“Pastor, I planned to work with a company for only ten years then start my own business, but it’s been twenty years now, I can’t really explain what happened”

Oh wow! Sorry about the situation. To be honest, there are quite a number of factors that may have hindered your plan. Let me touch a few of them.

– TIME

It takes time to both start and run a business. If you weren’t getting enough free time from your current employment, chances are that you won’t have time to invest in the business you intended to do.

Depending on the kind of job you do, the average salary job takes about nine hours of your time daily, which starts from 8am to 5pm. And if you live in Lagos like me, then you must have been awake by 4am just so you can beat the traffic and get to the office before the resumption time. Asides that, closing by 5pm in Lagos means you’d have to sit in traffic for hours. By the time you get home, your body is weak, and the only thing you’d probably be able to do is eat and retire to bed. Also, the earlier you sleep, the earlier and healthier you wake – in preparation for work.

Even if you don’t work on Saturdays and Sundays, your body would most likely demand rest. Although you may have planned on investing time into your business plans, but your state of mind may be a challenge; not necessarily because you can’t do anything else, but because your mind must have been programmed to be active only when you’re going to work. Any day you’re not going to work, your mind won’t work, and this will put your body in a state or rest or sleep.

What this means is that your life has been dedicated to your salary job. You probably don’t like the sound of that, but that’s just the truth. That’s actually why you’ve been there for twenty years against your desire.

– DISCIPLINE

There are two classifications of pain in this world; the pain of discipline and the pain of suffering. While pain can be suffered through a lack of discipline, pain can also be endured because of a self-inflicted discipline. If you don’t discipline yourself to endure pain, you’d definitely suffer pain for your lack of discipline.

For instance, your monthly salary is probably nothing to write home about, but if you didn’t discipline yourself to save up money to at least register the business, then you’d suffer the pain of that indiscipline. You’re probably always tired when you get home at night, but if you don’t discipline your body to review your business plan before you sleep, chances are that you’d be too tired to wake up in the midnight to do that.

I know it’s not easy to discipline ourselves, but it’s the surest way to create the life of ease that we desire. Don’t ever be tempted to follow the easiest route first; If you follow the easiest route first, then you may be eased out of life. No man who fulfilled their heart desire started easy. If it appears easy, then it’s most likely because you haven’t applied discipline. To discipline yourself means to deny yourself of pleasure until you’ve done what is necessary to actualize your goals.

For instance, I work with an organization and I’ve been with them since 2017. After the first year, I noticed that my reading life had been affected, I didn’t have time to read like I used to. So I told myself that I wasn’t going to eat in a day until I’ve read one chapter of a book. Till date, I think that’s still the most difficult thing I’ve had to go through. I remember one of those days, I got to the office to face an emergency that lasted almost the whole day. Because of the hunger, I had become really weak, yet I mustn’t eat till I read a chapter of the book. You won’t believe I had to pray to God to resolve that problem so that I could go and read. Of course, God answered me, I quickly went to read, of course with my good waiting on the same table😂. I’d never forget that day in a hurry.

But guess what? That discipline contributed a great deal to my success today. Who knows where I would have been if I didn’t endure that pain. If was after that day that I made it an habit to read between 3:30am and 4:30am. I didn’t want to get into another emergency in the office😂.

– GRACE

Discipline is a life changer, but sometimes you’d need grace to push through. There were times when I’d be literally exhausted, but instead of submitting to my body, I’d lean on the grace of God. Like Apostle Paul said, “I know I labored really hard to get to where I am. However, I am what I am by the grace of God”. There’s no way I would have pulled through without God’s grace.

I’ve often defined grace as God’s power made available to us to overcome weakness. So when I am too weak to continue, I become strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I’ve had days when it was difficult to stand and pray, but the moment I ask the Lord for grace, I rise in faith – believing that the grace had been made available. And to my amazement, I who was weak suddenly become strong to push further.

I would have given you more points, but the article is already too long. Perhaps I’d write it in a book someday.

But let me conclude with this; don’t take life easy. Ease is something given to people when they retire. Retired people remain in ease till their death. That’s why you’ve been in that company for twenty years. You’ve been taken things easy. So, the moment you notice ease, discipline yourself so that you can go further.

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

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