Ep 60: You Are Being Called to Do Something More

Welcome to the Mom On Purpose Podcast. I’m Lara Johnson and I’m here to teach you how to get out of your funk, be in a better mood, and play more with your kids. Manage your home better. Get your to-do list done and live your life on purpose with my proven method. This is possible for you, and I’ll show you how.

You’re not alone anymore. We’re in this together.

Hi, welcome back to the Mom On Purpose Podcast. Just big hello to if you are new here or even if you’ve been around a while, I wanted to take an episode to reintroduce myself. It’s been over a year since I’ve been doing this podcast and I know so many of you, but I know that there’s a lot of people that are new to me and new to what I do in my coaching practice.

And so, I wanted to take a second just to tell you a little bit about me, about my story as just kind of a fun episode in between some of the other things that we have been learning on this podcast. So again, my name is Lara Johnson. I am a wife. I have been married to my husband for 15 years. We just celebrated our 15th anniversary.

We went to Mexico. It was amazing. I would recommend it to anyone. It felt like a dream, like a mini honeymoon again. I also have four kids. They range from the ages of 12 all the way down to 10 months as of right now. Within our family, we are a very neurodiverse group, meaning we have autism, a subtype within autism called PDA, pathological demand avoidance.

We have ADHD, we have sensory processing disorder, and we have possibly dyslexia. So, we understand the whole gamut of all of the things, anxiety, depression, we know and understand. So, anything that you learn here on this podcast will always be neurodiverse friendly. And that’s something that I’m very passionate about, but also, it’s important for my brain too.

So, I also have two, I call them my spicy cats. They are adorable. One of them is definitely an emotional support cat. She is there any time somebody is struggling. And then the other one is a little bit younger, and she thinks that she is the baby of the house and wants to be treated as such. I love all things nature.

You’ll, if you were to ever come into my home, my door is always open. I always want to welcome people into my home. I have plants all over the walls. Bookshelves, cupboards, because I don’t always have a chance to get outside. Sometimes life is really busy. So, I bring nature inside. And that’s one of the reasons why I love my plants so much.

I live five minutes from the mountains. You’ll find that I am the happiest when I am in the mountains. And I love going for hikes. I love taking my kids for hikes. And I think there is nothing more beautiful than seeing all the leaves changing. And so even as we were driving the other day, my kids were like, Mom!

I was like, you know, it freaks me out as I’m driving and they’re like, mom, stop the car. I was like, what? I can’t stop in the middle of the road. And they’re like, mom, but look, the tree leaves are changing. And it was the very first tree that we had seen all season. And so, you better believe I found a spot to pull a car over so we could admire the tree that was changing.

So, anything that nature, kids, animals, all things that I love. You will find me very often out among people. I love being around people. And then I will go and hermit for a while afterwards. And, you know, even on the podcast, I try really hard, you know, to be consistent with the podcast.

But lots of times I’ll record a bunch of episodes at once and then hermit for a while or I’ll post on social media pretty Consistently and then hermit for a while. It’s the natural state of my body, which is so odd to me even now but it’s just the way that I exist. I am the type of person that like I hate clothes So even though my door is always open you have to text me before you ever come over because chances are I’m in a robe around my children.

And it’s always like a joke that as soon as I get home from church, like I’ll walk in, and all my clothes fall off. I’m like, I cannot stand to be in clothes any longer. So that’s just, you know, part of my sensory issues that I have going on. I’m very sensory sensitive. My husband is a financial executive.

He’s an accountant and he is starting a new job in about a week. It’s based in London and we’re very excited to hopefully take a family trip to London someday. Lots of times I’m obsessed with my children and lots of times I want to run away from them. So, it can be a handful. They are a handful and I love them.

They are, they have the best sense of humor. They’re caring. They’re amazing human beings with just really cool, unique brains and the biggest hearts you’ve ever seen. And what I have found is that as I’ve moved forward in. Understanding myself more that one of the things I love is just the beautiful dichotomies of life that there are times where I cannot be more in love with my children while also wanting to run away from them.

