Ep. 31| Why Your Goals Are Killing You

You work towards a goal. You hit it. You feel amazing for 10 minutes. Then you're back to the grind, chasing the next one.

You miss the goal. You feel like the world's biggest loser. You spiral. You hustle harder. You push yourself to the breaking point.

And you're exhausted.

What if I told you that you're playing the wrong game entirely?

In this vulnerable and powerful episode, Josiah Ryan opens up about his grandmother's funeral (she was 98, lived an incredible life) and shares a life-changing lesson about inputs vs. outputs, process vs. results, and why you're killing yourself chasing goals that don't matter.

Here's the truth: you can't control the outcomes. You can only control your inputs.

God controls the results. And His results are always better than yours.

What you'll learn in this episode:

Why focusing on results instead of process makes you unhappy very quickly How to flip your mindset from "results-obsessed" to "process-focused" Why you take too much responsibility for outcomes that aren't yours to control How "doing your best today" is the only thing you need to do (Matthew 6) Why God works IN the results of things—even the failures, losses, and things that don't go according to plan The difference between taking responsibility for your actions vs. taking responsibility for all outcomes Why specific goals can trap you in a never-ending grind of achievement and emptiness How to ask God "What do you want me to do today?" instead of living and dying by goals What it means that "you are the pieces on God's chessboard"—and why that's actually liberating Why open hands, open heart, open ears, open eyes to God's will changes everything How God's peace and unspeakable joy are available to you—even in hard times Why you don't need a million dollars, 10 million, or any amount of money to be truly happy What it means to seek God first and watch all other things get added to you (Matthew 6:33)

This episode is vulnerable. It's real. And it will challenge everything you think you know about success, goals, and what it means to be happy.

If you're exhausted from chasing goals that never satisfy, if you're spiraling when you miss targets, if you're trying to control outcomes that aren't yours to control—this episode will set you free.

You're not responsible for the outcomes. God is. And His love, peace, and joy are available right now—not after you hit the next goal.

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:
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👉 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-business-podcast-with-josiah-ryan/id1832524666

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🎵 Theme music by Transistor.fm

