Everyone talks about purpose like it’s some cute, mystical thing. Something you stumble across after a spiritual retreat or maybe in the quiet moments of a Tuesday morning coffee break.
But purpose is not mystical. It is not cute. Purpose is war.
If you’re a business owner who’s been grinding for years – building, scaling, sacrificing, providing – but still feeling like you’re circling something bigger, then you know exactly what I mean. Because you can be successful and still not be obedient. You can be profitable and still be stuck. Everyone around you can admire you and still quietly hate what you’ve built.
How do I know? Because I’ve coached over a thousand business owners through that exact pain. These aren’t just startups. These are seven- and eight-figure founders. Exit-ready operators who can quote their EBITDA in their sleep, and still whisper to me, “I know there’s more.”
That’s not a strategy problem. That’s a purpose problem.
In this article, I’m going to show you the real reason you haven’t stepped into your true business calling yet. And, more importantly, what to do about it.
The Mountain You Were Meant to Take: Discovering Your Business Calling
Let me take you to a story from Scripture that’s often overlooked in business circles. In Joshua 14, the Israelites had entered the Promised Land, but not everyone had claimed their portion.
Except one man: Caleb.
Forty years earlier, Caleb had been one of twelve spies sent to scout the land. Ten came back scared. One came back bold. Caleb didn’t care about the giants or the size of the walls. He saw the promise and declared, “Give me that mountain.”
He was eighty-five years old when he said it. He hadn’t let delay, resistance, or the comfort of age convince him to settle. The mountain still had giants on it, and he still said, “Let’s go.”
That is the kind of clarity and grit I want for you. That’s the kind of business calling most entrepreneurs are circling. Let’s talk about why they never climb it.
Why You’re Circling Instead of Climbing Your Business Mountain
You’re close to your purpose, yet still at the base camp. Here are three common traps keeping ambitious business owners from their true calling:
1. You’re Too Comfortable Being Capable
You’re respected. You’ve built something real. You’ve earned the right to coast. And that, paradoxically, is the problem.
You’re capable, but you’ve stopped stretching. You’ve mastered the model, and now you’re managing comfort. You’ve let everyone else’s applause convince you that staying put is wisdom.
Comfort isn’t the reward. It’s the warning. It is not where you were called. It’s where your potential goes to die.
2. You’ve Traded Progress for Proximity to Your Purpose
You’re near your calling. You’ve got glimpses of it. You’ve talked about it. Maybe you’ve even built a team around it. But you’re not building it.
You’re circling the base of your mountain. You’re planning, brainstorming, and having one more strategy meeting. But you’re not climbing.
Proximity to purpose feels productive. It gives the illusion of obedience. But it’s really just another form of delay.
Being near your purpose is the most dangerous place to stay. Because it feels like obedience, but it’s just delay. If God gave you a mountain, He didn’t tell you to camp next to it. He told you to take it.
3. You’ve Let Resistance Redefine Your Business Reality
Every business owner hits resistance. Financial pressure. Emotional fatigue. Spiritual warfare. Team drama. Marital strain. You name it, I’ve seen it.
At some point, resistance stopped being a sign to push through and became your excuse to back off. You took a loss, so you pivoted. You got hit, so you downsized the dream. You called it wisdom. But it was really just fear in a business suit.
The resistance didn’t lie. You just stopped asking if the fight was worth it.
Resistance doesn’t mean stop. It means you’re finally aimed at something worth fighting for.
The Three Moves to Claim Your Business Calling
Once you recognize that you’ve been circling, it’s time to climb. Not to plan. Not to wait for permission. It’s time to move.
1. Get Crystal Clear on the Mountain: Defining Your Specific Calling
You can’t pursue what you haven’t defined. What exactly has God called your business to build? What would obedience look like if it were executed at full capacity?
This isn’t about goal-setting. It’s about naming the assignment behind those goals. In our Relentless Foundation phase, we force this clarity:
- What is the financial outcome you’re building toward?
- What is the legacy you’re designing?
- How clearly does your team understand and support that mission?
If you don’t define your mountain, your specific calling, you’ll waste your life climbing someone else’s.
2. Build a War Room for Your Mission
When your business calling is clear, the people around you matter more than ever. You don’t need another circle of agreement. You need people who sharpen you, challenge you, and hold you to what you said you wanted.
These aren’t cheerleaders. These are commanders.
Your war room is built with strategic thinkers, kingdom-minded allies, and people who aren’t afraid to call you out when you shrink back from your true business purpose.
You don’t need more cheerleaders in your business. You need a war room of people who see your mission and hold you to it.
3. Move. Now. (Embracing Obedience)
Once you know the mission and you’ve aligned the team, there’s only one thing left to do.
Move. Take the step. Make the decision. Kill the distraction. Launch the thing. Shift the structure. Whatever it is — do it.
Every time you delay the decision to act on your purpose, you’re saying comfort matters more than calling.
The longer you wait, the more familiar the basecamp feels. But that is not what you were made for.
Purpose doesn’t wait for the right time. It waits for you to stop making excuses.
The Final Charge: Stop Circling. Start Climbing.
You’ve been near your mountain long enough. You’ve played the game. You’ve built the systems. But the calling hasn’t changed.
God didn’t give you that business, that vision, or that burden so you could talk about it.
God didn’t give you that business, that vision, that burden just so you could talk about it. He gave it to you to move.
You can circle the mountain until you’re 60 and call it stewardship. Or you can climb it now, with grit and clarity, and finally live out the thing you were made for.
When the mountain in front of you still scares you, that’s usually the one God told you to take.
If that mountain still has giants on it, good. That means it’s probably yours.
