Transforming Lives with Faith, Hope, and Love
Key Takeaways:
- ⚡️The importance of asking meaningful questions about life to discover purpose and significance.
- ⚡️Understanding one’s identity and motivations is crucial for living an effective and purposeful life.
- ⚡️The Four Core Questions include: Who are you? Why do you do what you do? What do you do better than others? Where has life prepared you to serve?
- ⚡️The link between personal experiences, especially pain, and the passion to drive change and purpose in life.
- ⚡️Emphasizing that once individuals understand their worth, they can catalyze change in their relationships and personal spheres.
Notable Quotes:
- “I want to live a life that’s effective. I want to live a life that matters.”
- “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
- “When you know your worth, which you will discover as you get answers to those four questions, you will change your world.”
- “We’re just repackaging a little bit in a way that it can be more effective in a lot of different sections.”
- “You are created on purpose and for purpose.”
Episode Resources:
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Links to the Daron Earlewine Podcast
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TRANSCRIPT
Like, I want to live a life that’s effective. I want to live a life that matters. And I think the big question that we have to ask ourselves is why? Like, that’s one of the essence of this idea of the core questions is, is asking questions. Why do we think our life should matter? I think to get clarity on our purpose, to get clarity on who we are as human beings, we have to start asking questions about our questions created on purpose and for a purpose.
Everybody, welcome back to the Daron Earlewine Podcast. So stoked to have you back here on the podcast. I’m your host, Daron Earlewine. And yeah, I had a cool moment this past week, got a chance to. I was speaking at Mercy Road Northeast, one of the local churches that I get to be a part of and speak twice a month at. And somebody came up said, hey, been listen to the podcast and just been so inspired by what I’m learning about what you’re teaching.
You’re with me every day. I’m on the treadmill. And so I want to thank you for that listener that told me that. And if you’re on the treadmill today or you’re on a road trip or you’re just hanging around the house wherever you consume the content, I just want to say thanks for listening to the podcast. And we’re going to jump into a new series today in the series is called the Four Core Questions. And so it ties in with the series we just finished.
If you haven’t listened to this in succession, you might want to go back and listen to the four the Four Noble Quests. And so you notice everything’s going to have a four with it. And if you listen to that series, you know that we just started a new keynote speaking, coaching and consulting company called the Rogue Collective. And we talked about the vision behind Rogue in that last series. You can go back and check it out.
And what we’re going to do here for the first part of 2025 is unpack the content that we’re delivering. The companies, corporations across the country to really stir personal and purpose development. And we talked about the kind of two part vision of that in the last series is that at a baseline level, Road Collector is going to come in and help awaken people to become a they were born to be in the marketplace. Everybody that is walking the face of the earth, they want to know that their life matters. They want to make a difference in the world.
But most people don’t know how to do it and don’t know who they are in the process. And so our heart and our vision is to provide them. And at the base level, if that’s what happens, somebody discovers more purpose and more peace, more purpose for their life, more passion for their life. And that’s wonderful. It’s going to show up in better relationships, better communication, better teamwork, more productivity at work. And all of those things are important under the surface for us are kind of off the radar is in that process. We want to find people who either have a relationship with Jesus or find one in the process. And then we were going to then invite them to be a part of Blackbird mission where we will help them put together a disciple disciple making group in, in their, in their company.
And our, our heart or prayer, our vision is in the Next, you know, five to 10 years, we’ll see a pretty amazing disciple making movement happening in the marketplace. And so what we’re doing for this first year is, is just giving you a look at the content that we’re doing and what we’re bringing. And if you’re brand new to this, the first time, this is the PO ask, maybe you saw me speak, I was at your company and you’re like, man, I want to know some more about this. I want to grow a little bit more, is what I was telling you about. If you’ve been a long time listener to the podcast, you’re going to realize as we go through some of this content and be like, I feel like I’ve heard Daron say this about a hundred thousand times on the podcast. It’s because you have. We’re just repackaging a little bit in a way that it can be more effective in a lot of different sections. So this next portion is what takes us about sometimes between four and eight months to go through, depending on the regularity of the meetings. But it’s the next module of training and it’s called the four core questions. And so we’re going to jump into that today.
