People today are known for being increasingly self-centered, as a 2017 study in Psychological Science showed. We jokingly say, “It’s all about me,” but often, we live as though the world does revolve around us and our own lives.
This can be true in the business world as well, says business coach and author Linda Fields on The Linda Fields Show on the Charisma Podcast Network. “Sometimes a person can get so self-focused that their dream is all about me, me, me. Have you been there? Have you seen it?” she asks.
Your dream, Fields says, is about you—but it’s about so much more. “It goes way beyond you,” she says. “Once you get hold of what kind of plans God has for your life and enter into that and begin getting your vision together and your plans together, coming through hardships … you’re going to find out along the way how big your vision is and how it goes way beyond you.”
Fields draws insight and inspiration from the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. “Joseph provided food to the entire world at his time in history. But what would have happened had he shut down in prison, had he not been able to keep his heart alive before God? … I hate to think about it,” Fields says.
“There’s something that happened in Joseph’s heart that he was so sure of his purpose and destiny in God—that is what saw him through all of these other steps,” Fields adds. “So Joseph had a dream that sustained him in the pit. He had a dream that enabled him to escape the trap of temptation. He had a dream that helped him emerge victorious after a season of great pain. He had a dream that fired up his gifts even while in prison. He trained for victory in the classroom of the prison cell … to rule and reign in the second-highest position in all the land.”
God wants all those in the business world to be a part of transforming the earth through the marketplace, Fields says. He wants them to “know the vision over their lives and [go] after it with tenacity and unstoppable love and use of gifting, showing up at the table with something to contribute, knowing they need not wait for permission to be who God’s called them to be.”
For more insights from the story of Joseph, check out this podcast.
