Shortcuts: Interview with Bob Hasson on Finding Your Purpose

welcome back to another episode of

christian natural health today i'm very

excited to have bob hassan with us bob

is a businessman author consultant and

podcaster he is both the founder and ceo

of hpci a painting subcontractor he

founded in 1978 and that operates across

the western us for over 30 years he has

been active as a consultant and board

member for churches ministries

non-profits and school boards the sought

after speaker bob has co-authored books

with danny silk and sean boltz he's been

married for 33 years to his wife lauren

and they have four children and two

grandchildren welcome bob thank you so

much for joining us oh lauren thank you

so much i'm so honored to be here i

can't wait for this discussion

great i'm glad so you have a new book

called shortcuts so give us a little bit

of a synopsis of what it's about and who

your target is for that

well

i'm going to show you the cover right

now okay here's here's the cover it's

shortcuts do you see that black line

through there yeah what does that mean

does it mean it's no shortcuts or it

shortcuts

what is the proven path to our purpose

excellence in calling

i've written this book because over my

over my

life i've talked to thousands if not

tens of thousands of people

in uh in the christian environment and

and i kind of see these same questions

coming up like what's my purpose what's

my calling what's god calling me to do i

don't know if i'm in the right place

and and so

the other thing that i hear is

tell me how to get there faster tell me

give me a life hack give me a shortcut

give me a if you're a gamer you'll know

what this means a cheat code i'm not a

gamer i don't really know what that

means but people are looking for

ways to get through their life without

moving through the normal process and

journey that god has for us

yeah that's really interesting so

how do you kind of see that the american

culture is shaping those questions i

assume that's part of it right

yeah that i think the worldwide culture

of course we've come through two years

of worldwide economic and health

pandemic

and so we've been isolated and i'm sure

in your practice you see people who are

who are are dealing with stress and

anxiety and things that

have been exacerbated by what we've been

through

what i see amer the worldwide culture is

like i know you're going to probably

laugh but social media

is

promoting this lifestyle that is not

healthy and not true and not real

so young people are looking at you know

their friends or the people they follow

with their yachts or their private

planes or their expensive vacations and

they're thinking to themselves how come

i'm not there yet interesting okay and

and so i see a lot of anxiety around

that where people's hearts have been

sort of

brought in shame because they they

haven't quote made it

a lot of the questions i hear is how

come i'm not a millionaire yet and and

and i and i say how old are you

28

28 every but everybody else on social

media is a millionaire wow

you're the following

right i don't know that's crazy but i

think social media has become a

highlight reel we're not posting when

we're down in the dumps we're not

posting when we're on the couch we're

not posting when

we're we're ashamed of things that we're

doing we're posting you know so we look

good and

and so there's this general anxiety that

i see out there and what i'm hoping is

you know the narrative and the stories

and shortcuts will help people

understand they're okay

right yeah yeah so what replaces that

mentality so you're saying you know

there isn't there aren't any shortcuts

what

should the mindset shift to instead

well

the purpose and the journey and the

process of life

so

i like

for example again i'm not a gamer but i

have a gamer friend who who

proposed and he said he said yeah you

can you can go from like if you're on

level one you can get a cheat code to

level 10.

okay and then now i'm on level 10. well

what happens at level 10 and he says oh

you get killed all the time forever

because you don't know what to do on

level 10.