If you have questions, you have thoughts, you want to give us the feedback, you can always email daron@daronearlewine.com or daron@blackirdmission.com both emails work. Or you can always text us here at the podcast at 317-550-50. 70. All right, so let’s jump into the four core questions. First and foremost, here’s what I know about you and me is we want our life to matter, every single one of us. It’s for a human being that is something that is core to our existence. We do not want to waste our life and if you look at that, if you ask somebody, hey, will you look until I have an effective life or really ineffective, like, which one would you like to choose? Ineffective is defined as this, right? Not producing the desired results, lacking competence to be vain, useless, or fruitless.
I don’t know any human being. If I said, hey, would you like that written on your tombstone? They’d be like, yeah, sounds like a plan. None of us would. And as I think about that, it, it brings my memory back to, I don’t know, 10, 15 years ago. I was working at a church here in town and I remember getting a call, must have been pastor on call that day or something. Then there was a, a homeless man who had passed. He was a veteran. He had passed. And the sad thing was there was no next of kin. There was no contact information.
This man passed from this life to the next and no one knew about it. And there was no one to attend his funeral. And so the funeral director reached out to the church to see if someone would be able to be available to be there. And I remember that day because it hit me with really, really profound sadness because I was just thinking about this man and I thought about him as, as a baby, is that he had parents and, and he was born to two people. And, and I have three kids, three boys.
Many of you have children, as you’re listening, and, and every one of you was a child at some point, right? Is your parents or if you’re a parent. None of us started where our parents were, had a complete lack of vision or idea or aspirations for our life. I think every single parent has great dreams for their kids. They want them to be effective. They want them to live a great life. And we have the same desire.
And, and it just broke my heart that day to think about this man, that there’s no way that his parents, when he was born, thought he will live a life and die alone someday. And they’ll have to call a random church, asking some random person that doesn’t know him to just be present at his funeral. In the same vein, I, I, I’m, I’m sure if I could have talked to this man when he was a 5th grader or a, a 12th grader or when he entered the military, like, hey, is this how you want your life to end?
I’m guessing from his parents and from him, the answer would be absolutely no. Like, I want to live a life that’s effective. I want to live a life that matters. And I think the big question that we have to ask Ourselves is why. Like, that’s what one of the essence of this idea of the core questions is, asking questions. Why do we think our life should matter? I think to get clarity on our purpose, get clarity on who we are as human beings, we have to start asking questions about our questions.
Like, I have these questions. I have these things that, that are bothering me, that are motivating me. They’re driving me forward as I’m questioning, examining my life. But. But why, like, if everything’s random, if we just accidentally got here on this planet and you accidentally came into being and same thing for grass or trees or horses or planets is everything was random. It just accidentally happened. Nothingness came from nothingness, and now it’s just we’re nothingness, but we exist on this ball flying around in the universe.
Like, why would you think there should be any purpose for your life? I think the reason that you feel like that your life should matter is because you were created on purpose and for a purpose. One of the core tenets of this whole podcast. We’ll dig into that a little bit more, but I think this is true about every single one of us. And as we get into this, we have to begin asking questions, and then we have to ask questions about our questions to examine our life.
Socrates, right, he said it like this, that the unexamined life is not worth living. I think it’s a great quote. The unexamined life is not worth living. We have to examine, we have to dig, we have to question. Because it moves us forward, it moves us deeper, it moves us into. To getting closer to the target of living an effective life. Albert Einstein said like this, the important thing is not to stop questioning.
I. To always be asking questions about life. He says this curiosity has its own reason for existing. And I think a big reason curiosity exists. I think there’s something about that, of, of the seeds of. Of transcendence, of God’s design in us, drawing us to the deeper things of life, right? Because even Jesus himself, he says it like this. Ask and it’ll be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you.
For who? Everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks, finds. And the one who knocks. The door will be open. Jesus, inviting us to this, this examination, inviting us to this, this questioning, inviting us to this curiosity, this seeking for the depth of life in. And then followed up with the promise that, hey, you know what? You’ll actually find it if you begin to seek it. And I think this, this search in, this questioning this examining, I think it is unique for us as human beings that were created on purpose and for a purpose. And, and the, the, the way I see this most comically and, and most readily in my life is with my dog, Theo.
