4 Tips to Having a Life You are Excited to Wake Up To.
Go to college.
Get a degree.
Get a job.
Retire at 65.
This is the life most of our parents lead and taught us to repeat. In fact, those of us
who dared to venture away from this template were thought to be crazy, lazy, or stupid.
Resumes are sent out to headhunters, and job sites like Zip Recruiter and Monster are
flooded with the desperate seeking a j-o-b. Yet, even in 'secure' jobs with a pension
(the few that may still exist), many feel empty and unfulfilled despite the great pay, benefits,
and corporate uptick.
A great idea may even cross their mind or fall into their lap - and after mulling the idea wistfully
around for a few moments, fear takes over and they talk themselves right back into the 9-5
grind. It is the template they know. It is the program their families endorse. To do anything else
is a flight of fancy.
Even with the gig economy in full steam - there are many who cannot embrace the
independent contractor or entrepreneur lifestyle.Yet, inside there is a nagging feeling - there
is something more, or something else I should be doing with my life.
So, here are my 4 tips to having a life you are excited to wake up to right now.
Acknowledge the call to purposeful adventure.
Find an Influencer who is doing something similar and review their content, strategies,
and style.
Identify your Pharaoh
Take an immediate step toward it, even the tiniest baby step in the direction.
A list is like a skeleton. What is a list without context? Bear with me as I put some meat on
the bones of the 4 tips.
Well, those who know me - know I will find and share a Bible reference for my position on a
matter. The Bible has a well-known story of someone in a similar quandary. Well, sorta!
Head over to Exodus 3 and 4.
We pick up this story when Moses is in Midian country. He is married and he has the job of
being a shepherd. This is the life he was reduced to after fleeing his cushy princely lifestyle in
the Egyptian palace, having killed an Egyptian that was bullying a fellow Israelite.
So, Moses keeps his nose clean and digs into his repetitious, no glory, no corporate ladder to
climb, low paying job - and he carves out a survival existence in the desert. But God was about
to give him a burning bush.
God calls Moses to an adventurous, purposeful future.
Exodus 3:9-10 "I have indeed heard the cry of my people, and I see how the Egyptians are
oppressing them. Now I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people
out of his country.”
As I share the story of Moses, see if any of his story feels relevant to you.
Moses argues with God about the call on his life.
Exodus 4:1 "But Moses said, “No, Lord, don't send me. I have never been a good speaker, and
I haven't become one since you began to speak to me. I am a poor speaker, slow and hesitant.”
Moses thinks God made a mistake in his choice of leader.
Exodus 3:11 "But Moses said to God, “I am nobody."
Moses is scared of Pharaoh.
Pharaoh represents the obvious challenges in executing the vision.
Exodus 3:11 "[ ] How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Moses feels sure those he is called to lead and serve will not listen to him.
Exodus 4:1 "Then Moses answered the Lord, “But suppose the Israelites do not believe me
and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?”
Who else can raise their hand because they went through some of these feelings about your
God-given mission?
Even though life as a Shepherd in the backwoods of Midian seems blah; leaving the lackluster,
and the frustration of the known for the adventure zone feels like choosing between a rock and
a hard place.
So, how do we shift from the blah to the Yippie! ?
How do we enjoy a life we are excited about waking up to?
I will not pretend to be an expert on this result. However, I will share my insight because having
gone through these very experiences. I now have a life that I need no escape or vacation from.
My 'Burning Bush' Experience
Pre the recession of 2006-2010, God had buffered our family for the upcoming famine. Unlike
Joseph - we were not good stewards of that plenty. I had a strong hand in killing our fabulous
future. I spent money like it grew on trees. I had no budget nor saw a need for one. Budgets
were for people with money restrictions.
Genesis 41:31 "The time of plenty will be entirely forgotten, because the famine which follows
will be so terrible."
I remember driving to my church and sitting in the parking lot around midnight, in 'boo hoo'
tears almost blaming God for my bad fortune. Right there in the car, my blame prayer was
interrupted with a holy rebuke. God may as well have spoken audibly because I certainly heard
clearly -
"Why are you crying? Your situation could be worse if not for my mercy."
I saw immediately that, like me - many other people were in a similar situation. The peace that
had come over me and the confidence that God was in control and all things would work out
for my good - was a message others needed to hear. We also needed to accept that Christians
who were poor stewards contributed to their current situation and that the lesson of being good
managers of what God put in our hands was the way out of the recession hole.
A few nights later, I remember waking at 3am with the words blazing in urgency - "debt-free
wealth". I woke up energized, excited, and scared.
So I argued with God.
I was not the right person for this job. I was deep in debt. I had lost 3 investment properties to
foreclosure. I constantly peeped through my window blinds to see if the repo man had come
and taken our new vehicles and no one wanted to answer the phone anymore in our house. It
was rarely a friendly voice on the other end. I was not even sure I believed debt-free wealth as
\possible in the land of credit scores and money whores.
