Doing What Your Heart Desires – Every Day  
by Donna Watkins

Are you thinking about beginning a home business to get away from the rat race in the corporate world --- or to provide for your own job security?

What's the first question that comes to mind?

"What kind of business would I do at home?"

Our pastor preached a message over a year ago entitled, "What is Your
Destiny?"

This message has had me thinking many times on its list of questions to
ponder when wanting to find your 'walk' through life.  I believe our
pastor's message would help people to find what kind of home-business they
would like to do. What they would want to get out of bed for in the morning
even when they weren't punching a time clock.

So, here are the questions that have helped others determine what they want
to do in their life:

1 - What is the deepest desire of my heart?

2 - What stirs my passions?

3 - What flows naturally out of me?

4 - Where do I bring forth fruit or produce good results?

5 - What do other mature people see in me?

6 - What thoughts, visions, and dreams are impossible to put out of my mind?

7 - To what can I give 100% of myself for my whole life?

8 - What do people want to gather around me and help me to do?

If you will sit down and honestly consider these questions with somebody
that knows you well, you'll come up with some surprising answers.  You can
find a purpose in life that will allow you to provide an income for yourself
and your family while you are doing what your heart desires - EVERY DAY!

Spend a few days with this "assignment" and then proceed to the following
information:

If you have determined what touches the very soul of your being and have
chosen to build an income around that driving desire, you're already headed
for absolute success.  Within us is a need to share what we have been given
from life.  It may seem impossible to make a living doing it, but let your
creative brain flow and fan that flame of desire, and you will see it come
to pass.

When we began a web site, we already had a business.  Our business evolved
years ago because we were sharing what had been given to us....hope for
seemingly hopeless health problems.  When all our hopes and prayers for an
answer to our own health problems seemed to end in despair with the doctors'
saying, "You'll just have to learn to live with this," my husband said,
"There is an answer somewhere, for we serve a God of hope."  We 'stumbled
upon' an herb book and decided to try some things.  When they began working,
others began asking what we were doing, and if there was something for their
health problem.  We just kept sharing everything we learned and we ended up
with an herb business in our home.  When it became overwhelming, my husband
left the corporate world in 1987 and joined me.

When your desire and focus is to help others, it's a natural win-win
situation.  It's the law of Sowing & Reaping.

We moved to the woods over 9 years ago.  I seemed to begin losing my
'checklist' approach to life (although I'm still VERY task-oriented) when we
moved to the woods, but still had a 40 minute drive to our shop.  About a
year ago, I decided I was tired of making the drive on my days down there
and began dreaming of being able to stay at home 7 days a week.  I love
working with the windows open, the birds singing in my ear, and the trees
swaying in the breeze.  I love the woods and wildlife around us and that
desire to stay home led to an internet adventure.  "If you build it, they
will come."  Build that desire you have until it becomes a reality!  Herbal
tea and lunch breaks are now enjoyed on the porch alone or with my devoted
husband. Those small visits with Nature and my Lord provides an 'office
environment' where I can work harder and longer without stress, and play
harder at any hour of the day or week that I choose to schedule.  My sweet
husband, Randal, is always telling me he wants me to do what I want to do,
and everything else will take care of itself.  When you're doing what you
love to do, you are so fulfilled that all the routine stuff (like dishes,
and cooking, and cleaning), just seem to get done more quickly and easily.
They are no longer considered another chore.  So much of life becomes all
you want it to be.

We had no internet experience when we began.  Although Randal had some
computer knowledge, the internet was a new playing field.  He used the free
information available to Webmasters and Web Designers and learned as he
built the web site.  There are some excellent sites out there and we were so
absorbed in Cyberspeed, that we didn't track the ones we used.  Do a search
on "Free Internet Training" and see what you get.  There's a lot out there
to teach you on how to begin and how to build it.

We made a decision that we weren't going to pay for anything when there was
a free option.  That desire has allowed us to build the web site with no
other costs but the $40 monthly fee to be there and the cost of an
additional phone line. That avoids debt on a new venture, which can get you
real discouraged fast!

We became information seekers.  The best sources of info I found were in
newsletters and news groups and at a site called eTour.  When you sign up,
you check your areas of interest, so when you enter each time they bring up
sites that relate to your interests.  It was amazing how often it was just
what we'd been needing.

Subscribe to newsletters relating to your area of interest/business.  While
you aren't getting traffic/sales, you can gather a lot of info you'll need
to continue building the site.  Cut and paste the parts of the newsletters
you want to keep.  Delete the rest.  Keep your info organized or you'll
never find anything you need.

Spend time in news groups of your interest/business.  You will find more
URLs than you'll be able to research!  Use a signature at the bottom of
EVERY e-mail you ever send, and include in it a personal line and your web
address (you can see ours below).

Although I don't like the focus of the title, "Making Money in Cyberspace,"
by Paul and Sarah Edwards is an excellent book for a step-by-step how to do
it.  We are not opposed to making money....every where we go people ask for
it, so we like to have a good supply on hand.  However, that will come when
we do what we're truly created to do in this world...help our fellow man.
My husband describes this book as necessary.  He looked around quite a while
before deciding which one to buy, since he'd decided he wanted something in
print to sit down with when he wasn't on the computer.

You'll need to provide free information at your site on your topic of
interest.   87.8% of the people on the internet are looking for information.
Yes, there may be a thousand other places already providing it, but there
will be those who are led right to you instead of the others.  We offer a
FREE newsletter, online classes, how to put together an Herbal Medicine
Chest,  and plenty of health information with a Search Engine to find it.
We promoted our site through free banner exchanges, postings on bulletin
boards, answering questions in news groups directly to the person so you
don't look like you're spamming the newsgroups, exchanging articles with
others, and working with the search engines . It seemed we were working
around the clock, but loving every minute of it.  We began making friends
and they began spreading word of our site for us.

We stand in awe of what has evolved in nine months.  We are reaping sales to
cover the initial investment of the computer and the monthly expenses.  When
our lease came up for renewal at the retail shop last month, we decided to
go for the dream.  We no longer have the income from the store, but we've
discovered that our expenses have been cut drastically with no expense of
the commute and the great tax deductions for an in-home business.  We are
now free to travel and teach while handling the internet business as we go.
We have an iMac, so we can just grab the handle and go!  We closed the shop
in August and took a trip in September and have one scheduled for October
and November.  Do we work more than 40 hours a week?  Yeah, but our work is
now our hobby too.  We do take time to do fun stuff whenever we want to do
it ( we don't have to wait for Sunday).

Maybe you're still at the stage of unbelief.  You can't imagine leaving the
'security' of your current job.  Maybe you don't think you are disciplined
enough to make a living at home.  As many millions have found out in the
last decade, there is no such thing as "job security."  Your best job
security is your own desire and talents.  The lack of discipline is
something that my hubby thought would be a problem, until he realized that
you don't need to be disciplined to do something you love to do.  You wake
up wanting to get started.

Let me encourage you to pursue your dream.  Share your dreams with your
spouse and/or family and make them happen!  We love to tell people that we
have a "20 second commute, and we can wear pajamas to the office."

You can make it happen!

Blessings to You!
Donna
Natural Health Solutions for You, http://www.TheHerbsPlace.com
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