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Hello, and welcome to Lifehunter, more than the hunt podcast.
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I'm your host, Anthony Van Grinsven, and this is where we take lessons from
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the wild and apply them to everyday life.
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I want to say thank you for listening. I appreciate your support as always.
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And today, we got to talk about the fact that there comes a point in a man's
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life when he has to ask himself a hard question.
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And that question is, what happens when the life you spent years believing you
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were meant to live is no longer the life you're being called towards?
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Not because you stopped caring or because you weren't good enough,
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but because life changed. You changed.
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And something you never considered your calling started pulling at you in a
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way you couldn't explain.
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Maybe you did everything you were supposed to, you showed up,
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you worked hard, you made the sacrifices, and then life threw you a curve that you never saw coming.
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Now you're looking at a future that doesn't look anything like the one you planned.
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Do you keep forcing yourself into the life that you thought you were supposed
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to have, or do you have the courage to find out what you're becoming?
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Today, I actually want to talk about something that took me years,
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some hard lessons, and a lot of time outdoors to actually understand.
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And that's simple. Your calling, life can change.
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And when it does, it doesn't mean you've lost your way. Sometimes it means you're
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finally starting to understand where you actually belong.
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For as long as I can remember, I felt this dramatic pull towards law enforcement.
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I know it's cliche, but for me it wasn't just a job, it was a purpose.
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Serving, protecting, being somebody who could make a difference when things went sideways.
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I pursued that path through private security and public law enforcement,
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and I learned things you don't learn from a book.
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I learned that people don't always show you what they're carrying,
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that doing the right thing isn't always easy or popular, and that sometimes
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you do everything in your power and still can't control the outcome.
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Those years became part
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of my answer to the question we all carry. Who am I?
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And I don't look back at them as wasted.
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The lessons, the sacrifices, and the things that I got right,
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and the things I could have handled differently are all part of the man talking to you today.
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But the path we imagine doesn't always match the path we end up walking.
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Some changes come from our own decisions, and some come from other people's.
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Some come because life refuses to follow the plan in our own heads.
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It's easy to blame everything on circumstances, and just as easy to blame ourselves for everything,
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But neither one tells the whole story And when you lose the thing that you gave,
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Your life's direction to Or you lose the thing that gave you direction You're
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left with the question What now?
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And the hardest one If I'm not the person I thought I'd be Then who am I?
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And the reality is a lot of men struggle with that question.
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We're taught to work, to provide, to keep moving. There's value in that.
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But somewhere along the way, some of us start believing our worth is tied entirely to our role.
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A uniform, a title, a paycheck, whatever.
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So when that role changes, it feels like we've lost ourselves.
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But what if the role was never the whole thing of who you were?
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The things that drew you to it That desire, that instinct That willingness to
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step up when somebody needs you Those don't disappear when your career changes,
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They can find another place to live And there's a difference between losing
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a path And losing the qualities that made you want to walk it,
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For me, something else became harder to ignore The outdoors,
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hunting, fishing The quiet away from the noise The connection to the land and
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the people who stood in those woods before us And eventually,
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this started Lifehunter Not just as a business or a podcast,
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but a way to connect the life I've lived with the lessons I've learned and the legacy I want to leave,
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I realized I wasn't abandoning what mattered to me, I was discovering another way to use it.
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Now, I don't have some magical moments in the woods where everything suddenly made sense.
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There have been hard changes and moments when the future looked nothing like what I had planned.
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You can grieve something you've cared about and feel drawn towards something new at the same time.
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You can be grateful for where you've been and still know you can't spend your
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life trying to get back there.
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And sometimes you wonder whether changing direction means you give up.
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That deserves an honest look. Not every new passion is a calling.
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Sometimes the answer is to work
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harder and stay committed, but sometimes a chapter has simply changed.
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And the fact that you once belonged there doesn't mean that you have to live there forever.
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There's a difference between quitting because something is hard and moving forward
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because you understand yourself differently. Only you can figure out which one you're facing.
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For me, the outdoors is where I find that honesty.
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Think about walking into the woods before daylight. You park the truck,
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you grab your gear and step out into the cold.
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All you hear is the leaves under your boots, the wind in the trees, and your own breathing.
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No supervisor, no crowd, no title attached to your name, just you,
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the land, and whatever you've been carrying.
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Stay out there long enough and those thoughts are going to start to surface.
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The questions that you've been avoiding, your family, the things that you'd
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wished you'd done differently.
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The woods doesn't fix those problems.
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You can sit in a stand for 12 hours and climb down with the same bills and bullshit
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that's waiting for you at home, but the outdoors gives.
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You something hard to find anywhere else, and it helps you find perspective.
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It reminds you that you are more than the worst thing that happened to you,
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more than the job you lost, or more than the plan that fell apart.
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A deer doesn't care what your job title was. The lake doesn't care how successful you look.
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And the woods just gives you room to be honest with yourself.
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And sometimes that's where the next chapter begins. Not with a big announcement,
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but with a quiet realization that you.
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More so what you're searching for, and that it might not be behind you,
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but
it might be just up ahead.
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And I'll be honest, that's what Lifehunter has come to represent for me.
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Some of the most important things we bring home from the outdoors have nothing
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to do with what we've harvested We bring home stories, lessons about patience,
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humility, respect Talk about moments with our kids, our fathers,
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our friends, and sometimes with ourselves,
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Lifehunter is a place to talk about the things men keep to themselves The doubts, the mistakes,
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the things we are trying to get right before we run out of time And maybe to
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help somebody realize that they're not alone The desire to serve that drew me
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to law enforcement didn't make those years meaningless.
