The past two jobs I had, I made a mental vision board for myself.
I wrote down the names of everyone in the top positions, the people whose place I wanted to eventually take. I wrote down their names so that I could see how they were different from those of us in "lower" positions. I wanted to take note of their personality traits, their decision making, and their work ethics. When I started two side businesses, I did the same thing. It wasn't exactly the business and the job that I was passionate about. I had to learn that me leaving those things does not make me a quitter. I am just naturally a goal-setter. I see something I want and I make intentional goals and plans to get there. Setting your intentions takes more than imagination. You have to have to figure out your part of the equation. If God wants you there, you'll get there but you have got to put in the work. I'm not afraid of the work. I'm not afraid of the time it takes to build an empire, a legacy. That mentality will set you apart from everyone else. This mentality will even set you apart from those who have the natural ability. If they have the talent but not the work ethic, they are at a disadvantage and you have the advantage. If God places a desire in your heart and you feel unqualified but you are willing, watch Heaven and Earth move for you to accomplish the very thing you were born to do. I just read this on a Facebook memory of mine: "This ain't overnight. This is year ten vision. (Russ). Keep working when no one is watching. Keep working when there's no applause. Do it for the Kingdom. Do it for the end result." I heard a sermon by Pastor Jonathan Josephs that spoke to me. Here are some key points I wrote down in my phone from it:
Often, we get so sidetracked by every little thing this life offers us. We are offered opportunities and we chase after them all. But I firmly believe we each have a passion that we are born with in our heart. My passion was activated at a young age but it doesn't mean this is the case for everyone. If you have yet to find your passion, don't get discouraged by the fact that others have found theirs. I'll write more on this subject later because part of my passion is helping others find theirs. The opportunities that I have been offered could have caused me to stumble from my true purpose and destiny but I was able to recognize they weren't for me. I took the lesson from each opportunity and left with a cause. I allowed myself to learn the value of the hard work, the deeper passion that was activated with each path, and the vast knowledge they each brought me. Take the lesson and move along. I view it all as a tool that will get me to where I want to go. These opportunities that I chased weren't a waste of my time or my effort when I begin to view them in a different light. Sure, I probably shouldn't have pursued it as much as I did but I learned valuable lessons in all of it so I choose not to view it as a waste. Because all of this is part of the life long vision that I continue to uphold for my family. I am choosing to work with God and for God to create a solid foundation for generations to come after me. I am willing to work 10 times harder so that they are set up better than I was. This is truly year 10 vision, year 20 vision. And when I'm 30, it'll be year 30 vision because I have worked my entire life for this. Do not give up on your calling. Do not give up on your vision. Keep working. Keep pushing. Keep praying and asking and seeking.
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Do you consider yourself to be an entrepreneur?
Here's the definition of an entrepreneur: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business or an enterprise. Honestly, even writing this post sets a fire in my soul. I am truly passionate about writing. I am passionate about business & entrepreneurship. I am extremely passionate about helping others to live an ABUNDANT life by living a life that they have always dreamed of. Your story is unique. Your calling is unique. It's time that you utilize your uniqueness to an even greater fulfillment. I was reading a letter that I wrote to get into graduate school for psychology. My passion and mission in life then (and honestly, still is) to serve those who have experienced a horrible amount of trauma and to bring hope to their souls. I especially wanted to bring hope to those in underdeveloped countries. My mission is still the same. I still dream of inspiring the underdogs. They're my main audience because I've been the underdog for too long. I know how it feels. I know the feeling of true despair and heartbreak and I want to turn their world around for them the same way that mine has been turned around. But my path in life back then wasn't lining up with my passion. My mission and my passion were not in sync and for years, I searched for answers. I'm still in search of my final destination sometimes but I have come to terms with the fact that we may never have just one passion that sets our souls on fire, and that's okay. If you've followed multiple paths and have been discouraged by others calling you indecisive, please keep fighting and working hard. Don't give up. I hear you. I see your spirit and I recognize that deep yearning to succeed. That's what makes you unique. Whatever your mission is and whatever you want to succeed in, whether you consider yourself an entrepreneur or not, here are a few tips and tricks that I have learned along the way. I am by no means where I want to be but I am on this amazing path that I have been dreaming of for years. I may not be where I want to be but I'm going where I want to go. How to Start Your Journey Towards Your Passion:
I am so excited to share this journey with you and to hear about yours as well! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or even any tips for me as well! I love learning. Start your journey today, friends! Best of luck. xoxo Something I have been challenging myself to dig deeper into is whether or not I'm pursuing God's blueprint for my life. It's so easy to look at someone else's career and to crave the same, especially when they make it look so easy. I often feel like I'm starting from scratch. I'm terrified. I have no idea what I'm doing half of the time. I'm sure that anyone with a solid business has felt the same when they first started off. Part of me wants to throw in the towel, give up, and find something a heck of a lot easier. That road won't lead to a bigger success that I crave, that I know my family deserves but it would lead to a temporary easier path. So, how do we know when we are following what we are meant to do? I came across a Bible study geared towards entrepreneurs. I know I was born with an entrepreneurial spirit. Living any different life will never give me the level of satisfaction that I feel when I'm able to create something new. I was challenged by this study to reflect on what I wanted for my business, for my life. I realized that I needed to dig deeper into what God had planned for me, to leave a legacy not built in my own strength but a legacy that has firm roots in His plans. What has God called me to do that I have either been ignoring or setting on the back burner? I love writing. I love creating new ideas that will help make other's lives easier. I need to continue to pursue these ideas to lay a firm foundation for what God wants to make happen. It's easy for me to continue pour my heart into a 40 hour work week and then come home to my family. What's more challenging is being home while also building a business that will last for my lifetime and hopefully for generations after me. You do not have to, need to, or should even want to follow someone else's exact path in order to get to your own level of success. Your path is going to be completely different. Your path is going to be filled with different mistakes, different levels of success, different time frames of waiting. God has a blueprint just for your business that's different than the person you look up to. If you're pursuing a business or if you're pursuing a different career path, have you stopped to ask what God's blueprint is for you? I honestly had to stop and pray, to invite God into my business when I read this because I realized that I had never stopped to do this before. God Is My Promoter Another thing I had to tell myself was to stop worrying so much about the failure and to trust that God will promote me in due time. I, of course, have to put in the effort but if I'm following God's plan for my business, He's going to promote it. I don't need to elevate myself. He will. There were so many areas of my business that I was trying to do in my own strength. Once I realized I was doing this, I stopped and prayed to intentionally search for His guidance in every aspect of my businesses. I want to use my business to catapult other businesses, my own included. I want to be able to influence others, to show them that they can truly go from nothing to something. To tie my passion and my intelligence together effectively, I'm going to have to rely on God's strength. Last week, I had to completely rely on God. I was getting by on little to no sleep. I had work to do. I had work to do for my businesses. It was one crazy ride. Thank God I have strength that comes from someone other than myself. I definitely couldn't have done it and I definitely cannot do any aspect of this business without Him. It's so important to check yourself. Check your motives. Check your strength. Check the source of your strength. Once you realize where you are, you can effectively carry on. I wanted to talk a little today about the blogging process for some of my readers who want to start their own blog but think they have nothing to offer. Filing this post under "Career" because I am a firm believer in the opportunity of working from home. If you're able to make a living out of blogging, go for it! It's an awesome opportunity.
We are all so unique. I love learning new things and I truly believe that each individual has an incredible perspective that sets us all apart from each other. I may see business from a point of view that could halt success if I do not team up with others to see what perspectives they have to offer. The same really goes for anything in life. I’ve spoken about the subject of motivation and how the entire term needs to be debunked because often, entrepreneurs do things even when we do not feel motivated. This was an entirely new concept to me recently but to the person who showed me this, it was probably an age old thought. That’s why I think everyone should be and can be a blogger. I’ve been blogging since I got a hold of a computer. I have a very old blog on blogspot, two on WordPress, and this one (of course). I’ve also written for other websites. So, when I question my own expertise in anything, I often think about how long I have been blogging. I don’t recall the exact hours it takes to become a professional in a certain hobby (I think it’s 10,000 hours) but I know that I have definitely put that many hours into writing. I’ve been writing before I even knew I had a special talent in it. I have stuck to non-fictional writing for the past few years but my fictional writing used to be my expertise. Are you Interested in Blogging? 1.) Get past the idea that you can’t blog because you’re not a writer. I tell everyone who wants to blog that you do NOT have to be a writer to blog. You don’t have to know how to use proper grammar (although, it does help of course). A majority of your readers won’t even catch your mistakes, I promise. People love to read blogs that write as you speak. Jot down thoughts as you would carry on a conversation with someone. People feel the warmth in blogs that convey messages as if it were a conversation. 2.) You don’t have to be an expert before you start blogging. I started this blog just this year and I'm definitely not even close to my goals, both as a writer and with my business. I was born with an entrepreneurial spirit so I figured “Shoot, why not start it now?” The beauty of blogging is meeting other bloggers who are either in your area of expertise or where you want to be. I don’t take advice from someone who isn’t where I want to be. I always try to look and aim higher. So, by starting this blog I wanted to set myself up for success to begin my own path of networking. I also know that people want to read from other's perspectives when they're living in the same situation. It helps us to see that there are many roads to take and that we can still live life to the fullest no matter what season of life we are in. Don’t lie on your blogs (of course) and allow others to assume you have credentials when you don’t. Allow others to see that you’re on your path to success and that the blog serves as a sort of guidance for you and others. I personally love to follow blogs of people who are currently experiencing the emotion of the process because often once we are on the other side of the sweat and the hustle, we forget all of the negative emotions that went into the work. I don’t want to just read the book on your business. I want to read the book you wrote while creating your business. I want to read the blog you wrote while going through your weight loss transformation. I don’t want to just see the before and after pictures. I know I’m not alone in this. And because of that, this should encourage you to start your blog now, even before your success. 