and

and then i said well what what's the

diff why don't you just go from level

one to two to three to four to five and

he said because it's so cool to be on

level ten huh interesting and and so you

know he's willing to make the jump up

there without going through the process

of learning how to play the game the

game of life and he's and he's now

getting killed all the time until

finally he he acclimates to it however

fast this new level is wow and so i

think as believers

one of the things that we we need to do

is recognize that our our life is this

wonderful process and it's a journey

yeah so that reminds me there was this

uh i think it was charles capps who made

the quote of you can't build a second

story on a vacant lot it sounds kind of

like what you're describing yes

that's a that's a great quote i

like listen to this

in genesis 2 7 god breathes life into

adam

and then

in verse 15 which is the next time he

addresses adam he says to him

go tend to the garden or go to work

and so right off the bat the first thing

that god says to adam there's no eve yet

there's no

there's no curse there's no apple

there's no tree there's none of that go

to go tend to the garden and you know

eventually name the animals

and then you know if you go to john 5

jesus says this my father and i are

always working

so

what i'm looking at is

in

in god's economy work is the first thing

he ever told man to do

and

fast forwarding through the new

testament he's reiterating that by

saying is he and his father are always

working and and so what i i think is

very interesting in our culture is

uh

work is a blessing

and

our environment that we live in

is something that we can do with joy and

i think lots and lots of people are are

going to work

especially now some people other people

are so isolated maybe they're working at

home

maybe they're not in teams anymore

they're doing lots of zoom instead of

face-to-face meetings

and and we have to get the joy back as

like what is our character as believers

we're supposed to be the salt and light

going out before i i'm not i'm not

advocating that we're evangelists at

work i'm advocating that we use our

character to go be the best workers

there can be we're jesus apprentices

so let our character shine when you go

to work and you complete a task ask your

other team members can i help you i'm

finished go to your supervisor and say

hey listen

i finished my task and i've asked the

others if there's anything else to do do

you have anything else for me to do

and as as human beings you know you're

going to put yourself in the one percent

of workers if you if you start to shine

your light like that totally yeah

absolutely so um how would you recommend

because most people are looking for you

know a job that fulfills them or that

gives them passion would you say that

the passion comes as a result of

behaving that way of

of looking for what you can do and doing

it with excellence

i love the way you put that

[Music]