I think I told you guys about Theo. He, he’s, he’s barely a real dog. He’s like a teddy bear and a stuffed dog that somehow came to life. But he’s awesome. He’s a mini golden doodle. He’s been with our family for over 10 years. Brings so much joy and happiness to our, to our family. And I just want you to think about your. If you have a pet or you’ve had a pet, right? It could be a dog, cat, bird, reptile, whatever is, is your jam.
I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m partial of dogs though. Here’s the deal. I don’t think Theo sits around and examines his life. And the reason I think this is I’ve watched his Life for over 10 years, and Theo loves his life. And let me take you through a day in the life of Theo. He wakes up when I wake up. He runs downstairs, very excited to get, you know, on task with his great purpose development of a dog day. He goes outside in the backyard, takes a leak right in the same place that he pees every day because he kills the grass there, right?
Then he runs inside and he’s very excited about the next item on the agenda, okay? Which is to eat. And if you have a dog, you know how they get, they get so fired up by eating. Theo starts turning around in circles. Sometimes he’s barking at him. He can’t wait to get to the food. The reaction would make sense if like I had stirred up this amazing breakfast. Maybe it’s like steak, maybe a little filet minion with some eggs, right? Just something really amazing for breakfast. But it’s not right. It’s the same brown pellets that Theo ate yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. The same brown pellets. He has been eating for 10 plus years, but he loves it, okay?
He scarvfs down the food, goes outside, relieves himself, comes in, jumps on the sunroom couch, usually knocks all the pillows off and lays down for the next six to eight hours. Maybe he moves around to different places. Sometimes he sits up on the stairs, he lays around and sleeps for the next six to eight hours until someone comes home, which then he knows is going to be exciting because right around 5:30, he’s going to get a chance to eat the filet mignon pebbles again.
Gets very fired about that. Eats the. Eats the same food he’s been eating for 10 years. Runs down or runs over, usually sits on the couch, waits for us to watch some TV and praise and hopes that a dog or horse or some animal comes on the TV so he can jump around and bark at it. Then he goes to bed. And Theo does this every single day. And he’s been doing this every single day for the past 10 years. And not ever have I seen a look of depression, a look of anxiety, a look of, well, he’s an anxious dog, but look at depression or a sense that he’s not fulfilling that the dog purpose he’s been given, right?
And here’s. I know that we’re different than. Than your dog, your cat, whatever, and we have. Is. If I made you live Theo’s life for a week, you might be like, that’s kind of cool. Like, I could use a nap. I could use a couple days. It’s like a vacation. But if I made you do Theo’s life for six weeks or six months, we’d come back and find you as a shell of the human being that you are. You do the same thing every day. You eat the same thing every day. You don’t go and make a difference. You sit around and you sleep all day long.
You would be clinically right, Diagnosed with depression and a lot of other things, because you are created on purpose and for purpose. And what we want to help you do with the four core questions is actually begin to answer the deepest questions of life so you can step into that purpose, okay? And so as we look at these, these four core questions, I think they. They come down to this. Who are you?
Why do you do what you do? What do you do better than. Than millions of other people? And where has your life prepared you to serve with the greatest capacity and the greatest passion? Four core questions. Who, why, what and where. As we look at that who, right? The who question is really, really central to your identity, right? It’s. It’s who you are at your core. The question, right, you can see it from, like, multiple angles there, but it.
The personality, right? Your personal identity, your social roles, your responsibilities and. And even your spiritual connections and the considerations, right? And as we ask that question, as we ask, who am I, right, We begin to dig in and look at the depth of our character, our values, our beliefs. We begin to understand where we fit in our family, the community, right? In society as a whole. And I believe, and we believe here at the Rogue collective, right? And as a Blackbird mission too, we believe the answer to the who are you, who am I? Question, it leads you to discover your spiritual and your transcendent origins.
And that’s why we start with that question. The next question we have to ask is this. Why, why do I do what I do? And, and this gets to our motivations, right? Why am I motivated to do certain things and very demotivated to do others? And, and most of us don’t spend the time necessary to really examine our motivations. And I think some of that is, is, is driven by fear. And we’ll talk about this later, but the fear is your enemy and it usually lies to you.