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

What's going on, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Christian Business Podcast. I'm your host, Josiah Ryan. I am so, so, so happy to have you all on today's show. Today, if I look tired, it's because I've been traveling. My grandma's funeral was last week. I appreciate all the prayers, the support, all that kind of stuff. It's never easy when you lose a loved one. But I will say she was 98 years old. She had a great life. And as her grandchild, I just feel so blessed to live in the footprints of her legacy and to uh just really have her as my grandma. And I'm so thankful for that. So, anyhow, you guys, today uh I'm just gonna riff, man. I'm gonna riff a little bit about how important it is to just step. All right, here's what I mean: just take action, just put one step in front of the other, and whatever happens is what happens from there. You don't have to be responsible for every single outcome of your life. And if you live that way, where you take responsibility for all of the success, all of the failures, and all that kind of stuff. If you live that way, what you're going to realize is that you're going to become unhappy very quickly. Now, I want to give a caveat on this, okay? We are entrepreneurs, we are leaders, we are human beings, we are Christ followers. All of us are called to a higher standard. All right. This does not mean that you don't take responsibility for your actions. That's not what I'm saying in the slightest. In fact, I'm actually very much saying the opposite. But what I'm really saying is that you guys, you have to fall in love with the journey. You have to fall in love with the process. You can only control your inputs and let the outputs be whatever happens. All right. The reason I'm saying this is because as entrepreneurs, all of us, every myself included, every single one of us, you guys, every last one of us, we put way too much emphasis into the results, and we don't put any emphasis into the process. So I want to flip that around a little bit. Okay, you guys have heard me say this a lot, but Jesus tells us to live in a manner where today is the day. We're present today. We do every single thing that we can do today. All right. We don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow brings enough worries, right? What did Jesus say? Who can add a single hair to your head by worrying? Nobody, obviously, right? So, what we need to do as entrepreneurs is really, really just embrace the process of putting the inputs into our businesses, our relationships, our people, whatever that looks like. We need to do that every single day. And here's the big thing, okay? Let the results be the results. Here's why. I'm gonna say something maybe taboo. I'm gonna say something maybe uncomfortable. A lot of you guys are gonna disagree. I don't really give a flying crap. It's my podcast. I'll say what I want. I'm just not trying to be a jerk when I say that. But listen, God works in the results of things. Okay. Have you ever worked really hard at something and it didn't work out the way that you wanted it to work out? But what you found is that you became a lot better and stronger and more resilient and more loving and empathetic and better in the process. Maybe some of those later things they come with, you know, maybe a couple trials of going through these things. But have you ever gone through a really hard time and found yourself better off because of it? Of course you have. All right. That's business, that's life. What we do as entrepreneurs is we say, okay, if I do XYZ and if I put these inputs in, well then XYZ should happen. And then what ends up happening is you know, crazy stuff pops up and a bunch of things happen that we didn't necessarily anticipate. We felt like we had the right inputs, and all of a sudden the results didn't turn out how we expected. And we say, God, you know, why do we suck and how come you're so cruel and so mean? That's what happens. All right. I'm going to invite you guys to live a different way. Why don't you just ask God what he wants you to do today? All right. Do the things that God wants you to be doing. Ask him. Say, Lord, what do you want me to do today? Do that. All right. Just do that and see what kind of outputs God does. You know, God promises us that if we can ask for anything in his name and it will be given to us. That's what Jesus said. All right. Well, what does he mean by that? What he means is that if we are perfectly aligned with his will, he's going to bring us where we want to go. And if we're if we have open hands and open hearts and open eyes and open ears, right? All of these things, if we are open to listening to the things that God wants, who is loving, he is a loving father who is incapable of giving us bad things. He gives us hard things, he gives us difficult things, he gives us things that break us. And we ask him, how can he be so mean to give us these difficult things? Um, but he does it because he loves us and he sees the chessboard in a way that none of us see. We have to trust him. All right. So what I'm getting at is stop freaking creating these specific goals where you live and die by these goals, and you feel like the world's biggest loser if you don't hit them, and you feel like the world's biggest winner for like 10 minutes, literally, when you do hit your goals, and then it's right back to the grind. Okay, now I need the uh a bigger and more intense goal, right? Well, you guys, maybe stop building your life around goals and start building your life simply on being a good steward, being the person that God wants you to be, right? Loving people, taking care of people. Honor God first and see what kind of results he wants. You know, God lives, he lives in our creativity and he lives in the results of things. You have to realize that when you become a believer and when you accept Jesus, and when you are filled with his Holy Spirit and you're given life for the second time, and your entire existence has been flipped upside down, and everything that you thought was true is no longer true. When you become truly born again, you guys, you learn very quickly that your life is no longer your own. It doesn't matter if you make a million dollars, it doesn't make it matter if you make 10 million, it doesn't matter if you make a hundred million, and it certainly doesn't matter if you're only making one. All right. God loves you all the same. You have basically, all right, when you chose to get into a relationship with Jesus, and when you can't deny his amazing love, you guys, but when you go into that relationship, we have a much more important game. We're not just playing for money, we're not just playing for our families, we're not just playing for whatever. You guys, we literally are the pawns, the knights, the rooks, the bishops, the kings, the queens. We are the pieces of the chessboard, and God is gonna pick us up and he's gonna move us where he wants us to be at that time. And so all the people in our lives, every single person in this connected circle, every single one of them exists because God is ministering to those people through us. If we have open hearts and open minds and we have that relationship with God, that's how this stuff works. If we're gonna deny God his ability to use us because we're too busy chasing idols, like our million-dollar goal or whatever that looks like, well, we're missing the point, and you're gonna miss the best part of life, you guys. You are absolutely going to miss the best parts of life. So here's what I'm saying: you have to approach things with open hands, you have to approach things with an open heart, you have to be willing to go where God leads you, and then an amazing thing happens. His peace fills your spirit, his joy, unspeakable joy. It doesn't make sense why you can have joy, especially when you're going through hard things, but you can. His joy will fill you. You will be made whole and you will be completely alive. I'm telling you, you don't need a million dollars to be happy. You don't need 10 million, you don't need any of this trash. What you need is Jesus. And here's the amazing thing: He's totally free and he's available for anybody who wants him. You guys, if you're struggling right now, if you feel like you keep redlining and pushing that pedal to the metal, and for whatever reason it just doesn't work out, it's because you're living upside down. Okay. Jesus loves you. God first. God is the key to joy, to peace, to living a fruitful and abundant and happy life. You need God. Follow him first, seek him first, and I promise all these things will be added to you. I feel like I want to pray for you guys, so I'm gonna pray for you here. Father God, thank you for this day. Thank you for this podcast. I ask that you just put this episode in the hands of any single person who can use it. Father, I'm so thankful for this podcast. I'm thankful for the people you've put in my life. Lord, I just ask that you bless every single person here who hears this. I ask that uh, God, you just love them, you embrace them, you bless them in their day-to-day lives, God, and you just draw them closer to you and show them the beauty and the truth and the love that you have for them. Jesus, we pray these things in your name. We love you so much. In your name, Jesus, amen. All right, you guys, thank you very much. I really appreciate everything. So, you guys, this is the Christian Business Podcast. We are taking off, okay? We have lots and lots of people listening to the show all across the world at this point. We're so thankful for every single one of you. But here's what I want to say: if you have friends, family members, anybody who you feel like could benefit from this show, by all means, please absolutely share it with them. Um, we do this 100% for free because we love you. We uh, you know, we love every single person who tunes in. And God really put it on my heart to just start ministering to people through this show. And it's so cool to see where where he's taken it and how things are growing. So I love you guys. Share this with somebody who can use it and just have a wonderful day. Thanks so much. Bye bye.