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My wife and I like watching the Discovery Network's Science Channel. Some of programs show the inventions that people have come up with that range from vaccines to skateboards. We especially like inventions that are useful and simple. For example the invention that can be built into city roads that will actually generate electricity as traffic rolls over it.
On one of the shows they interviewed Michael Dyson who invented the appropriately named Dyson vacuum cleaner. If you've ever seen the commercials you may remember that he talks about wanting to invent a vacuum cleaner that never loses suction.
During the interview Dyson mentioned that he tried more than 10,000 different prototypes over a period of fourteen years until he finally came up with the one that solved the problem.
Most of us aren't trying to invent a revolutionary vacuum cleaner but we all struggle with knowing how we are going to create the life we want.
The first problem that we need to solve is knowing what we want to do in life. I talked about this in week one of this coaching course. Have you taken the time to ask yourself the important question: What do I want to do in life?
While we hope that God will write the answer in big neon flashing letters across the sky, that's usually not how we find out. The way in which God reveals that to us is by having us take a simple look at the things we are good at doing and that we enjoy.
But once we've come up with what it is that we want to do, we then face the next problem: How do we make a living doing what we want to do? Is that the question that is stopping you from pursuing your dreams? It's the one that stops most people because they make the assumption that it's impossible to do what they really want and still be able to pay the bills.
On a recent show we saw an invention that allowed businesses to save money on their electricity costs. A couple of engineers had been working for some time on the problem of how to dim flourescent lights. They had tried everything they could think of but they were no closer to solving the problem.
Then one night one of them had a dream. He got in to work the next morning and implemented what he had seen in his dream. The problem was fixed!!!
They were able to significantly reduce the amount of energy that flourescent bulbs use and to dim them. The only problem was, they didn't know how it worked. It worked just fine, but it took them another four years of examining what they had done to figure out why it worked.
I've often thought that it would be great if God would just give me a dream that would solve all my problems. But when I look at how most inventors come up with their ideas I realize that as simple as that sounds, it really wasn't that easy for any of them.
In all cases these inventors had an intense desire to solve a specific problem. All of them had spent months and years learning all they could about the problem they wanted to solve. And they had tried one thing after another, some of them even trying thousands of things that didn't work, all the time never losing hope that they would eventually find a solution.
How strong is your desire to spend your life doing what you love to do? Are you willing to invest the time and energy to find a way to make a living doing it? Or does it sound easier to just give up and stick with a job that you hate, that doesn't use your skills, and that barely pays the bills?
These aren't easy questions but we need to ask them.
When my wife and I took a serious look at what it would take for me to do what I love and become a full-time writer and speaker, we started off with a list of pros and cons. We simply took a piece of paper for each of my possible career choices. We then put a line down the middle of each one and labeled one side pros and the other cons.
We talked about and listed everything we could think of for each of my choices. The paper for being a full-time author and speaker had the most cons, but also the most pros. We knew that it wasn't going to be easy, but when we looked at it we knew that in spite of the difficulties we would face, there was no real choice, I had to try.
In Proverbs we read that wisdom is crying out and saying, "I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full." (Proverbs 8:17-21 NIV)
The wisdom we need and the solutions for how to do what we love are waiting for us if we're willing to seek them with all of our hearts. It may not be easy, it may not happen overnight, but the one thing we know is that God wants us to succeed. He will make sure that we find the answers if we will be sure to seek them.
While seeking be sure to ask yourself the right questions. Questions like: "Why can't I seem to get ahead?" are the wrong ones to ask. Instead we should always ask ourselves questions that help us find the answers that will change our lives. Questions like: "How do I create the income I want doing what I love?" But don't be surprised if the answer is a bit out of the ordinary, after all, God is a Creator so He's very creative.
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