a. Don’t limit your time to get there. It took awhile to get where you are. Give yourself time to get to where you want to be. b. Find objective people to help you knock down barriers. Maybe a pastor, a counselor/coach, or an objective friend. Many friends and family can not be objective so you must be discerning in these choices. c. Step out of your comfort zone. To do something you really want to do may require hard work or short-term sacrifice to be able to get it. Even if it is your family who has to participate in sacrifice, in long-run it will be a better life for them also. d. And most importantly, pray to God to give you guidance and direction every step of way. If it feels right you will know it’s from God.

When I decided that I wanted to become a Christian Counselor there were many barriers. I would have to go back to graduate school for a minimum of two years. To do that I would have to quit my job and we would have to sell our house and reduce our expenses significantly. This would affect my husband and kids as much as it would affect me. At time I was commuting to New Orleans to work. We were making a lot of money, however, we were spending it on a house I didn’t see and my kids were spending more time with babysitter than me. So yes, they hated giving up pool and unlimited wish list, but we have transformed our family life and spend incredibly special time together.

The Lord promises us peace and joy if we follow Him. He never said anything about easy. But I have experienced His promise. By stepping out in faith and following His plan for my life, He has rewarded me tenfold. I hope that you are at a place in your life where you can stop to find God’s plan for you. I realize how difficult this process is for anyone, especially if you are busy. At Murphy Toerner and Associates our mission is to equip people for successful living. I have developed a Life by Design coaching program that can provide you with some structure and accountability in this process. It also includes many exercises and assessments to help you discover who you are and what you want out of life. And most importantly we provide a sounding board to help you brainstorm ideas, to pray with you and for you, to be an objective collaborator, and to gently show you discrepancies in your plan or areas that may be outside of God’s plans. If you feel like you may want some help, simply call us at (225)753-7773 or look for more information on our website at www.murphytoerner.com . In meantime, I hope that these ideas will help you to:

•Assess where you are in your life.

•Equip you to uncover your authentic self and dreams for future.

•Inspire you to tap in to God’s love and power in your life.

•And motivate you to act through or around your barriers.

I will end with a favorite bible verse. One that really helped me to have patience through process of finding God's plan for my life.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh

a time to mourn and a time to dance

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)

If you enjoyed this article and are interested in more articles by this author and other free resources please visit our website www.murphytoerner.com.

Counseling & Coaching Available: Call our offices @ 225.753.7773

Are you only person working your business at this time? If anything were to happen to you, for example, if you were to become sick and unable to work for a month, would your business operations come to a grinding halt and would your cash flow be brought to a standstill?

Do you arrange your own appointments, handle your own e-mail, do your own word processing, create your own marketing materials, keep your own financial records, manage your own web site, provide customer service and enter all prospect and client data into your database? Do you package, label and ship your own products?

If you answered yes to several of these questions, you may want to take some time to sit back and think about what these responsibilities are costing you, particularly if you are still working full-time while trying to get a business off ground.

If you have been in business for several years and if you are still performing all functions within your business, how might this be holding you back? Are you working a 40-50-60-hour week, seeing little of your loved ones, feeling exhausted, and neglecting your health and nutritional needs? Is fun no longer there?

Evaluate your current situation and determine whether you are running your business or whether it is running you. If you are being run by your business, consider options of automating, delegating, bartering, leveraging and creating multiple streams of income.

When thinking long term, how do you see your business serving you? What kind of results do you want to create?

If your current activities are not moving you towards these results at an optimum pace, change your actions so you can free yourself up to do what is necessary to move you in that direction in most advantageous way possible.