So, we talk about those beautiful dichotomies a lot here on the podcast, and I want you to look for those as well in your life that. There are two things, two opposite things that can be true at the same time. So, a little bit about me and my work and what I do. I am a certified life coach. I became certified about five years ago.

It’s not anything I ever imagined that I would be doing, and we’ll talk more about that in just a second. But what I realized was that when I really started examining, what do I want to do with my life? What do I want to be when I grow up? I started looking at the patterns. That’s something that you’ll learn about me very quickly.

Listening to this podcast is I’m always looking for patterns. And I realized I’ve always done that. I’m fascinated by the human brain. I’m fascinated by people’s behaviors and why they act the way that they do. And I realized that I wanted to work with mentally well people, specifically women. I wanted to help them live life to the fullest.

I wanted to help them reach their goals, but I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know what kind of job exists. It was like therapy, but not. And so, I could never figure that out until I found the life coaching industry. And I realized there was a whole career path that you can actually do in order to do what, like I had been dreaming about doing, which is what led me here.

So instead of going back a few years ago, instead of going back and getting my master’s, I decided to become a life coach and go to school for that. So, at the time they didn’t have, you know, four-year education, I believe some of that is going to change. I was able to go to the life coach school with Brooke Castillo.

I had an amazing experience there. We were all in person. It was a yearlong program. It was amazing. And I’m very grateful for the things that I have learned and have continued to build my education with other programs and things of such. And so, the thing that, well, and back up. So, at this point I coach clients all around the world which time zones are a.

beautiful thing when you are creating a schedule around unique children and wanting to be home and to raise them. And so, for most of my coaching career, I have worked very early mornings or later in the evening when my kids are asleep. Sleeping or during nap times, it allowed me to be there and be present with my children and to address some of the challenges that we were being faced with, even before I had names and diagnoses for what those challenges were.

And last year, I guess a about a year and a half ago, they were all about to be in school. My youngest was about to enter kindergarten the following year. And I thought this is the perfect time to start working more during the day. And that’s when I got surprised, pregnant with baby number four. So, I have the most amazing childcare provider, an in-home nanny that she comes, you know, part time while I’m working part time and the rest of the time I get to be with my kids.

And I absolutely love that with my coaching practice, I am a speaker, a writer. I do consulting for businesses and have done workshops for businesses. I’m a podcast host. But first and foremost, my most favorite title that I, that I wear is coach for moms like you. So, I share all of this because if you were to ask me 10 years ago, I never would have imagined I would be here.

I couldn’t have even fathomed that this would be my reality. Eight years ago, I had a glimmer that this might be that I had a glimmer that this might be possible, but it still felt very impossible. And then about five years ago, things started to shift for me where I started to realize that having a career, being the mom that I wanted to be, being able to work part time hours in something that I loved, and that could be flexible, that finally, five years ago, started feeling probable.

And at that point, I really stepped back and asked myself, like, what does this look like? That seems like I was starting to, like, be on the cusp of something beautiful, but it was still a way out about three years ago. Suddenly things started to become inevitable, and I started believing deeply on a very different level.

And I could start seeing all these pieces come together. And then probably, you know, about a year and a half ago. I was living my reality and I will say that, like, it hasn’t been easy. And I’ll talk about that in just a second, but being able to be in alignment with God and being able to be a co-creator of my reality has been incredibly powerful.

And so, I want you just to think about that for yourself for a moment, that you are co-creating your reality with the higher being. What could be in the next 10 years, you may not even fathom, but I’m here to tell you that the more you work towards that in a very loving, very gentle way and partnership with God, things start to unfold.

