Living By Divine Design Starts With Observing You

Enjoying the freedom of Monday morning. No doom and gloom here. Each Monday I am overjoyed that I get to choose PJs, jeans or shorts for the day’s work outfit. It’s usually jeans or shorts because they make me feel alive, grateful, and ready for the excitement of the day.

Today, I’m at the park enjoying the sunshine and somewhat cool breeze drinking a cup of coffee from Dunkin’. I just started drinking coffee last year. Something about it makes me feel creative and artsy. It’s also calming. Maybe that’s why so many would hang in the break room at work every morning fixin’ and mixin’ sugar with tea or coffee as they shared their weekend adventures and then slowly walked to their cubes to start the work day. It’s amazing the difference a few years brings. You couldn’t pay me to work in a cube or wear a suit. Not doing it.

When I started as a freelancer, I tried to make it fit into what I thought I wanted my days to look like. I wanted to be free from the cubicle nightmare, rudeness in the parking garage, and sheer disregard in the elevators. However I created an at home job for myself instead of a business. I worked from sun up to sun down.

I had to report to my computer at a set time early in the morning and was there way too long without a break. I began to resent projects and clients until I realized that I was the one who placed myself in this box. Then I began to narrow my focus and just seek projects I enjoyed. Website maintenance, WordPress blogs, eNewsletters, teleclasses, social media, were the core services we’d provide and being able to travel, write, and create freely from the road was more fitting for me.

What does living by divine design look like for you?

I find great joy in what I do and am learning to get out of swapping hours for money and really establishing my business as a point of reference for building your online presence with your website, social media, teleclasses, and anything else you do online virtually to build your business.

In September, we’re launching a full learning center to help you get over any fears of starting as a freelancer, hosting a teleclass, or moving your website into WordPress. These are all things I could talk with you about for hours. When you’re doing what you’ve been called to do the strength you need comes from God.

How do you know the what you’re doing is what you’ve been called to do?

You don’t try doing it, it just flows, more like oozes from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

Your family knows it, your friends know it, your followers know it, however you may not know it because it comes so easy.

Who said your "it" had to be hard?

If it were hard, would you look forward to doing it? Would you even be able to make money from it?

The hard part is accepting the thing that comes naturally, effortlessly, involuntarily to you, is the very thing that God placed inside of you to create wealth.

Too many of us hold on to tradition because that’s what "they’ve" been telling us to do all of our lives. When my mom was growing up there were three prestigious professions – doctor, lawyer, teacher. Many people are still in that same mindset and are passing it on to their kids. You might be a victim of it as well.

Are you hearing a small voice that says "Yeah, I really enjoy doing such and such, but I don’t understand how I can make money from that."

Who said you had to understand it? The Bible says to lean not unto your own understanding. If you’ve been called to be a baker, why are you trying to understand the art of staging homes?

Can you believe I almost went back to school for nursing because at the time healthcare was being reported as a stable field where you could make good money? Before that it was computers.

I learned quickly I was not meant for nursing when one Sunday, a minister at our church fell flat on his face in the middle of our worship gathering. The healthcare ministry immediately raced to the stage to assist. I froze and prayed "Lord, please don’t let him be dead." I’m a mortician’s daughter, maybe that’s why death was my initial response. Either way I was grateful he wasn’t dead and thankful that God had clearly answered absolutely not to my thought of becoming a nurse.

Stick with what you do and allow God to use you mightily.

I had no idea when I started in May 2008 that my writing would actually get be read, that I’d translate geek speak so clients could understand the world of technology, and make connections with people all over the world from my computer.

Life is beautiful when you’re in order and not comparing your life to someone else. You have no idea what was required to get them to where they are now. God’s called you to something great starting with where you are right NOW.

Be an observer of you. What do you find great pleasure in that is effortless for you, something you could get lost in for hours regardless of pay? That is the core of where your success will come. It doesn’t matter what it is. Whether you’re an extreme couponer, gadget geek, or avid reader, someone is waiting to learn from you, buy from you, and be served by you.

Take hold of the gift God has given you and create the wealth He’s set aside for you.

Now it’s your turn, please share the thing that’s held you back along with what you’ve done or will do to propel yourself forward and live the divine design God has already created for you.