I certainly did not want to go back to the people who knew me as I was - the ones I was now
hiding from because I was now living in my desert - and ask them to follow me.
I certainly did not want to face my Pharoah.
Debt and debtors are hard slave drivers and messing with them can cause huge challenges to a
financial future. Yet - the phrase, debt-free wealth blazed in my heart and it could not be contained.
I had a WHY, WHERE and WHO - but I had no HOW.
Because there are too many Christians in line for a handout and not enough of us in a position
to offer a hand UP (WHY), I guide US-based (WHERE) Christian income earners (WHO) to be
more, have more and give more.
I accepted my mission and began to have a life I was excited to wake up to.
Blind, I launched! At 3am, September 3, 2010 - I purchased several ‘debtfreewealth’ domain
names many of which are still in use today.
I sat with my Bible and turned it into a research resource. What did God mean by debt-free
wealth? How did He suggest I accomplish that?
A mind, transformed.
In my financial training as a Real Estate Broker school, debt was leveraged to obtain assets.
This was how it was done, according to the world and my instructors.
In Foreign Exchange trading school, investing in the currency market was leveraging debt as
much as 100:1, meaning - I could spend 100 times my investment in the market.
God was here suggesting wealth, debt FREE? Hmmmm.....
Well, what He showed me, I poured into a book, titled The Bible on Business. The process of
study and implementing what I learned started to reveal the HOW.
My debt decreased. I realized, there is a better life on the other side of zero.
Using debt to acquire assets and having a negative net worth is to pretend wealth.
Initially, I branded under the Debt-Free Wealth banner, and much of my content still carries
that label. However, as the journey to debt-free wealth unfolded, God finally gave me the HOW.
Profitable Stewardship CREATES debt-free wealth.
Changing my mind changed my life
Stewardship is a management term mostly used by Christians to demonstrate that all we have
belongs to God but is under our management.
Profit is the realm of more.
Matthew 25: 14-30 shares the parable of the talents. There, we see three stewards, and one of
them had zero return on the investment. He buried it and returned it to the Master as is. The
Master deemed him very unworthy of even the one talent which he handed over to the steward
who had five talents, which invested - returned five more (profit). It is through profit that we
participate in the generation of abundance when we are good stewards of that which was under
our control in the first place.
God showed me HOW!
We are to examine what God has already given us access to, what is under our control to use
and manipulate toward profitability. Here is a graphic example of this concept:
The Vision Dictates the Journey
With this new knowledge, I rebranded my business as Profitable Stewardship Inc, because it
became clear to me that profitable stewardship creates debt-free wealth.
Debt-free wealth is the result of being a profitable steward.
The life of a profitable steward is an exciting one.
Profit is the extra earned after subtracting the investment. Investing itself is a risk-filled
adventure.
Profit of itself does not eliminate debt. There are many who make money and have no clue
how to keep it. Earning money, managing money, and keeping money are different skill sets.
So now its your turn.
1. Acknowledge your call to a purposeful adventure.
If I asked you to speak via phone conference call to an audience for 30-minutes with little
preparation time - what topic could you easily speak about? THAT is a huge hint to where your
purpose lies. That is the thing that comes naturally to you and time means nothing when you
engage in anything around that thing. Step 1 is just to acknowledge that call.
2. Find an Influencer who is doing something similar and review their content, strategies,
and style.
God may not show up and give you a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night so that you know
what step to take next. However, if you do this step, then you know that your Influencer's
success leaves a trail of clues. The goal here is not to copy them, nor to convince yourself that
since they are already doing it - your voice is unnecessary. This is the step that motivates you
that what you are doing is worthwhile doing and to inspire ideas for your own spin, or to find
un-served gaps you can cover.
If you are a Christian, research the Bible for applicable references. I have found that the Bible is
a manual for business with very relevant tips that you can implement. Check out this video on
my book, The Bible on Business for an example.
3. Identify your Pharaoh
You may be very much aware of the call on your life just as much as you are scared of your
Pharaoh. If you are a Christian, let me encourage you now with this:
4. Take an immediate step toward it, even the tiniest baby step in the direction.
Scared? OK, you may be. Take the scared step.
Sign up for a course.
Reach out to a mentor.
Make a declarative post on social media.
Buy the domain name.
Take that first step right away while the idea is there. Taking that first step is a small
commitment to your fantastic future and if you do, you will feel excited to wake up the next day
to work on that thing some more.
Just In Case..
Need more guidance? Clarity? An objective ear to offer an opinion and suggestions?
Book a FREE exploratory chat with me. I love doing 'seed sowing' conversations. If at the end,
there seems to be a mutually beneficial reason to work together, this call will make that obvious.
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