Have you ever felt the pressure to succeed? Not just because of others' expectations of you but because of your own standard that you have set for yourself. All of your goals, dreams, hard work, passion, sacrifices, late nights and early mornings that you have invested have gotten you absolutely NOWHERE! No. we are not overachievers- we just want to be seen, heard and valued. Many dream chasers work a full-time and even a part-time job to financially support their ideas or business ventures because they may not qualify for a loan; they may not even want a loan due to the responsibilities to pay it back. Another means of financial assistance could be a grant. Maybe you are not experienced with grant writing, maybe it is a grant competition from other businesses and the grant awarded is based on various criteria.
So while you await to potentially be granted the funds to support your vision, you are paying your bills and then the little money that you have left, you have chosen to invest it into your journey. Except now, it has left you financially broke and broken. It is completely devastating! To add insult to injury, while your mind is battling your disbelief of failure, you are likely fighting external difficulties varying from discrimination, denial, discredited, dishonesty, disloyalty, disobedient, dismissive, disorder, disrespect, disowned, disruptive, deadbeats, divisiveness, distrustful, disabled, disheartening, deceitfulness, defamatory, and disingenuous circumstances. Perhaps these extrinsic state of affairs have contributed more to the deficiencies that you were already experiencing! You are now discouraged, defeated and desperate! Normally, you are not a fearful person but you are now afraid. Afraid that you have failed before you could even succeed! The pressure and anxiety is exceedingly overwhelming and foreign that you are just fed up and cry. You cry out to God, Family, and friends because you just can't take it anymore! I understand that feeling. That was me.
In that very moment, you are completely bare, naked and vulnerable. It is an unfamiliar feeling for you as it is not often that you feel this disorganized and dark.
What do you do, when what you know doesn't align with how you feel? You know that you have your friends, family and God but yet you still feel lonely in your endeavors. What do you do when your passion is BIGGER than your pockets?
After crying out to God, I was extremely depleted of energy to do anything. I had to somehow, feed my spirit back to its' origin but didn't even have the energy to do that. Completely discombobulated and dispirited, I would force myself to still feed others what they needed because I was worried that if I discontinued what I had already started they would forget about me! You are out of sick leave and the bills keep coming...what do you do!?
Have you ever prematurely forced yourself back to work, even though you KNEW you were still sick!?
When you accelerate your recovery, you become more exhausted than you initially were. The simple answer to restoration is rest! Allow your body to disengage with anything that gives you discomfort or displacement, transition to infantry and rest! Maybe a day of no responsibilities is sufficient for you, most need an entire weekend or week! Whatever the timeframe looks like to you- do it! Everything or everyone that needs you, has to wait. You come first as you are deserving of your own love that you are so quick to give to others!
After your retreat, nourish yourself with food, water, stretching, positive music and words of affirmation. What have you learned from your days of rest? Hopefully, you have learned that you have taken on possibly too much by signing yourself up to do everything on your own. What makes you feel like you are not deserving of help? Maybe it is a sense of wanting to be in control, so you may not want the help. Perhaps, you are prideful and simply don't know how to ask for help. What makes you feel that you cannot deliver your dreams or execute that vision? The gifts and vision that you are given is God's greatest gift to you. It is HIS will for you. So what makes you think that he will not PROVIDE for you when he gave you the vision in the first place.
He will give you what you need to have to complete HIS mission opposed to what you believe you need.
We get so disturbed and disappointed when it doesn't work out the way that WE hoped it to work out that we give up and blame God for our drawbacks. I have learned to ask him, "What is it that you want me to do?" " What do you want me to say?" "How can I serve your people?" "God, please use me." "Speak to my heart" and then I just wait. Yes, I wait. That is the problem with a lot of people; we are impatient and get so uncomfortable in unfamiliar territory that we take our control back. He may have even answered you and you are displeased with his response so you revert back to doing things your own way. It becomes a cycle.
Hebrews 6:10-12 NIV says, " God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show the same diligence to the very end, so that what you hoped for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised." And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end." Depending on where you are in your journey right now, either you are still waiting to hear from God or he has answered you with resources. If you are still awaiting to hear from him, just remember he will reward you for your patience and faithfulness! The victory 'for me' is in the details AFTER I remained devoted in waiting on him to reveal what it is he wanted me to do. When I reflect on how he orchestrated everything, I was in agreeance that his way was far better than mine. If you are interested in learning more, schedule your private consultation today! Donnie@donniesdots.com
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