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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Life Coach Training Online

Seriously? Did you know that you, too, could be certified to become a "life coach." I don't mean to step on any toes, but certification to become a life coach? I have a life coach, and it doesn't cost me a thing. Well, it did cost a little. What did I pay for my life coach, you ask? Just my soul. I have accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as my personal Lord and Savior, and, with this membership, I have received access to a life coach for the rest of my life (eternity), for free.

In order to obtain your certification in life coaching, you only need 6 months of online courses. Before you graduate, you will already have clients, which is promising. The cost is only $3,000. The opportunities are limitless. Who needs a life coach, you ask? Who doesn't need a life coach? Who wouldn't benefit from having someone else tell you the steps you need to take in order to find the happiness that God already told you that you deserve. God created you to achieve happiness.

Don't get me wrong. If you are a life coach, that's great. I don't mean to offend people in this field. I just feel that I, personally, would not benefit from a life coach. I know what I need to do in order to be happy everyday. I am already on my way. I found my sweet spot, and am in pursuit of making it my career. If you are having trouble figuring out what you need to do to have happiness in your life, and are considering hiring a life coach, let me challenge you. Open your Bible, pray to the Almighty One that created you. God is the only life coach I will ever need!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Piece of the Puzzle

Did you know that you are a part of a puzzle? When God created you, He made you to fit perfectly into the puzzle that He created. Without you finding your sweet spot, though, the puzzle will be incomplete. The only way for you to fall into place in the puzzle is for you to be the you God created you to be. Find your sweet spot (do what it is you love to do), and your life will be more fulfilled, which will, in effect, put you (the puzzle piece) exactly where you belong.

I have started my pursuit of writing, as you know. I am working toward making a career of writing, as I have recently discovered that writing is my sweet spot. It would only make sense that many of the people that I admire would be writers. I really admire author Shel Silverstein. I have always loved to read his work. I own every children's book that he has ever written, the most recent of which was published in 2005, some 6 years after his death.

Just this morning, I came across one of his interviews. He gave very few interviews during his life, and as I read this one, it went right along with Max Lucado, and The Cure for the Common Life. Max Lucado points out that you are the most successful when you are living in your sweet spot. Shel Silverstein had this to say:

"I think that if you’re truly creative, you can work in certain related fields of creativity, but then there are others that are beyond you. For instance, a man who works well with words might work as a writer and as a poet and as a lyricist. But if he tried to work in sculpture, he might get absolutely nowhere..."

Finding your sweet spot will benefit you more than you can imagine. Your life will seem better when you are doing what you love to do. Both Shel Silverstein and Max Lucado share the same view that doing what you love and are cut out to do with give you the best results in life.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

It's Definitely Not Twilight

In my search to learn more about the sweet spot and God's great plan for my life, I have come across something on the internet that I was super excited about. I went to the Max Lucado website, and I found it is extremely interactive. It was so neat to find that you can download sermons, download excerpts, and even hear short one-minute messages from Max Lucado. I love the site, and I can promise you that I will be visiting it more often. I have always been a Max Lucado fan, but after this book, I have a renewed interest in his writings. While everyone at my job is talking about Twilight, I am thinking "Anyone read Cure for the Common Life? And if you have, are you in pursuit of your sweet spot, or is it just me?"

If you haven't heard of the book yet, you should really look into reading it. It has changed my life. I am on my way to living the life God has given me, and being the person God has created me to be. If I am not that person, who will be? God only created one me for this world. I don't want to rob the world of this me? Do you?

If you have any spare time, you absolutely need to pick up this book. Even if you don't have spare time, it's well worth it. The reviews are great. Dr. Phil, himself, had this to say of the book, “God gave you uniqueness, a talent, a skill, one that is yours alone to use in honoring Him. Cure for the Common Life can help you find that uniqueness, the "sweet spot" that puts it all into perspective, and show you how to live it everyday so that you aren't just existing in God's creation but thriving in His plan.”

It may sound like I am pushing this book on you because I have stock in Max Lucado, or I am a salesman of some sort. I have just really enjoyed reading this book, and wish I had read it while I was in college. It's such a motivating book, and it will inspire you to find your sweet spot.

Go, buy, read, live!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

What Will Be Your First Step?

What will be the first step that you take towards living in your sweet spot? Some people will be willing to take a larger step than other people. There are many factors that come into play when you are deciding what steps to take. For example, there are some people who don't struggle with finances. For those people, quitting a job and dedicating more time to their passion is more of an option. Unfortunately, that may not be an option for you. If you fall in that category, a good first step for you might be to start out making your passion a hobby. From there, you can market yourself, and your hobby, and, hopefully, eventually it can make the transition from hobby to career. There are many great ways to begin the first step.

First, if you have an idea of the qualifications you need to make your sweet spot your career, that's a great place to start. Make a list of all of the possibilities for making your sweet spot your career. For example, I know for sure that my passion and my sweet spot is writing. I love to write. My first step was to decide what qualifications I needed to make writing my career instead of just my passion and hobby. I am one of the people that cannot afford to just quit my job, and hope for the best. I do realize, however, that if I never take that first step, I will never be able to make writing my career, instead of just my hobby. Knowing this, I decided to write in my spare time. I really don't have spare time, because I teach during the days, and my husband and I own two businesses. I spend my evenings at one of the businesses. With this busy schedule, I had to improvise. Aside from blogging while I am at the business, I also have finished a few manuscripts. My next step will be to begin submitting them to agents, and working towards being published. This is a hard step to take, because everyone fears rejection, and I am no acception to the rule. I hesitate to send my manuscripts, just because I don't want to hear that I need to change things about them. This hesitation to take the next step leads me to ask you what will your next steps be?

