What is desire? It is simply an expression of something we want to have, do, or be. It's a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. Well, if that's the case, I've had a LOT of desires in my life.
These six desires never got me closer to my purpose.
1. I remember when I laid eyes on the most attractive young man on campus my freshman year of college. Yes you bet, I desired to have him be my boyfriend.
2. I remember that one time I wished I would disappear because I felt like a failure for not getting hired in my field shortly after graduating from college.
3. Ooh I remember wanting to start a sorority at my private christian college...ummm nope... THAT didn't work out.
4. I also remember wanting to sing in a girl group, which I.... actually did, we even opened up for Eve (the female rapper) but yeah that soon flopped.
5. I remember when I wanted a son so bad and I was so serious about it that I made my husband commit to a rhythm and position.
6. I remember when I wanted to homeschool my children so we could move to Korea with my husband...long story there. But I figured it out and I've been homeschooling for 5 years now.
So, I may have bored you with a few things I've desired along the way and I've titled this blog post about desire (our wants and wishes) meeting up with our purpose. I can honestly say the desires above had nothing to do with MY purpose. Yes, that lovely gentlemen that I desired did end up becoming my husband but that wasn't and isn't the extent of my purpose. Yes I'm called to be a wonderful, honoring, and loving wife, which I do a great job of I must add. (If you don't know you can ask about it! ) However, I wouldn't call that "desire meeting MY purpose".
And yes, that little bundle of joy did end up coming out with a little wiener and I got my boy...but again, I wouldn't say that was desire meeting MY purpose! We definitely entered the bedroom with a purpose but was it my sole purpose? Absolutely not! Outside of being a wife and homeschool mom I have desires of my own and entrepreneurship has been one of them.
So let me share my heart:
Desire meets purpose when your wants and wishes meet up with the deepest part of who you are and what you are meant to do in this life. I'm meant to encourage, uplift, motivate, and coach entrepreneurial women of faith. I help them gain confidence and get past limiting beliefs so they can build purposeful businesses that are authentic to who they are and their god-given gifts.
It's hard for women to have this encounter where their desires meet up with their purpose and for many of these reasons below:
1. When you become a wife and your focus begins to shift on that partner, his goals, his dreams. Your Desires meeting up with your Purpose takes a back seat for some time, I"m sure.
2. Oh and don't forget that bundle of joy. Oh yes I have 3 bundles of Joys! And 3 separate occasions in my life where I had to re-evaluate my values and goals. As a homeschool mom, my personal goals and drive have taken a back seat quite often.
3. And what if you haven't even experienced the wifey status or kid duty before but you've been so trained to take on other's desires for your life that you never took the time to explore your own? You know, following that path perceived from childhood.
I want you to venture down memory lane when you had a desire. Maybe just a small little inkling of a possibility, a want or a wish. A desire of your own to make an impact and serve others. You may not have known that it was your purpose yet and that's OK. But take yourself back darling...visualizing what it would have been like had you allowed your desire to meet up with your purpose. How might that business had turned out? How many people could you have served? What talents and skills could you have monetized already?
My desire has always been to serve other women, uplift other women, dig deep, peel back the layers of that onion and get to the heart of a matter. I even got the degrees to match; psychology and business. But I let those things fall to the wayside for quite some time. How will you awaken your desires and goals? How will you effortlessly allow desire to meet purpose?
My purpose lies in entrepreneurship and in order to effortlessly allow the encounter of Desire and Purpose, it required these three things:
1. Getting really clear on what I wanted out of life. This meant shedding all the titles that I owned, mom, wife, homeschooler, daughter, etc... It's ok if this takes time. Don't rush it, don't force it, just allow it. You want to be really clear.
2. Setting boundaries. This means communicating to all of those people that are effected by those title that you were once holding onto that you have decided that what you want out of life matters too. Clear communication about what you need in order to achieve your desires.
3. Unconditionally pursuing your purpose. Knowing no matter what life brings, this is what you are meant to do and what you you'll do no matter what. It's a mindset of success, And that success consists of you pursuing your desires and truly whole-heartedly serving those in a way that lights you up every time!