Oh 2013, how adventurous, joyful and trying you are proving to be!  I’m chasing lions and roaring into my thirties with new goals and dreams at my fingertips. (references to “chasing lions” can be understood by reading my Joy Abounds blog from December)  This blog in particular is a full circle “why” story as to how and where I am at today.

As of the new year, I decided to really chase the lion of “self-employment” on a full-time basis by going back into business for myself as a direct sales independent representative of fine jewelry. While I maintain part-time and seasonal positions within the tennis industry (my passion), and continue to keep up my professional tennis certifications in the hopes of one day landing my “dream tennis coaching gig”, the fact remains that I wasn’t designed for seventy hour work-weeks in a tennis club.   I am a woman that doesn’t want only a career, and over the past year and a half, I’ve really recognized how my heart has changed to see more of what God wants for me.   I’ve always been gifted to lead, as well as to help teach and encourage others to be the best they can be, but I was scared to use my God-given gifts if there wasn’t a steady income, benefits and worldly “security.”  Bottom line, I wasn’t trusting God when it came to money, and no matter how hard I worked or how many jobs I held, his blessings were always in the Godly people I encountered along the way showing me support through strengthening my faith, not in the money.  I wasn’t trusting that he’d bless me financially if I went into business for myself which is something that was always in the back of my mind.

Like many people, I went to college immediately following high school, and also like many, I had no idea at eighteen what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  I don’t recall a lot of advice from my family outside of simply: “pick a degree in something that will give you a lot of job opportunities, stability and money, so you don’t have to struggle like we did and can provide for yourself.”

I always “liked” many things: arts, theatre, design, marketing, social sciences and tennis to name a few; none of which areas seem to scream “Fortune 500!”  I certainly wasn’t the next Renoir, Roberts or Betsey Johnson as the passion to dedicate myself whole-heartedly to those things just wasn’t there.  So, let me go back to the mention of “tennis” as it seems a little out of place along with all those other interests.  I played tennis recreationally beginning at fifteen and was offered a scholarship that would only cover about a fourth of a semester’s tuition to a small college in Kentucky when I was seventeen.  I suppose all though I may not have known then what I wanted to do for the rest of my life; I at least knew that I liked playing tennis more than I would have liked homework, so I turned the offer down and attended a bigger university further from home to focus on my academics and building lifelong friendships.  I love people!   By the time I decided to switch my major again upon junior year, I finally graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology knowing full well I had no desire to become the next Freud or Jung.  I had already decided that if I was going to be paying back school loans into my thirties (as I just happen to be now), I wanted to at least know that I enjoyed all the classes I sat through for four years.  Psychology was a degree that would be useful in understanding and relating to the lives of everyone around me in whatever workplace I landed, and that has proven true over the years.  It also happens to be one of the best foundational degrees for a career in tennis and dealing with the ups and downs of self employment.

Pick up in 2009: I was five years into my career as a Secretary/Office Manager with the Board of Education and four years into being the Head Tennis Coach for a high school team in Kentucky.  I began recognizing God’s call and that he had given me a passion for coaching & teaching my favorite sport of the past.  I was learning so much about tennis and wondering if God had brought it back into my life for a reason after I had chosen to give it up, not knowing I could ever pursue it as a valid career option.  I was waking up to go through the motions at my so-called, bill-paying career, so I could get to the best part of my day –on the tennis court with my students.  I didn’t have enough time to do all that I wanted to do as a coach, and I was working twelve hour days with no time for God and no time for myself.  I had dabbled in direct sales in addition to my jobs for extra income so that I could move out of my parents house, but I was too scared to trust that I could do it for a living.   I was faced with some choices:  Do I spend the rest of my life in a job I hate just because it has everything my parents want for me (stability)?  Or…do I look into the possibility of quitting everything I know to chase after a career path that I never thought possible, knowing that it could full well risk my financial future for a time?  Again the thought of “do I really trust God to provide if I cannot provide for myself?” was a common theme.

So, I prayed. A lot.  I started really seeking and asking God to help me figure it all out.  I consulted good Christian friends, and I chased my first lion.  I left my comfort zone of family (my crutch), quit my stable, benefit friendly, job to pursue my passion in tennis by way of more education in Texas–fourteen hours from anyone I knew with only the good Lord to guide my steps.  I learned a lot and met a lot of great people.  The program in Texas would allow me to just take the tennis classes I needed, play a lot, coach a lot and trust God in ways I never imagined (if interested, you can read some of my earlier blogs with regard to those first journey’s into the unknown).

And so here I am in present day.  Tennis has taken me many places over the last several years; Kentucky, Florida, Texas, Connecticut and now, Ohio.  I passed up on some job offers that were “too good to be true” when I first arrived upon discovering just that, and I found that what I needed was to get back into the investment of the lives of those I’d been neglecting.  I’m in business for myself full-time doing something I enjoy that helps give me the time I want to invest in my relationship with Christ, my passion for tennis and many other callings.   I’ve made a lot of sacrifices financially and socially; some knowingly and some that I am still hurting and trying to recover from today.  The road ahead is not going to be easy, and there will constantly be people who say “no” to the path that I am on because they don’t understand, but I am promising God that I will take what he’s given me and make it grow without letting fear, or others’ judgments, interfere.

“There is nothing easy about taking risks.  Even seemingly small risks can be as scary as chasing a lion…But lion chasers have the courage to overcome inaction inertia.  Their fear of missing out is greater than their fear of messing up.”  Mark Batterson

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40: 29-31