Decide what steps you need to take in order to fulfill your dreams and achieve your goals. A great quote that seems to be showing up in my life a lot lately is this: "You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." To me, this means that you can't be successful if you don't try new things, and step out of your comfort zone a little bit. I love that quote, but my sister-in-law once told me something that my brother had said to her. This quote basically means the same thing, but for some reason this one sticks with me more. He said "You can't steal second base with your foot on first." He's a big baseball fan, so this quote "hits home" with him. I love to tell people this quote, because you don't have to know anything about baseball to know just what it means. It's clever, and it makes you think.

Get moving on your steps to making your dream a reality. Figure out what you need to do for this, and take this advice: Steal Second!!!

Monday, December 1, 2008

For What do You Give Thanks?

In these economic times, it is so easy to get discouraged. It is easy to think that there is nothing to be thankful for. This is simply not the case. We have so much to be thank God for each and every day. I have many, many things to thank God for. I can only hope that I thank Him enough.

The first thing that I am thankful for is my freedom. I have so many freedoms that others may not have: speech, religion, etc. There are people on this earth who don't have these same freedoms. It's not something that I think about often, but it is amazing and wonderful to live in a land where we are not persecuted for our beliefs. We can worship God, without the worry of any punishment. It's wonderful to have so much freedom, and I hope your realize that this holiday season.

Another thing that I am thankful for is the love of my family and friends. I have so many people in my life that care about me and love me. I can't imagine what life would be like without these people. They include my wonderful husband. My incredible family. My fantastic friends and coworkers. There are just so many people in my life that I love and that love me. Hopefully, they know how much they mean to me.

The greatest thing that I have in my life to be thankful for is my life, itself. I have, thanks again to God, a life that is so worth living. Even though I have days, as most everyone does, that I think my life is just too stressful and too much of a hassle, there has never been any point in which I thought I wish I wasn't in this life. I have always loved the life that I was given, and no matter how hectic it gets, I know I wouldn't trade places with anyone.

Even though Thanksgiving has come and gone, it is still time to be thankful. We should be thankful every day of our lives. We were given so much to be thankful for, and we never forget that.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

This Time of Year

This time of year seems to be stressful to even the calmest of people. There are so many factors that can increase your stress. Food must be prepared. Diets must be stuck to. Houses must be cleaned. Trips must be taken. Family members must be seen, and in some cases "dealt with." There are just so many things to think about when planning for the holidays. The important thing to remember, though, is that this season is about family. It is about being thankful for what you have, and the fact that you even exist.

There are many ways that you can show your thankfulness. One way is to tell people just how much they mean to you, not just at the holidays, but all year round. Another way is to donate to charity. It can be money you donate. It can be food or clothes that you donate. It can be your time that you donate. All donations are appreciated, especially at this time of year. The best way to show God how thankful that you are for the life you were given is to live your life the way that He intended. Don't live your life in an unhappy state. Get all that you can from this wonderful life that you were given. Don't, under any circumstances, take it for granted. This time of year is a great time to reexamine your life, and the choices that you have made. If some of them are not pleasing to God, make some new choices. Get a jump on your New Year's Resolutions, and find that sweet spot.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Greed Should be a Four Letter Word

The following post is for those who have already found their sweet spot, and are already living in it. If you are still in the process of finding your sweet spot, or you know what it is, but have not yet figured out how to turn it into what you do for a living, you should continue on that journey. This post is geared more toward those that are already living in their sweet spot. That is not to say that those of you still working toward the sweet spot won't receive anything from this post. By all means, continue reading. It will be something to keep in mind for when you have achieved your sweet spot goals.

If you are successful in finding your sweet spot, just as God intended, you should feel lucky. Even though God designed you, as well as everyone else, to live in your sweet spot, there are many people (the majority of the population), who do not know what it is that they have a passion for. However, just because you have found your sweet spot, doesn't mean that there aren't still things that you need to think about when it comes to your sweet spot, and what it is you were meant to be doing. As almost everyone knows, anytime that we are doing what God has planned for us, Satan is going to step in and make waves. This is what happens when we let greed take over in our lives. Statistically speaking, we are a much greedier nation than we were years ago. We think we need to have material things. We think that we need to compete with others in order to be successful. This is simply not the case. In order to be a success, we need to be happy. Competing with coworkers, family members, neighbors, etc. does not create happiness. It actually takes away from happiness by creating stress.

Although God wants you to have the best life possible, that doesn't mean that you need to have more "stuff" than anyone else. The happiest people are the people who have exactly what they need, and enjoy their lives. Keep this in mind while you are living in your sweet spot, and don't let greed cause you to step out of your sweet spot.

Greed is one of the worst words in our vocabulary, and it really should be considered one of the four letter words.