You start getting these glimmers and it’s like the most magical thing, like everything starts working like to help you. I promise, even when it feels like it’s not. So with that, I wanted to share, you know, what that journey looked like at the beginning, you know, 10 years ago, when I couldn’t even imagine it, I was in this, I was at a spot where I would say I was lost in motherhood, my kids were very little, you know, 10 years, 9, 8 years ago, I really struggled with postpartum depression, I was home full time with my children, and I just found myself Living the life that I had dreamed about and being highly unfulfilled by it.

And even saying that out loud, like I couldn’t even, I couldn’t even tell anybody that because I was heartbroken. I was mortified and embarrassed. And I felt so guilty that I wasn’t fulfilled by this life and that I was struggling so much with it. And it went against everything I thought I would ever want.

And then I, it was like. I started going in even further, like into motherhood on, like, I started doing all the mom things. I started volunteering more in the kids’ school and in church. And it was like, I, I tried to do all the good, the quote unquote, good mom things in order to be that mom that I felt like I should be, that I’ve been wanting to be, that I, Yeah, yeah, I hope you, I hope this is resonating with you if you’re seeing this, but like the more I went in, the more committed I was, and the more I started realizing that I need a break.

I need a break. I’m like desperate for a break. So, it was like, I always needed that next vacation, that next girl’s night, that next sitting in the bath alone where the kids aren’t knocking on the door. But then the second I would take a break and then I would come back, my stress levels were So high, again, it was like I had never had a break at all.

And then I started becoming like this internal like turmoil of like, I felt like my potential was passing me by, that there was something that I was supposed to be doing, but I didn’t know what. And it became this painful ringing inside of me where I wanted to be with my children, but I couldn’t. Figure out what this was and why I wasn’t fulfilled and then there was like a piece of like needing to meet my full Potential and I wasn’t, and it just became this huge like vortex that sucked me in, and I couldn’t find a way out.

But the biggest thing out of all of that was the ringing inside of me, the ringing that I was meant for something more. And I couldn’t figure out what that was and how that fit with motherhood. And that was so hard. I am here to tell you That if you are in this similar kind of vortex, if you feel completely lost in motherhood, where you’re doing all the quote unquote good mom things, but you don’t feel very fulfilled, or you are concerned your potential is passing you by, or if you feel this ringing inside of you, and you feel completely lost and consumed by it, I am here to tell you that that ringing is real and you are being called to something more.

The second you accept That as truth for you is the second your life will change and the second you suddenly will become; you will put yourself on that path to become who you’ve always been meant to be. Your potential isn’t passing you by. Your potential is calling you and it won’t take away from your children.

Your life actually becomes fuller and richer, and your children see you as the example and you actually deepen your relationship with your family. As you answer your calling, because you are becoming more of who you are meant to be. So, this is what we talk about on this podcast. And this is why I wanted to just take a, take a moment to, to reintroduce this because I am so deeply passionate.

If you can’t tell like, oh, I just want to like reach through the mic and just squeeze you. Like, yes, you’re here. You’ve made it. This is the first. step for the rest of your life, everything is going to come together for you. I promise. And I will teach you how through this podcast, you will learn so much to change your life.

I also work with people one on one. I don’t take a lot of clients because I am with my children, but I want you to know if that’s something you are ever interested in. Even if you’re just not sure what the next step is, you can schedule a free call. It’s a consultation call where we get to get on the phone and have a conversation about your future, about what you’re being called to.

And I’ll share with you some of the things that I teach and how I help my clients achieve that and get on the path to discovering and answering that purpose. So, if that’s something that you’re interested in, you can go down to the show notes and you can find the link. It says work with me. You can click on that.

It’ll take you to my scheduling page where we can schedule a consultation for you. But in the end, I hope that you know, and can recognize that the feeling you have inside of you is real. And I promise you’re not crazy for feeling it, and I promise it won’t take you away from your children if you uptake the things on this podcast and apply them as the foundation for the rest of your life. Have a wonderful day. I hope you know I love you. Bye.

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