Life by Design

Written by Sue Miley


Where are you onrepparttar life satisfaction scale? Are you feeling that you have finally arrived atrepparttar 147016 destiny you have been working so hard for all of your life? Do you feel like you are energetically pursuing your calling and God’s plan for your life? Or are you more inrepparttar 147017 camp that things are going okay on a day to day basis? Neither passion or peace have come knocking in a while. Now that you think about it, more accurately you are just getting by!

To get a true feel for where you are in your life satisfaction and significance quotient, answerrepparttar 147018 following questions:

Do you feel like your relationship with God is a little distant and at times feel disconnected?

Do you feel that you are working at a job, and it paysrepparttar 147019 bills, but you are not making a significant contribution torepparttar 147020 world, your community, or evenrepparttar 147021 people you work with?

Do you come home at night wondering what you accomplished today?

Are you playing tag team parent with your spouse just to coverrepparttar 147022 bases?

Are you able to enjoyrepparttar 147023 time you spend with your spouse and children, or do you find that you are distracted thinking aboutrepparttar 147024 other things that you need to get done?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may want to consider that this may berepparttar 147025 time for you to put a plan together forrepparttar 147026 life you want to lead. More importantly, forrepparttar 147027 life God wants you to lead. Less than 5 years ago, I was working in a corporate management job. I worked about 60 to 70 hours a week and when I wasn’t working I was thinking about work. I had all ofrepparttar 147028 electronic gear. I had a cell phone and a pager where people could reach me 24/7. I had a laptop that could log in torepparttar 147029 company computer and provided updated sales numbers byrepparttar 147030 hour. For all practical purposes I had no hobbies, no friends outside of work, and passed my husband and 3 children inrepparttar 147031 night. Even with a nanny, housekeeper, lawn boy, pool guy and any other service money could buy; I still didn’t have time for any kind of quality family time, spiritual pursuit, or health focus. I thought I was happy and doing it all inrepparttar 147032 pursuit ofrepparttar 147033 American Dream. At least for a while I was happy. Whenrepparttar 147034 hectic pace began to catch up with me I looked around and said to myself “what am I getting out of this”? I am never at home to enjoyrepparttar 147035 fabulous house we had bought. I didn’t enjoy my children like I should because I was always stressed about what else I needed to get done for work. I was tired, burned-out actually. My relationships outside of work were on auto-pilot and I couldn’t even name something I would enjoy doing for fun.

The concept of peace; a relationship with God; loving God and other people as a purpose; belonging to a community; combining work/family/church; volunteer service to others; hobbies and leisure time with family; were off of my path. Finally, God got my attention. It was a little dramatic really. And I am sure you can guess I lostrepparttar 147036 all encompassing job. But just leavingrepparttar 147037 job was not enough. I had to make a conscious change inrepparttar 147038 way I viewedrepparttar 147039 world and lived inrepparttar 147040 world. It started with Christ. I needed to stop looking to this world for success becauserepparttar 147041 world doesn’t care about me. Jesus promised to always be with me. And then He went to work in my life. Reading His word, praying and following his guidance I developed a plan to transition my life. It is a constant work in process but overrepparttar 147042 past 5 years I have gone from:

•A workaholic corporate manager. •No religious or spiritual faith or practice. •Playing tag team parent and farming out almost all personal responsibilities. •Relationships on-hold if they were outside of work. •Minimal time with my children.

And have moved to:

•Working to help other people. •Feeling truly connected to God. •Taking back responsibility for my kids. •Becoming a part of a church community – through service, worship, and friendship. •Creating a close knit group of friends that includes spouses and children. •Having hobbies and time to pursue them.

I believe this isrepparttar 147043 life that God had reserved for me. It took me 35 years to trust Him and ask Him for His plan for my life. I had no concept. I had no idea how generous and merciful our God is and how faithful he would be. But I had to do my part first. I had to:

•I had to step out in faith.

•I had to give up control of my life to God. (This wasn’t a hard decision since my way wasn’t working.)

•I had to follow His directions and try to be obedient.

Don’t get me wrong; like I said earlier, I put together a plan. I did many self-assessments. Read several books about “meaningful life, significance, family, community.” If it’s a self-help book of any notoriety, I have read it. I wrote in journals pouring my heart out to God and begging for a “flashing sign.” I would even complain sometimes when I didn’t get it. But over time I found that God was leading me all along. I learned that when I looked to Him and followed Him doors would open. When I was feeling peace I finally realized this must be His plan. And He has been so faithful to me it is truly indescribable. After neglecting my family, pursuing worldly success, and completely ignoring God in my life, he helped me anyway. All He said was “I have been waiting for you. I am so glad you are here. The plans I have for you…..” It is so incredibly humbling to see how God can use anyone, even someone as lost as I was. He helped me to findrepparttar 147044 real me. The person who wants to help other people. The woman who needs friends and family. The kid who wished she had played tennis and rode horses. God freed me from my irrational beliefs about success and significance. And He has provided for me even at this late date. At 40, I am still a work in progress, but I am at least onrepparttar 147045 path now. God is amazing. And believe me, if you answered “yes” to any ofrepparttar 147046 questions atrepparttar 147047 beginning of this article, I can promise you that He is waiting for you too…with open arms.