But most of us, when we think, man, I really want to grow, I want to change in whatever capacity that could be. It could be mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, we usually come against the wall of motivation. I just can’t get myself to do this. This is easy, but this isn’t. And, and I don’t have any understanding why I don’t or why I do. And when we’re guessing and we’re shadow boxing our way through, understanding our core motivations, good luck living an effective life.
And so that’s why we dig into truck to help you understand why do I do what I do? What are the core motivations of my life? The next questions that, that we ask and we dig into is this is what, what do I do better than millions of other people? And what am I doing with my life, with what I do best, what am I striving for, right? What do I do best? And this is going to help you clarify goals, priorities, passion. And it’s going to show up in everything, every day, day to day activities, your career, what you do at home, how you show up in your relationships, and when you get that understanding of, I know kind of what my, my superpowers are, if you will, right? I know what my tool belt or bag of tools where, where this is what I can do practically, perfectly, exceptionally, as I work on it. When we superpowers, right, it begins to bring alignment with our values, with our goals.
And we show up every day and we can become actually indispensable in the areas of our life, both professionally and personally. Kind of know what we do better than millions of other people. The last question we ask is this, where, where has life equipped me? Okay? And where’s the journey of my life actually equipped me and shape me to, to serve with the greatest passion? I think every single one of us wants to Live a passionate life. Like we said before, we want it to be effective, we want it to matter, and we want to be passionate about it.
And the unique thing about this question of where is. I think there is a. A purposely designed connection between the pain you’ve experienced in your life and living a life of passion. I say it like this. Oftentimes when you. When you discover and deal with what you suffered through, you know very clearly what you’re willing to suffer for. And so that’s why we spend some time in these four core questions helping you answer that question of where.
Those are the four core questions. We’re going to walk through them because we know that you want your life to matter. And we also know this, that when you know your worth, which you will discover as you get answers to those four questions, you will change your world. And I used to say this in a much more grandiose way. I would always tell people, hey, when you know your worth, you’re going to change the world.
And then I realized after a couple years, I can’t guarantee that result. I just can’t. When you know your worth and you discover your design, you can answer these questions. I know who I am. I know why I do what I do, so I know my path for growth and development. I know what I do better than millions of other people, and I know where I want to serve, to make the greatest passionate impact in the world.
And you put all those together, guess what? You have a treasure trove of worth and value. You will start changing your world. I don’t know if you’ll change Florida. I don’t know what you can do for Australia. I don’t know what you can do for, you know, for. For the. The world in general. I don’t know if you’ll solve, you know, the, you know, you know, food, you know, issues in the world. I don’t know if you’ll come up with the cure of cancer. But here’s what I know.
I know that you’ll start changing your world, and your world is relationships. We say this all the time on the podcast, right? You guys are probably sick of hearing the Gary Smiley quote that I say all the time that your life is relationships. Everything else is just the details. And when you begin to understand your worth, when you have answers to those four core questions, you will show up in your world with greater peace.
You will show up with greater purpose. You will show up with greater passion. And when you do that, you will see your world begin to change. The relationships that are the most core to your existence, to your love, to your security, to your prosperity, to all things, you will begin to change that world. And when that world change, you will begin living a life worthy right of what you’ve been given, of this amazing gift we made. Because guess what? How many lives we actually get? Guess how many we get? We get one. We get one shot at this.
So let’s examine it. Let’s ask good questions about our questions and let’s dig to discover the essence of our life. That’s what we’re going to do our best to help you accomplish here in the four core questions. All right, there’s your intro. Hope you enjoyed it. Short and sweet, to the point. And we’re back in the next episode next week to talk about that first question of who am I understanding your identity. Once again, thanks so much for listening. Appreciate it. Would love to hear any feedback from you. You can tell you can always email daron@daron earlewine.com. You can also text me if you want. 317-550-5070 and if you know anyone, you say, man, this, this, they, they need this in their life. Please share this episode with somebody that needs it. And if you haven’t subscribed yet to the YouTube channel or to any of the other platforms where the podcast exists, please go out there and subscribe. Appreciate it. And until we talk to you again, remember these things.
God is for you. He’s not against you. He’s near you, not far away. And he’s created you on purpose and for purpose. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Daron Earlewine Podcast.