probably the second issue that i hear

most of the time is i'm just not

passionate right in other words my

company doesn't have a social justice

program or they're

it's a big corporation they're just out

for themselves and they don't care about

us and i'm just not passionate

and so i did a word search and an

etymology about where does passion come

from passion the word comes from uh the

passion of the christ

and so we know what happened he suffered

hanging on a cross for the remission of

our sins

as and that's where passion comes from

so

so in my view passion comes from

suffering

uh and

and am i being morose no

uh if you're in an entry-level position

uh you're probably gonna have to do all

the jobs and no one else wants to do

and you have to do it for a while until

your character begins to prove

who you are and where you're going

i think

if you think about logically uh

we have eight hours to work generally

eight hours to sleep generally and then

we have another eight hours for personal

social time

and

if you're in a job uh where where you're

not feeling passion you know that that

eight hours in the middle is a place

that

as you're taking care of yourself soul

care personal care those kind of things

you can begin to pursue your passions

outside of your church or outside of

work

yeah that makes sense so it's it sounds

like it is something that you cultivate

really it's that what you spend effort

in is what you come to value kind of

like in the same way that jesus says

where your treasure is that your heart

will be kind of you're the treasure of

your time in a way would you would you

say that similar

yeah i'd like like lauren what's your

passion what what are you i know

i know i think i know what the answer is

but what's your passion and how much

time do you spend cultivating it

oh gosh i have several so it would be

hard to to nail it down but i mean from

the standpoint of my practice yeah

passionate about finding root cause for

people so that they can actually restore

them

to their health so that they can go

about doing what god

designed them to do to

free them up yeah and and it's it's such

a righteous passion and calling that you

have because the work that you're doing

is going to allow people to experience

god in a way that maybe they couldn't

because their adrenals were low or you

know what have you

right exactly exactly so you're talking

also about this balance between the

eight hours that you're working in the

eight hours that you're doing something

else is leaving inside the sleep portion

although that's also critical as long as

you're doing it so what is the the work

life balance stopping and resting and

recovering how does all of that play

into this

i wish i could say there's a cookie

cookie cutter answer but but there's

really not because we're all different

um

one of the

i i love to talk about like professional

sports teams they win the super bowl or

the nba championship and they've gone

for eight or nine months on this on this

quest when they finally win

um

they've got time off for two or three

months and all the time that they put in

practice and games

goes away and they're they're they're

relaxing getting ready for the next

season well most of us

have jobs let's just call it nine to

five jobs and we're lucky to have a week

in the summer and a week in the winter

yeah and so

do we sit around for six months thinking

i can't wait to get to summer vacation

or winter vacation

or do we say

okay listen in every week i i need to

prioritize for myself

exercise rest

uh

recovery

fun

and passion

and and so so what i would say even

though there's no cookie cutter solution

for people who are dealing with

work-life balance

look at the things that that you love

look at the things that that give you

uh

that give you passion and and make sure

that you're working them in we we can't

work

six days a week 12 hours a day we we

have to take time for ourselves or else

we're going to burn out and and i'm sure

i'm sure in your practice you see people

coming in that are just so burned out

they can't get off the couch

and yeah i'm sure and i would assume

that if you as you ask them questions

you find out that they did not have any

type of balance in their lives

yeah absolutely

how would you i mean i'm so interested

in this concept how would you

answer that question what do you think

work-life balance looks like

um

so i there's those kinds of people where

they're going going going and they tell

me they don't have any margin there's

nothing they can come out

one of the first things that i will tell

them number one to create a sabbath one

24-hour period where you don't do

anything else like you just rest and

that's whatever rest means to you so if

something is restful and it's filling

your bucket then do that but if it's

something that's going to deplete you it

doesn't belong on that day if possible

if they tell me they can't do even 24

hours straight then i will say find 24

hours throughout the week then

distribute it but you're you have to

have 24 hours total it's just better if

it's all together

and then the second thing i will tell

them is that there is a handout

from stephen covey's book of the seven

habits of highly effective people that

is the urgent versus important handout

yes there's you're familiar yeah uh so

there's four categories so there's the

the urgent and important this is like

your house is on fire and absolutely

have to take care of this or there's

going to be major consequences so you do

have to do those things but things

shouldn't you shouldn't be living there

if you are then there's something

missing on the important but not urgent

category those should be both of your

time those should be things like

spending time with god spending time

with family investing in your work

investing in your goals and things like

that taking care of your body

there is the

urgent not important and this is other

people's priorities usually and they're

putting things on your plate and there

are boundaries that you need to begin to

create and then there's not urgent not

important and those are usually like

scrolling facebook or something you know

just wasting time so you can eliminate

those for the most part you should

hopefully be able to eliminate

you know not entirely because the world

is the world but you should mostly be

living out of the important not urgent

yeah that's what i usually do i love

that i love that and i love the sabbath

and we you know we try to practice that

we don't get legalistic about it but we

really do try to practice i have friends

who turn

their phones and all their electron

electronic devices off on friday night

and go through sunday night and

that seems that seems like wow

but

when you train people to do that they

they know that that's what you're doing

so it's a super interesting concept yeah

absolutely so and then um

what does our

identity have to do with all of this

would you say in terms of going back to

the concept of what am i called to do

what does god want me to do with my life

how does identity and calling kind of

play into this

well

i see

lots and lots of performance mentality

people are just on the hamster wheel

performing

so if we can understand that we are

loved sons and daughters of god

positionally yes

that

whether we've succeeded whatever our

definition of success is i'm holding my

hand out there there it is

seated

uh or whether we haven't succeeded yet

on this hand

positionally

we're loved sons and daughters of god

and so our identity does not change

we're on the continuum of our life the

process or the journey of life

so for me

recognizing no matter what i do

i'm a loved son of god and no matter

lauren what you do you're a loved

daughter of god and so

the performance goes away and you know

obviously we're trying to be good

stewards of our time energy and money

but sometimes sometimes we make mistakes

and what what ends up happening is we

beat ourselves up for

days months years sometimes

i've talked to people who've beaten

themselves up for decades over over a

mistake

but when you recognize that

god loves you no matter what your

performance is on either side

it should calm your heart down to

understand then

what your purpose your destiny your

calling is

yeah absolutely and so once you know

your identity then kind of what do you

do in terms of

the calling is it something lofty way

out there or do you tend to find that

it's kind of god put something right in

front of you and you begin to move into

that

yeah um

i think people are looking for the lofty

looking for the you know like in our

world

to the nations

right

and and

when people say that you're like oh i'm

not to the nations i'm just you know

affecting a few people's lives

but what i've seen happen is

let's say god has a calling right here

for you

and

and people are busy looking over it for

their their true calling

and

they're they've let's say they've taken

the personality test enneagram the disc

test strengths finders the myers-briggs

whatever you like or they've talked to

their friends and family and said what

do you think i'm good at

still there's this thing that they're

they're looking over

i found that most of the time our

assignments are very close to us if not

in front of us they're very close to us

and what i found in in my life in my

career is it it really does take one

step at a time and putting one foot in

front of the other being faithful in the

small things

not despising small beginnings the

scripture says don't despise small

beginnings

god rejoices over

the work starting

and

i know the first part of the scripture

but when you the second part of the

scripture like oh my gosh he just wants

us to start

he just wants us to begin to do the

thing that we're afraid of and you say

well how come you haven't started yet

and people are like i'm just i'm just

afraid what if i fail what if it doesn't

work what if i lose money what if what

if what if what if

and and by having

community around

and relationships around of people that

love you and care for you and are

concerned about you that you trust you

can begin to put these things out

to them and say this is what i think you

know i'm hearing god say

and what do you guys think because you

know me you love me you care for me i

trust you

and and i believe

one of the things that we're really

missing right now is community

is the ability to go see each other be

with each other

and hear each other

speak

into our lives

yeah absolutely

so

kind of taking it down to a bit more of

a practical level what would you say are

some ways that we can identify the roles

where we can grow and thrive and

contribute our best work to the world

around us

number one

[Music]

