Giving Your Best Life
Episode 118: Living Out Your Faith in Business and Life
Can you truly define success in a way that aligns with both your faith and business aspirations? Join us on the Giving Your Best Life Podcast as Stephanie and Zach Lloyd, Sustainable Anti-Diet Coach, share their personal journey of navigating these two worlds. Discover how they've struggled yet persevered in finding validation beyond worldly measures like income and social media engagement, all while trying to stay true to their Christian values. Zach has taken the bold step to completely ignore social media metrics, whereas Stephanie continues to see them as a way to serve others. Together, they discuss the ongoing challenge of determining what is truly "enough" in life.
Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation that will inspire you to align your personal and professional goals with your faith.
Connect with Stephanie:
Get a free resource The 4G Method Journal here.
Shop Stephanie's books here.
Follow me on IG: @Giving_Gal or FB/GivingGal
Can you truly define success in a way that aligns with both your faith and business aspirations? Join us on the Giving Your Best Life Podcast as Stephanie and Zach Lloyd, Sustainable Anti-Diet Coach, share their personal journey of navigating these two worlds. Discover how they've struggled yet persevered in finding validation beyond worldly measures like income and social media engagement, all while trying to stay true to their Christian values. Zach has taken the bold step to completely ignore social media metrics, whereas Stephanie continues to see them as a way to serve others. Together, they discuss the ongoing challenge of determining what is truly "enough" in life.
Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation that will inspire you to align your personal and professional goals with your faith.
Connect with Stephanie:
Get a free resource The 4G Method Journal here.
Shop Stephanie's books here.
Follow me on IG: @Giving_Gal or FB/GivingGal
Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with Giving your Best Life Podcast and also with my friend.
Speaker 2:Zach Lloyd, Sustainable Anti-Diet Coach.
Speaker 1:And today we're coming to you with a topic that we actually have talked probably the last several weeks that we've been working together and I told Zach I feel like we just needed to like bring it to the podcast, because if we both struggle with it, my guess is one of our listeners struggle with it, my guess is one of our listen, yeah, listeners struggle with it. Um, and it is this idea of well, I think it's a couple of things is defining success as a christian versus it through the lens of, like, our businesses, our entrepreneurial work? Um, really, through that lens, yeah, um, I would say so. Do you have any like comments to jump us off for thoughts?
Speaker 2:yeah, what we've been talking about I would say like in the back of our minds, we all have some idea of like what we want in this world, but that doesn't necessarily spell out what success should be, and it's definitely probably not what God's plan is Like. We have a plan and then God has a plan, and then usually like, if you're lucky, you kind of meet in the middle, but sometimes you don't meet at all and God just like pulls you down the street a little bit. So I feel like that's part of it too. And and God just like pulls you down the street a little bit. So I feel like that's part of it too. And where we were talking about in the productivity sense of like business, it's like we know if we do X, y and Z, then we could expect some certain outcome. And God says maybe one day, like no, actually don't do X and Y, you're only doing Z today, and you have no idea why that is.
Speaker 2:And following into being okay with that right can be really hard because you have these key performance indicators if you don't hit them, you don't feel like you're achieving or you're like progressing, and it can be really hard to manage and sometimes it's like, oh yeah, the person on the side of the street is way more important than anything else. You got going on today and still trusting that God has some sort of a plan for the future will be successful. But it's not like a guaranteed thing at all, like at all, and so that's really hard to wrestle with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we've been wrestling with like. So, if you've listened to us in the past, especially like how Zach and I work, is we put numbers around our like daily work of like number of hours I'm supposed to be writing number of speaking engagement, not speaking engagement, yeah, well, number of speaking engagements, but number of outreaches. And so a lot of our work that we do on accountability is very data driven and the reason that is is so we know that we're and and I'll also say on that is like you said, of what, what God's plan is versus our plan, and we do pray, like I've talked about, like praying through what our goals are, what are we pursuing? So we do feel like what we're doing is following the path that God leads, but we can get so wrapped up in sometimes of the numbers and not hitting those. But looking back on the week going, yeah, we spent time with our family, yeah, we um were in the word, we were praying and our weeks didn't look like what we thought they were going to look like.
Speaker 1:And then I think we bring in this vision of like the world, and so the world says like, oh, you have to make so much money, and then money becomes a metric defining success, or on social media, like how many likes or how many views, if you're not hitting that Right, even with the podcast, like oh, how many downloads, whatever it is. So I think that's one thing we've been struggling with, yeah, of defining success from God's perspective versus our worldly perspective. Yeah, I'm struggling with it. Yeah, because we're like high achiever.
