It’s not easy to pursue your talents and gifts when you live in a world that chases wealth and status. Needing a full-time job for financial security can also pose a challenge when you’re trying to do what you’re most passionate about. You can’t pay rent with an empty wallet, after all. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up on exploring your God-given talents. Here are five ways you can still pursue your passions, even if you have a full-time desk job.

1. Set Aside Time

Try dedicating a portion of your time to your passions. Set aside a full day on every weekend. Pray, work and plan. You’d be amazed at what you could accomplish in a single day doing what you love. Do you wish you could be a full-time writer or painter? Make time for it regularly as though you signed up for a weekly class. As long as you’re doing it, it doesn’t matter what comes about.

2. Pray For Strength

Pray for God to strengthen you. It can get very exhausting having a full-time job while also trying to pursue your passions on the side. Don’t burn yourself out. If you desire to work on Saturday and rest on Sunday, then do that. Rest is biblically vital, friends.

3. Stay Balanced

Don’t neglect time with family and friends. If you become a workaholic, it’s easy to forget what is truly important. Have a community that will uplift you and also inspire you. Try meetups within your social networks that involve your passions. Book clubs? Astronomy? Wood-carving groups? Don’t be afraid to step out and be inspired by new people.

4. Read Up On Your Passion

Take time to read. I know this may sound like it’s cutting in to your time of pursuing your passion for hand lettering or singing or pottery. But aside from delving into His Word, read about your craft. Read things that you would like to write like one day. Study a painter’s life and their techniques that you’d like to acquire. It will open your eyes to new things within your grasp that you could unleash in your own work. You don’t need to read a book a day – even one a month will benefit you.

5. Use Your Lunch

It’s certainly not what first comes to mind when it comes to time for your passions, but if you do work a full-time job, odds are you get an hour for lunch. That’s five hours a week you could be planning or reading up on your passions. Monday’s lunch? A book about someone who inspires you. Friday’s lunch? Planning your next painting in your sketchbook. Timing can either be your friend or your enemy, so make the most of it when you have the chance.

Disregard what people will think and fiercely pursue your passions if it is indeed your life’s desire. In five years, or even in twenty, you will be grateful that you did. God will always guide and direct your steps, especially in the talents he’s blessed you with.

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” Proverbs 13:4

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