Prepare for the Life You’re Meant to Live With Chaplain John Fox

A Bit of Optimism

The Optimism Company from Simon Sinek

Education, Careers, Self-improvement, Business

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Often the biggest transformations we undergo don’t arrive as lightning bolts, but as quiet shifts we’ve been preparing for all along. For John Fox, the transformation from a 25-year career in high finance to becoming a chaplain wasn’t sudden at all. It was a slow burn—shaped by loss, reflection, community, and a deep desire to live a more meaningful life. John’s successful finance career spanned decades. To the world, he was thriving, but internally he yearned for fulfillment no paycheck could give him. After losing his mother, questioning the purpose of work, and rediscovering his spiritual roots, he began to sense that his life was preparing him for a very different kind of service. That path eventually led him to the Peace Corps, seminary, and finally chaplaincy—where he now spends his days sitting with people in hospitals, jails, shelters, and hospice care. In this conversation, John shares how you can slowly build a new life, why most of us struggle to talk about things we can’t fix, and the human need to be seen by others. We also talk about community, discernment, loss, faith, and the power of listening without trying to change anything. His story is a reminder that life’s meaning often reveals itself slowly… and that the pivots that change our lives most profoundly are the ones we’ve been preparing for all along. This is A Bit of Optimism. --------------------------- To learn more about the Union Rescue Mission, visit their website at www.urm.org And to check out John’s congregation, head to www.newcitychurchla.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	How do you know when to walk away from the wrong path?
0:03.4	Start to prepare.
0:04.4	Like these are your passions.
0:05.4	Do something.
0:06.4	Like if you want to write, join a writing group.
0:09.0	Get yourself ready for when that step comes.
0:11.5	You're not going to be able to make the step because you have no preparation for it.
0:15.0	So I would say if you have some other passion, do it as well.
0:18.7	Like, seriously so that you're preparing yourself to be able to do it as what, like, really, like seriously so that you're preparing yourself
0:22.0	to be able to do it as what you do. I love that. Sometimes the life we're living isn't the life
0:27.4	we're supposed to live, but sometimes the life we're living is preparing us for the life we're
0:33.1	meant to live. The question is, will you be prepared when the opportunity to pivot strikes?
0:39.5	John Fox was. He spent 25 years in high finance, climbing the corporate ladder and collecting all
0:45.8	the traditional markers of success, but beneath lived a quiet ache, a pull towards something
0:51.0	more meaningful. So he started doing what he thought was preparation for
0:55.0	the next thing, even though he didn't know what the next thing was. Through his church, he started
0:59.8	doing community service. And then the right time came. He left finance to become a chaplain. He wasn't
1:05.9	fleeing his old life. He was stepping into a new one, and he was prepared. As a chaplain, he felt called to
1:13.1	work with those who need him in a hospital, a hospice, a homeless shelter, and a jail. And
1:19.1	talking to John reminds me that our lives are so much bigger than the thing we're doing
1:23.8	right now. This is a bit of optimism.
1:35.7	John, thank you so much for coming in.
	...

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