Speaker 2:Right and one thing, I've changed is I just don't since 2020 so four years now.
Speaker 1:I don't look at the numbers at all. I I have no idea on social media, on social media in our podcast yeah, sorry, um, yeah at all.
Speaker 2:So I I don't. I mean I've looked recently because I had to. I was trying to put something on facebook marketplace so I got all these pings for Facebook. There's people that said something to me like 16 weeks ago that I never even saw that's kind of like how I've gone the complete other way and I'm trying to come back to the middle somewhere, because I do care about what people are saying but usually in social media it's not like something deep or very relevant or important.
Speaker 2:It's just maybe like a small encouragement or something like that, which I don't necessarily want at all yeah because then you start, you start get, you start getting that feedback and then if you're not getting the feedback on something, then you start looking for it, and I just I don't want any part of that yeah, it's a slippery slope, because where are you finding your validation from?
Speaker 1:where are you finding your worth from um? Is it your social media? Your numbers, right, whatever? Fill in the blank. Now you and I kind of look at it a little bit differently is you don't like it, you don't want to be on it? The numbers I don't really care about the numbers, but I do like the engagement because it's how I serve people, like responding and being encouraging and grateful. So there is this kind of I don't know, there's this kind of balance. So we struggle with this idea of like success. But I think, even moving into that, if you're like a high achiever, high um, like performer, always having to be doing stuff is like what is enough yeah so Zach and I have talked about like enough, yeah.
Speaker 1:So zach and I have talked about like when I had my full-time job and my side hustle, like I was still constantly feeling like I wasn't getting enough done yeah and it's like is it just having a day job? Enough right?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:We we've talked about that because you were just even talking about, like zach. Well, do you want to talk a little bit like you have a business, people come in, you have clients yeah, and then you want to do a bunch of other stuff right, right, well, I what you were saying about it wasn't enough.
Speaker 2:We both feel the same way and I mean I can literally hit a goal, not feel good about hitting the goal, even though it's exactly what I set out to do. Right, and I don't have any like positive reinforcement about that. I just I'm already ahead of the goal in my mind and seeing what I don't have yet or what I haven't done yet not necessarily have right.
Speaker 2:It's more about what I haven't done yet which is I think, yeah, that's one of my biggest mental blocks, is that alone. And that's where, like, I can find safety and security in numbers sometimes, because, with working out, one of the best ways to get any results is to start tracking the volume of the weight and the reps and the sets you're doing Right.
Speaker 2:And then if that slowly increases over time or you're doing more, not only does it feel better because you can see it that day and feel it that day, but over the couple months you really notice a difference. Kind of like tracking your food. It can be so dangerous for people and why I've gone more of the sustainable route, which I have some people that still track, but it's very, it's like very clear that they're doing that for the short term and not the long term and it's not going to be a long term fix.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, too, like part of giving your best life is one good goal, and the really reason I started doing the one good goal is I could get caught up in a bunch of goals, a bunch of things that I'm pursuing Not to say I still don't have a bunch of goals, a bunch of things that I'm pursuing, not to say I still don't have a bunch of goals, but one thing that we really talk about is like what's the big thing?
Speaker 1:what is the one big thing that you are focusing on? And if you can stay focused on that and it aligns with, like you've been praying, you know that's what God wants you to do, and if we show up that week and go, that's the one thing that I got done then for us we've kind of tried to redefine our success yeah, on that one big thing. So I'll give an example last week I wanted to write a children's book, just get a draft done. So I told zach, that is like my one good goal for the week and if I get these other things done, great. But I don't want to be so overwhelmed or so like this definition of success.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, your thoughts on that like one big goal, one big priority, and and it's aligned to what god's calling you to do.
Speaker 2:And then if everything else is just kind of like bonus, yeah, I think if you can do that, then it's great but, I think where I struggle is I'll start with that and then all of a sudden, something will like sneak in the back. Or is that the devil? Yeah, yeah, sure, feels like it. No, I, I feel that it's. It can be a distraction, which I think can be the devil, like literally just distracting with something that doesn't matter or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:And then there's the other things that are like interesting or fascinating, or you might be, you might be pretty good at something and it's like oh, what is this? And look into it more, where the other part of it too, on the other side of the equation, is the things you're already doing. That should define success pretty well for you. So it's like showing up and being a good spouse every day. There's no way of really tracking that, and I think that's part of the problem too. A lot of these like goals you set out, there's some way that you can track it, so you kind of know if you're going in the right direction or not, and with some of the most valuable things in our lives there is no way to track it right.
