{"id":6263,"date":"2015-05-30T16:35:34","date_gmt":"2015-05-30T21:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovingonme.com\/?p=6263"},"modified":"2017-03-21T11:56:59","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T16:56:59","slug":"is-it-your-career-or-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/2015\/05\/30\/is-it-your-career-or-calling\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it Your Career or Calling?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Career<\/a>This month marks the 3rd<\/sup> anniversary of my consulting company. I didn\u2019t even remember until I began receiving congratulation notes on Linked In. Funny how once you start truly living\u00a0you stop marking time, and instead focus on making each moment count.<\/p>\n

You also become extraordinarily grateful that life doesn’t always work out like you plan. I chuckle when I think back to that hot Texas summer when I begrudgingly hung up my shingle. Truth be told, I didn\u2019t really want to consult. Life circumstances had forced me to make some changes, and consulting was my placeholder until the next big thing came along. I had no idea\u00a0what that would be, but I figured\u00a0providing advice on someone else’s business probably wasn’t it.<\/p>\n

You see for my entire career, I had gone in and out of corporate life. I\u2019d work somewhere for six or so years, then I\u2019d leave and start my own company, or in most cases companies. Then I\u2019d get bored or life would change, and I\u2019d go back into the workforce. Without even realizing it, I’d\u00a0become trapped in a circular maze, with God bringing me back to the same decision point\u00a0over and over again. Until this last time, when I finally surrendered and asked God, what do you want me to do with me?<\/p>\n

And I meant it. No really, I for real meant it this time. I opened myself up to whatever he brought my way – be it new careers, relationships, priorities or\u00a0geographies. Since then it\u2019s been kind of a winding road, with dips and twists that have included a new place to live, new friends, and a new calling to help people \u201cbe the me they were created to be\u201d. Yep, that\u2019s what I do…in both my blog and my business.<\/p>\n

The amazing thing is for the first two years I ran the consulting company I never made the connection that it had anything to do with my calling. Because in my mind, my calling was to help people see themselves as God saw them, to understand their value in His eyes, and to know that we are enough. I did that through blogs and videos for Loving on Me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But my career was my consulting company, which focused on marketing and business development. Working with large non-profit organizations, I specialized in maximizing the effectiveness of fundraising staff\u00a0to dramatically increase mission investment. Basically, I helped them raise more money by teaching their teams how to individually and collectively function at a higher level.<\/p>\n

It is good work, that I’ve learned to enjoy. In fact, I’ve discovered that I love the teaching aspect of it.\u00a0I’m telling you there’s nothing sweeter than seeing someone’s light bulb come on, and then watching them confidently put their new skills successfully in action.\u00a0It’s an absolutely awesome feeling of fulfillment!<\/p>\n

But as much as I enjoyed it, there were times when\u00a0I was a bit frustrated trying\u00a0to balance my time between my calling and my career. I resented the time I put into training, thinking instead I should be out speaking about Loving on Me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That is until one of the attendees of my sales course said to me, I love coming to your class. Not only do I learn a lot, but I also feel better about me when I leave. Even when you have to correct us, you still boost us up. I have all kind of \u201cKatrina-isms\u201d written in the margins of my notes that are about life, not just my career.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when it hit me \u2013 our calling is not limited to\u00a0a position, platform or circumstance. It\u2019s all about the effect God wants us\u00a0to have on the world, and He can do that through any number of mediums. The very same messages He inspired me to deliver through my blogs I had inadvertently started to carry\u00a0through my consulting business. The encourager He created me to be was at work in both places, and the love God was pouring into my heart was in action wherever I went.\u00a0Isn’t it wonderful that we can be used by God in any situation?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so grateful to be in sync with His\u00a0plan for my life. Because even though He and I are not always in agreement with how and when things should roll out, I can still trust He knows best. Thank goodness I\u2019ve finally grown up enough to\u00a0be\u00a0content\u00a0where I am and wait for things to evolve. Ten years ago I’d probably be looking for another job, bored and frustrated that life wasn’t moving along according to my timetable. But now\u00a0I can\u00a0work where He has me planted, sharing His message of love wherever He leads, be it the blog or the consulting business. It’s not what I expected, but it’s enough, and so much more.<\/p>\n

I hope you too discover your\u00a0place of integrated purpose and peace, where God\u2019s calling for your life permeates every space of your being. Always remember, what we do is for a season. Who we are to be is for a lifetime. Have the courage to be the person He created you to be wherever you go, and know that\u00a0what you’re doing and who you are is enough.<\/p>\n

Loving on Me as I Love You! Hugs and Blessings\u00a0\u2764<\/p>\n

PS – I\u2019ve learned a lot about running a successful consulting company. I\u2019ll share a bit in next week\u2019s blog, because my desire for your life is that it be like Christ\u2019s \u2013 complex but uncomplicated, and full but never frantic. We can be successful and still live a sane life.<\/p>\n

PSS \u2013 If you have questions about consulting that you want me to answer in next week\u2019s blog, please add them to the comments section below. I\u2019m happy to share what I\u2019ve learned, and let others do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month marks the 3rd anniversary of my consulting company. I didn\u2019t even remember until I began receiving congratulation notes on Linked In. Funny how once you start truly living\u00a0you stop marking time, and instead focus on making each moment count. You also become extraordinarily grateful that life doesn’t always work out like you plan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sharing_disabled":false,"switch_like_status":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[204997549,114917237],"tags":[104608,14560,204997777,204997776,204997775,204997597,122792808],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Career-Choice-1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eAxC-1D1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9465,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263\/revisions\/9465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}