recognizing that your positional

identity is a love son and daughter of

god which should free lots of people up

for

figuring out like okay

what

what is my calling

and and when you when you understand who

you are then you can go and look at

those personality tests you can go and

talk to people if you've majored in

college in a subject or you know

graduated from high school with an

interest

then you know that should tell you kind

of

where your direction is yeah uh

if if you're if you're minister if

you're ministry-centric and you have

passion for

the lost or

or orphans or

refugees or

getting water to the world

you know these kind of things

uh you you can look at and

because so many times i mean i don't

know if you see this lauren so many

times people are looking for something

out there and you know my question is

what are you interested in what you what

are you passionate about and then it

kind of flows

and

and and

you're asking well why don't you pursue

that

and people think well

well because because i like it

exactly why you should

that's i i love the identity part

because that i think settles so many of

the fears as you said earlier yeah of

needing to go out and make your mark on

the world once you know that you're

already settled and secure then it's

just okay i'm partnering with god he

wants me to find

what he's placed me to do and the idea

that it's not going to be something

lofty way out there that you just jump

to all at once he's going to place it

right in front of you that's so much

more the character of god that he's not

going to make a part

it really is and practically speaking

you know i'm a planner and so i i like

strategic planning and part of strategic

planning is identifying short-term

midterm and long-term goals

so maybe you have a goal out in 10 years

that there's this big goal that you're

thinking this is what i want to do yeah

but it's out there it's out there in a

as a long-term goal

me in the meantime if you have short and

midterm goals that are going to be

marching you on the way to that dream

that you have with god

uh it's not so overwhelming yes yeah and

you you can start as the scripture says

and then move towards it start where you

are for sure so um another of my

passions is that i write fiction on the

side and so the idea of sitting down and

just writing novel would totally

overwhelm me but i always start i've got

this process where i'll write my outline

first and the outline is very fluid i

just come up with something to start and

then i write in 20 20 page roughly give

or take segments and each time i finish

one of those i will edit it to the best

of my ability and i'll go on to the next

section based on what i've already said

is supposed to happen here in my outline

and then if i decide oh the outline

needs to change then i'll go over here

and tweak it right let's do what i need

to do but you're absolutely right you

can't just sit down and do it straight

through i guess people in nanowrimo

can't but i could never do that so that

i think is is the kind of an

illustration of taking things in

bite-sized chunks so they don't totally

overwhelm you yeah that's a beautiful

illustration i think i think like for

your listeners that is exactly what the

process of life is and i love what you

said about as you get through it it's

like oh i'm i'm in a shift i'm going to

go in a different direction you can

because it's you and and you you go to

the outline and say this is where i want

to go now and nobody said you can't do

that because it's your outline and

you're hearing from god through the

creative process

and this is where it's taking them yeah

absolutely absolutely

so um is there anything i have not asked

you that you want to make sure that you

leave with our audience

i don't think so i mean i i just

just the fact that

people need courage oh yes

and and i and i think

that you that you and your listeners

would be surprised if you just start

something where god takes you

how if the spirit of fear can be lifted

off because you recognize that your love

sons and daughters of god that he

wants to partner with you in your dreams

and desires that god actually cares

about what you care about

and is concerned about what you're

concerned about you'll see that moving

through

moving through life

is

becomes joyful and i'll tell you this

there's only one shortcut

i'll tell it i'll tell you what it is so

you don't have to read the book

okay

the the only shortcut really in life

that i've found is the pursuit of wisdom

and so how do we find wisdom we find

wisdom from the word of god from the

spirit of god we find wisdom from

others experiences mentors and people

that we love and wisdom from our

experiences and if you put all that

together

and you think about what is my next step

and then you look at this body of wisdom

that you have available to you it'll

help you in your decision making and

strategic planning to to go to the next

step

that's great that's great

where can people go to find out more

about you

well i have a website uh

bobhassen.com h-a-s-s-o-n

and on there i have you know blogs and

interviews and

roundtable discussions and uh

podcasts

and you can buy the book books there

uh or you can buy books anywhere else

and i'm pretty active on instagram

bob.hasson awesome well i will include

those in the show notes and thank you so

much bob for all of your time and wisdom

this has been fantastic thank you lauren

honored to be here thanks so much

are you looking for a holistically

minded healthcare practitioner who truly

treats root cause rather than symptom

suppression

unfortunately even in the alternative

healing professions this isn't a given

that's why i've created

wholehealthdoctor.com a resource to help

connect patients to healthcare

practitioners in their area who share a

root cause philosophy alternatively most

of the practitioners listed also

practice telehealth so if there isn't

anyone local to you you can still find a

great practitioner to help you regain

optimal health go to

wholehealthdoctor.com that's whole

health

dr.com type in your location or adjust

the specialty that you're looking for

and find the practitioner who's right

for you

- Generated with https://kome.ai

‍