Speaker 2:And like. For some people they might be like well, I want to go to like all my kids' recitals or whatever that's super important to me or whatever it is. Or like 80% of the soccer games, whatever it is. You can kind of track that a little bit, but at the end of the day, like there's we actually have in this world, like sharing, love and giving, are not very easy to check and make sure you're doing a good job and they're not supposed to be either. Right?
Speaker 2:So, that's where these other goals and success can slide in, and it really makes you question where am I going?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I think you bring up a good point because that goal that you're working on has to be down in the line. So in giving your best life, we talk about what are your priorities, Right? So priorities are God, your spouse, your children and then everything below that, and I think a lot of times we can get where that thing that we're working on for success, whether it's as an entrepreneur, even your day job, volunteerism, work at the church, like fill in the blank, Sometimes you're doing those things the priority becomes those and it starts affecting your relationship with your spouse or with your kids. And so I think when you're planning so Zach and I have talked about like planning I plan a date night with my husband to ensure every week that we're going out on a date. That is a priority and it's not just the number of hours we spend Like number of hours don't equal success in a relationship but it's when we go out. It's no cell phones.
Speaker 1:You know I don't even bring my cell phone anymore when we go out on our date night.
Speaker 2:You're bringing presents to your relationship, where you can live with somebody and not be present for weeks sometimes if you're not aware of that.
Speaker 1:So I think that's why that scheduling is so powerful.
Speaker 1:Exactly. And then we're both on the same page, we're both communicating, we both have the same expectations. And then I like that you brought up like the distractions coming in, because I've had a four-part distraction series and that's where you have to have your priorities. You have to have one good goal, because then, as other things come in, you pray about it, you bounce it against your priorities, you say, okay, god, this other thing snuck in the back door. Is this from you? Is this something I should focus on? And you start praying through that. And then if it's like, oh, okay, I do need to pivot, then maybe you do pivot from what?
Speaker 1:you're doing or figuring out time or whatever. It's very, very difficult. I mean, this is ebbs and blows, so but I think what you said is huge.
Speaker 2:Like you you're, you have a layer of some foundation that you're standing on, that you're rooted in and what you're spending your time on and if you don't?
Speaker 2:have that, then that's like where you should start right, yeah, and then, once you have, that everything gets checked against it and I think, just natural human behavior, like it's very easy for us to pick things up out of nowhere, but it's like a lot harder for us to put it down, and it's kind of like why in western civilization most everybody's garage and basement are full of crap. Right, we just be picking stuff up, I don't even know where it comes from. But that's part of it. Is that priority isn't there, set in stone. And then, like you said, what does it really tie back to? It ties back to that relationship with God and saying, okay, literally the smallest of things, are you testing it to his will? And that's very challenging to do, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:But it's always a reality check.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh yeah, I didn't really check in with you on that and I think the more you see it, especially in the small things, it gets amplified in the big things and then it's a lot easier to navigate your life. Basically.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you talked about that foundation, and the foundation of giving your best life is your faith. Like what is your relationship with Christ? If that is not your foundation, then all these things are going to be suffering, you're going to be distracted, you're not going to know where you're going. Are you in the Word? Are you reading your Bible? Are you praying? Are you praising like right?
Speaker 1:if that isn't your foundation, these things are always going to be, rocky chaos and you're not going to know, like, where you're supposed to go, and I love that idea of like your garage being full of stuff and that can even go into like budget money, contentment avoidance. I was reading a book on gratitude. Even though I've written a book, you know the gratitude challenges. I was listening to another book and that's what she was talking about was. You know, shopping is such a thing that can be a distraction for us just to spend money, to just be like eating food or whatever, and then that's how you end up with all this stuff that none of it makes you happy right none of it fulfills you.
Speaker 1:You can go buy something and then that is taken away from you, yeah, but yeah, going back to our like and we're going down some rabbit holes, but like that definition of success in society that it's like, well, I need a job that makes so much money so I can have these things. And it's like, well, no, maybe you don't. You know what are your priorities, and maybe you just need to have a roof over your head and have food in a car that gets you to point a to point b, and you don't have to work 60 hours a week to find all this stuff.
Speaker 2:You just need to be spending time with your family yeah, your kids, and there's definitely a few amount of us that are going to be called to like literal service of the greatest kind of like leaving your state or your town or whatever, yeah, and completely relying on god to um pay your bills.