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And finding meaning in Lifehunter doesn't mean that I'm rejecting them.
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Those chapters belong all in the exact same story.
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I've learned that you don't have to erase your past to make room for your future,
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and you don't have to call those years wasted just because the road changed.
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If they taught you discipline, responsibility, and how to read people,
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they did their job that's growth.
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Now, I have to admit, a change in calling gets harder when people depend on you.
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Finding a new calling doesn't mean you get to chase a passion and let everybody
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else absorb the consequences. There are still bills, promises,
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and people you need to show up for.
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A real transition takes planning and sacrifice. Sometimes you move one small
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step at a time while still meeting the responsibilities you already have,
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and sometimes you build something on the side before you know what it can become.
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That's not glamorous and nobody gets to see the late nights or the doubt,
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but that's where the real work happens.
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The people who love us don't need to have every answer. They just need us to
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be honest, take responsibility, and keep showing up for them.
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I want the people in my life to know a man can watch his plan change and still
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build something meaningful.
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That your worth isn't limited to one job or one title. and that you can look
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at a hard chapter and say, this isn't what I expected, but I'm still responsible for what I do next.
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I know this is one of the shorter podcasts, but still meaningful,
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still quick, and still appropriate, or I should say important.
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And today, I'm thinking about this. I want you to ask yourself three questions.
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And it starts with, what are you going to do when your calling starts to change?
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And here are three questions that are worth taking with you.
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The first one is, what was it about your original calling that mattered to you in the first place?
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Was it the job title or what was underneath it?
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For me, it was, did you want to serve, protect, build, teach?
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Those values may still be around and belong in your life, even if the work changes.
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But find what it was that mattered to you in the first place with the calling
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that you had, or the calling that you have, or the calling that you want.
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The second, are you holding on to what you're calling is or what you feel you're
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calling is because that path feels right or because you're afraid of what it means to let go.
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You got to do me a favor though. You can't answer that one on a bad day.
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Some commitments are worth fighting for, to be honest. But if fear is the only
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thing keeping you there, it's really worth an honest look.
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And I'll admit that was one of the things that I struggled with was the fear
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of changing from something consistent to the fear of changing something that I love.
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And I'm happy that that change came. I really am.
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The final question is, what is the next right step you can take without pretending
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you have the whole future figured out?
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Maybe it's learning a new skill. Maybe it's an honest conversation.
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And maybe it's finally taking that idea seriously.
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Whatever it is, make it a real step. And I mean that.
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Lifehunter for me was one of those steps. It was an idea that I wanted for a
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long time and I was always scared to follow.
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It's not my calling is what I kept trying to tell myself. But the more I do
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this and the more I get into it, it's one of the most important things I feel I've ever done.
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And it's one of the most important things I feel I could ever do.
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There is a calling to this.
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And it's not the calling that I grew up. When I was in kindergarten,
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I drew a picture of being a police officer, because that was what my calling
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felt like up until the age of 49.
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I mean, that's 49 years of my life with one calling and one perspective.
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And here I am now at the age of 50, and I've realized that my calling has changed.
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One more thing.
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Every experienced hunter knows the woods doesn't owe you an outcome.
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You can do everything right and come home without filling a tag.
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You can sit through all the cold mornings and the wet boots waiting for a shot that never comes.
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And when it doesn't come, you have a choice. You can call the whole day a waste,
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or you can look honestly at what the day gave you, what you learned,
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and what you'll do differently next time.
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Life honestly works the exact same way. We get attached to a certain career,
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a certain picture of success.
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And when reality doesn't match, we can spend years staring at that empty space
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where we thought our future was supposed to be and miss what's still in front of us.
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I want to tell you that your story is still being written. It's always being
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written by you, your thoughts, your perspective, your calling.
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And maybe the calling you thought you lost or the one you wanted or the one
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you can't seem to grasp onto, none of that maybe was never the whole picture.
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Maybe it's just one expression of something deeper that's been a part of you all along.
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Listen to it. It's important. Believe me.
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So if you're standing somewhere between life, you know, the one that you thought
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you'd have and the life that you're actually living, I want you to hear this.
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You're allowed to reconsider your direction, and you're allowed to grow beyond
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an identity that once made sense.
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You just be honest with yourself. Don't run from a responsibility because it's
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hard, but don't spend your whole life trying to prove the person you used to
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be was right about everything either.
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I want you to take a look at yourself and know that your responsibility still
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can be met, but your calling can change.
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You don't have to be what everybody expects you to be because it makes their life easier.
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Be what you expect to be because that makes everybody around you better.
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Law enforcement was an important part of my story and I'll carry it with me.
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But Lifehunter is where my love of the outdoors, my experiences,
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and my desire to leave something meaningful behind all come together.
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In the end, we all leave something behind. That bullshit title you have on your
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name right now, that's going to be forgotten.
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But how we treated people, how we interacted, the lessons that we passed on,
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the things that we taught our children, the things that we taught our friends,
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the respect that we gave to people, and the time we gave to people that we love,
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that we cherish, that we respect,
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that all matters.
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So don't spend a lot of time mourning the trail that you thought you'd walk,
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that you miss, or that you're afraid won't open up in front of you.
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It'll be there. Your trail is still unfolding. Don't be afraid to walk it.
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It's happening right before your eyes.
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Thank you for listening. I know this was a shorter one. Hopefully it all made
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sense. I appreciate you listening.
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Again, this is Lifehunter More Than The Hunt Podcast. I'm your host, Anthony Van Grinsven.
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Please follow us on socials at LifehunterTV, and you can follow Lifehunter More
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Than The Hunt Podcast on all major podcast platforms.
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And as always, welcome to Lifehunter.