3.) Remember to split your paragraphs up, rather it be with spaces or pictures. I try to use more pictures but I’m not a photographer so I don’t have a ton of material. (That's another thing. I love learning new hobbies but I will not pretend to have a talent that I do not have. I love art and photography but I most definitely am not a professional.) I don’t like to use pictures that aren’t mine either. So, I separate most of my writing with a ton of spaces. The human brain has a short attention span and I realize that. I usually skim through posts myself that don’t have spaces and get bored very quickly, no matter how interesting the content is. Keep the reader’s attention by accommodating their reading. I used to write very long paragraphs but found that people tended to steer away from that. I write a lot of poetry and learned the importance of the emotion and attention in spacing. 4.) People love bullet points, but not too many. I like to create posts with a list for people. Most of the time when I’m reading a post, I scroll down until I see the numbered points because that’s all my attention span can handle in that moment. Take advantage of that by creating your posts to have bold bulleted points. However, creating too many will certainly drive people away as we usually just want a couple of main points before we tune out. I have read several posts where they recommend longer blog posts which I’m all for. When you write your posts in an organized, structured manner to grab and keep the reader’s attention, they usually don’t even notice they just read 1500 words. On the flip side, when you’re writing about something you are passionate about, you may get to the end of your post before you realize you wrote 3,000 words. That’s normal (for example, this was supposed to be a very short post before I go work out, ha!) but make sure you are utilizing the tools to keep their attention. Just Get Started I could write a ton of recommendations for blog posts and blogging but I know that the biggest step is just getting started. Be real, be open. Allow people to see you in your process. People love honesty; it allows us to connect. So, don’t be afraid to start. You truly have nothing to lose. As for which blogging site to use, well that’s another story. Reach out to me if you’re curious about which site to use. I’ve really only used three: BlogSpot, Weebly, and WordPress. I love both Weebly and WordPress for different reasons. Let me know if you have any questions! I love helping people get started on their journey to blogging. As for monetizing your blog, I am not the person to ask yet. It is my goal to eventually get there but right now, my focus is to continue writing because it's something I genuinely love doing. If your goal is to make money doing it, you absolutely can! Happy blogging! When it's a workday, "tomorrow" is a dreaded word, especially when you're not working at your dream job.
I've learned a few tricks that have helped to ease the stress of the word "tomorrow". Here are little things that help me prepare for a less stressful morning. These are mostly things that I try to do the night before.
Start each day with a grateful heart. It is so much easier to begin each day with a heart full of thanksgiving when your mind is at peace. Don't overload your mornings. Most people dread mornings but by easing your load, you can enjoy your mornings before work just as much as you enjoy your evenings. I hope you find even one thing here to encourage you to start your day off on the right foot and with a peace-filled mind. I was reading a book for entrepreneurs and came across a popular phrase, “Sleep is for the dead!” While, she definitely had good intentions of referring to the amount of work it takes to run a business, I couldn’t help but shake my head at how far out of context people will take this.
Do you remember college? I was miserable for most of it. Why? I was working full time, volunteering, I had a full school schedule, and I was still trying to keep up with my social life. My friends continually reinforced the idea into me that I don’t need to sleep, that caffeine will keep me alive and awake and after all, we are here for the memories. That’s probably the only regret I have from college. I wish I would have slept more. If I would have slept more, I could have created more. I could have been more present in my everyday life. I could have been a better employee, a better friend, a better boss, a better entrepreneur. The memories I could have held onto could have been a little a little less hazy as I peered through sleep deprived eyes. Sleep is essential. It’s essential for your health, for your mood, for your creativity. If you don’t believe me, read this article here: https://www.thriveglobal.com/stories/14360-a-neuroscientist-explains-why-sleep-matters-just-as-much-as-diet-and-exercise. For entrepreneurs, I believe sleep is even more important. We aren’t just living out our everyday 8-5 workday. We are also actively creating ideas when we are at work, washing the dishes, running on the treadmill, walking the dog, etc. For entrepreneurs, our brain needs to be active to keep our businesses thriving, to create new opportunities and networking ideas. We have to stay on top of our game. Because of this, we may have to sacrifice something whether it be our social life or the hour we spend in front of a television every night. If you want to take your business to the next level, maybe you need to re-evaluate your sleeping patterns. I find I’m a lot less prone to stress, anxiety, and laziness when I get the proper amount of sleep. This is not an invitation to allow sleep to overtake everything. If your body only needs 7 and a half hours of sleep, don’t sleep ten hours. Get up and get moving. I admire my husband because he knows he needs a certain amount of sleep before he goes to work. I truly believe he’s able to put in a great deal of work energy and ethic because he sacrifices in order to be well energized for work. We should all re-consider our sleeping patterns. It could change your entire career. |
AuthorHi! I'm Tabitha. I've always had this dream of managing a career, leaving a legacy, and raising children who would grow to know they are loved. Here I will share my struggles, my setbacks, my accomplishments, and my fears. Most importantly, I will share with you things that have helped me along the way. Archives
September 2019
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