So how do you go about doing your part inrepparttar 147048 equation?

1. Find your authentic self. The first thing I would do is to start keeping a daily journal to God. This is a Dear God (I want to share my life with you) Journal. You don’t need a gratitude journal, a prayer journal, a venting journal, etc. You just need one Dear God Journal. God wants to share our lives with us. Let Him be a part of it all. Use this journal to begin to get to know you. Start writing about yourself. Who you are. Who you want to be. What are you frustrated about? What are your dreams? Ask God to help you to find your authentic self. Inrepparttar 147049 first few weeks just write what comes to mind. This is called “stream of consciousness” writing. Pray to God to reveal His plans to you. Tell Him that you want to know His plans and that you want to have enough faith to trust Him and follow His plan. Writing in a journal 3 or 4 times a week will help you to get closer to God and to learn more about yourself. See www.murphytoerner.com for journaling topics under Articles. 2. Eliminate hurry from your life. I read in a couple of books, most recently The Life You Always Wanted, by John Ortberg, about relentlessly eliminating hurry from your life. Most of us are swept away byrepparttar 147050 busyness of our life that we don’t even have time to figure out how our lives got this way. But God did not plan for us to just rush through this life. What isrepparttar 147051 point of it if we are just hurrying from activity to activity without enjoying or providing significant input into any. My advice is to start slow. You want to be successful on this one! Obviously you are not going to go from a scattered world wind to a calm and peaceful existence overnight. Start with simple things like leaving on time to get to a scheduled appointment so that you are not feeling like your blood pressure is going to explode whenrepparttar 147052 traffic is congested. Say “no” for a few weeks to new commitments just so you can catch up and see what is making you so busy. Start simple and keep going. 3. Start with a blank slate. If you could start all over what would your life look like today? (Of course you have to work with main components - like your spouse and kids have to stay!) Would you be inrepparttar 147053 job you are in? Would it even be inrepparttar 147054 same field? Would you have your kids in 3 different activities each that you needed to be in 6 or 9 different places every week? Where would church rank in importance? Friends? Are you having any fun? This isrepparttar 147055 time to start laying out your life. The one you want to live. DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF YET WITH BARRIERS. Most barriers are self-imposed and there are ways around them. I said “most”, not “all”. But at this stage try not to limit yourself. If I can go from a Corporate VP to a Christian Counselor, believe me, a lot of barriers can be knocked down. 4. Get sound advice. Now you hopefully have an idea aboutrepparttar 147056 person you want to be and how you want your life to be. The hard part, and where some people give up, is figuring out how to get there. In developing your plan I have several pieces of advice:

Are You Running Your Business or Is Your Business Running You?

Written by Laurie Hayes


Being a small or home-based business owner can be loads of fun and very rewarding.

You may have decided to go into business because of your need for personal freedom or to fully unleash your creative genius. You may also have decided to go into business to supplement your existing income, to make yourself available for young children or aging parents, or becauserepparttar organization you were working for downsized, leaving you to fend for yourself.

There are hundreds of different reasons why we become business owners, butrepparttar 146983 results we aim to produce remainrepparttar 146984 same …

-You want to be your own person, doing something you love. -You want to generate a profit that will provide you withrepparttar 146985 lifestyle you desire. -You want to be recognized, respected and acknowledged for your contributions. -You want to help others solve problems or fulfill needs. -You want to make your own decisions instead of having them dictated to you. -You want to pick and choose whom you work with and how you work. -You want to experience freedom … freedom to travel, enjoy quality time with family, set your own agenda, eat when you want, sleep when you want, etc.

Running your own small or home-based business can be immensely rewarding, yet if you get too involved withrepparttar 146986 routine daily matters and finer details of each task, you can get pulled intorepparttar 146987 vicious cycle of working "in" your business instead of "on" it.

When this happens, you become misguided and stop focusing onrepparttar 146988 tasks necessary to move your business forward at an optimal pace.

Whether you are a solopreneur or have a small team working for you, it is important that you don't allow yourself to get caught up in every fine detail of your business operations.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't be aware of what is going around you, but simply means you only have so many hours in a day and how you spend your time will determinerepparttar 146989 rate your business grows,repparttar 146990 profits you earn,repparttar 146991 quality of service your clients and customers receive, and your overall happiness and personal satisfaction.

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