00:12:19.883 I want to tell you that your story is still being written. It's always being 00:12:19.883 --> 00:12:25.023 written by you, your thoughts, your perspective, your calling. 00:12:25.023 --> 00:12:29.803 And maybe the calling you thought you lost or the one you wanted or the one 00:12:29.803 --> 00:12:35.093 you can't seem to grasp onto, none of that maybe was never the whole picture. 00:12:35.093 --> 00:12:40.134 Maybe it's just one expression of something deeper that's been a part of you all along. 00:12:41.284 --> 00:12:44.640 Listen to it. It's important. Believe me. 00:12:45.706 --> 00:12:50.153 So if you're standing somewhere between life, you know, the one that you thought 00:12:50.153 --> 00:12:54.131 you'd have and the life that you're actually living, I want you to hear this. 00:12:54.939 --> 00:12:58.903 You're allowed to reconsider your direction, and you're allowed to grow beyond 00:12:58.903 --> 00:13:00.889 an identity that once made sense. 00:13:01.684 --> 00:13:06.023 You just be honest with yourself. Don't run from a responsibility because it's 00:13:06.023 --> 00:13:10.313 hard, but don't spend your whole life trying to prove the person you used to 00:13:10.313 --> 00:13:12.966 be was right about everything either. 00:13:14.043 --> 00:13:17.953 I want you to take a look at yourself and know that your responsibility still 00:13:17.953 --> 00:13:20.655 can be met, but your calling can change. 00:13:21.807 --> 00:13:28.068 You don't have to be what everybody expects you to be because it makes their life easier. 00:13:28.909 --> 00:13:33.612 Be what you expect to be because that makes everybody around you better. 00:13:34.586 --> 00:13:38.783 Law enforcement was an important part of my story and I'll carry it with me. 00:13:39.603 --> 00:13:44.474 But Lifehunter is where my love of the outdoors, my experiences, 00:13:44.903 --> 00:13:48.113 and my desire to leave something meaningful behind all come together. 00:13:48.906 --> 00:13:52.977 In the end, we all leave something behind. That bullshit title you have on your 00:13:52.977 --> 00:13:54.894 name right now, that's going to be forgotten. 00:13:55.701 --> 00:14:00.840 But how we treated people, how we interacted, the lessons that we passed on, 00:14:01.181 --> 00:14:06.491 the things that we taught our children, the things that we taught our friends, 00:14:07.129 --> 00:14:12.717 the respect that we gave to people, and the time we gave to people that we love, 00:14:12.717 --> 00:14:14.902 that we cherish, that we respect, 00:14:15.809 --> 00:14:16.785 that all matters. 00:14:17.776 --> 00:14:22.351 So don't spend a lot of time mourning the trail that you thought you'd walk, 00:14:22.966 --> 00:14:27.919 that you miss, or that you're afraid won't open up in front of you. 00:14:28.964 --> 00:14:34.369 It'll be there. Your trail is still unfolding. Don't be afraid to walk it. 00:14:35.409 --> 00:14:37.748 It's happening right before your eyes. 00:14:40.142 --> 00:14:44.477 Thank you for listening. I know this was a shorter one. Hopefully it all made 00:14:44.477 --> 00:14:46.017 sense. I appreciate you listening. 00:14:47.352 --> 00:14:51.271 Again, this is Lifehunter More Than The Hunt Podcast. I'm your host, Anthony Van Grinsven. 00:14:51.729 --> 00:14:57.207 Please follow us on socials at LifehunterTV, and you can follow Lifehunter More 00:14:57.207 --> 00:15:00.448 Than The Hunt Podcast on all major podcast platforms. 00:15:01.278 --> 00:15:03.947 And as always, welcome to Lifehunter.