Speaker 2:You know, and I know somebody in turkey right now that had a family while she was out in the middle of the middle east and got married and then has a kid and like knows western civilization but is not living that anymore, right, and you're dealing with a whole totally.
Speaker 2:Who's to say that you don't get called into something like that, right? And so I think that's the other thing too is remembering, like how good we all really have it in that like these challenges are kind of really trivial in the sense of like God doesn't want us to like live this Western civilization life and then die and be like, oh hey, good, like you went to church, you prayed over some people, you, you know you got more in the word, you know you got more spiritually advanced, like that kind of is the underlying toe. I think that we kind of all feel a little bit and God's plan to me is an adventurous plan and you're going to have no idea where it takes you as long as you give over the reins, and I feel like you and I talk about we give them over, and then it's like we yank them back and then we're like gosh, dang it, take them back. It's this constant struggle and I think that's kind of what we're all fighting in, because we live in this world of massive comfort.
Speaker 1:Massive comfort.
Speaker 2:And if you've never been to a soup kitchen, if you've never gone out of country or you've never been to the poorest part of your neighborhood and you don't have any friends, or you've never been to the poorest part of your neighborhood and you don't have any friends, or you've never had acquaintances or you haven't given that time, then you really are not even fully aware. So I think that's part of it too, is God will make you aware of these things if you ask him. But literally I have friends. Last night we were talking about some of the things we were annoyed about and it was like house related stuff. Yeah, like a lawn or a shingle or something so trivial. You literally own a home Right, like 99% of the people in the world don't even own homes.
Speaker 1:You talk about that comfort piece. I mean we're so comfortable here in the United States with everything that we have and you go like, yeah, I mean I've worked on projects in Malawi, I've been to Honduras, you know, traveled into third world countries. And you see and I was even talking this weekend we did my family and a friend we hiked five state parks, did my family and a friend. We hiked five state parks in one day. It was 95 degrees out. We did 10.5 miles the whole day was uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we had this conversation of people don't want to be uncomfortable right as soon as it starts to become uncomfortable, then you just go back to your comfort life. So it would have been easy for us to do like one hike. We were sweating, it was 95 degrees, we were miserable and go, let's just go home. Right, let's just go home, um, but it's like no. When we got to the end of the day, my dad which was his 70th birthday was running.
Speaker 1:He finished the last trail running and it was like you know what you can do way more than you think you can do, but it's just like you have to push through and God calls us to do uncomfortable things. You do not grow if you are constantly sitting. That's why I always say that one good goal should be something that God is calling you and you know it. And it is scary and a lot of times you just keep putting it on the side and God's like nope, and then you either have to make the decision I trust him, I have the faith and I'm going to step out in that faith or I'm just going to sit over here and be comfortable and I don't want to say not make a difference in the world, because I do think that wherever you're at, you can make a difference. But it's like you're never going to get to see the breadth and the depth that God has for your life and living your life to the fullest If you're not stepping out in faith and really walking the path that he has called you to walk and pursue.
Speaker 1:And this morning I was reading Charles Martin. I've got um, we're doing a book club at giving your best life book club in my home and his book it is finished. And he said the opposite of fear or no, the opposite of faith isn't faithful. Faithful, what is the word Like? Not faithful, the opposite of faith is fear. And I was like that is so good, because I think a lot of times we are chasing success or we're trying to do all these things because we're fearful of something, instead of just trusting God and having faith that, okay, you called me to do this, I'm going to step into this. And it might even be like how am I going to pay my bills, how am I going to find food and going? Okay, god, I totally trust you. So we went a lot of different places today. That's a great place to wrap it up and I would say to end, it is challenge.
Speaker 2:I love the fear aspect of it because I think it speaks to, like you said, the opposite of faith challenge the common Western civilization road to success.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like all of it is paved by fear. Your kids have to go to college to get a good job, to have a good life. You're fearful, right. Well, they didn't get into this school or they didn't get into the sport. Fear-based it's keep putting money away into your 401k. Max that baby out. You don't max it out one year, oh man, you're not gonna have as much money to retire on. And guess what, when you retire, you're gonna be old. Yeah, how many more years in your legs do you have? Less? Like, if you're lucky, 10, 20, maybe 30. If you're really lucky, that's extremely rare. Yeah, it's like, and then you have all this, this lump of money, and then you're like, whoa, I finally get to do something with it. Like, maybe that's the life you want to live. I just think challenging it, like you said and think about, is that more fear-based or faith-based?
Speaker 1:Right, I love that. So we'll end on that and this whole conversation about success enough. Fear, and faith is just another.