The Devil Tricked Me Again. You Won’t Believe This!
By: Elizabeth Louis
“I Can’t Believe It Took Me Experiencing This To Realize This Fatal Mistake!”
I’m too embarrassed to admit it, but I am. Why? Because we are supposed to share our failures and sins with one another. Plus, when I was a teenage girl, one of my mentors told me that wisdom is learning from other people’s mistakes.
Let me help you grow your wisdom today. It’s a good one.
*Sigh* As my head falls low in disappointment.
In the spirit of transparency, I hate being vulnerable. Sharing my inner thoughts and secrets is quite hard for me because I lacked psychological safety as a kid. But here goes nothing. Hey, do me a favor, please. If this message resonates at all, let me know!
Okay, I know. You’re most likely wondering what on earth did I do?
Well, I didn’t bet on myself!
Worse, I didn’t even know I wasn’t betting on myself. For two months, I stopped excellent momentum and healthy work habits because the opportunity to interview for my dream job fell in my lap. Seriously, I didn’t apply for it.
Ultimately, I put my company on hold because a lustful career tempted my eyes. I’ve never been tempted by lust in the avenue of a job before, have you?
Out of nowhere, a HUGE investment and wealth firm was asking me to apply for one of their executive leadership positions. Immediately, I thought to myself, “This must be from God.” I mean, why wouldn’t it be? My biggest dream is to have an empire that leaves a positive and unconditional love-like impact on this world that points people to Jesus. So, I thought, here’s an opportunity to cut corners and quickly advance my dreams.
Now, of course, I didn’t realize that was the core belief until about a week ago! The automatic thoughts were much more sophisticated, lust filled, encouraging, and cleverly fooling than the intermediate beliefs that aligned with more hesitancy and the “something’s not right” feeling, but those automatic thoughts can be so quick sometimes that you quickly stuff that feeling down so deep you gaslight yourself.
“I mean, the job comes with a VERY handsome salary and bonus structure. Plus, I would work with the company’s top high-performers and accomplish many things off my bucket list, like traveling and growth. Who cares if I must close my biggest dream for this opportunity. I’ll do the job for 3 years and go back to my business,” I would tell myself, even though I hated the idea of shutting my business down.
At first, I quickly disliked the fact that my business would have to be dissolved if I took this job, but peer pressure and other people’s hopes and dreams got the best of me. People kept telling me I’d be stupid not to take it. Well, that’s a big insecurity of mine — people thinking I’m stupid. BAM, that was the bait Satan used to hook me.
Ugh, has that ever happened to you?
So much of what this job offered appeased my career appetite. But as I reflect, it was more of a perspective that was saturated with lust and greed. Honestly, I shake my head at myself here, and I can’t believe I got tricked by the devil again. But now I’m a bit more clever to his antics.
Have you ever made yourself believe you wanted something because of all the appeasing things that came with it? Yet, deep down, you didn’t have the peace you were convincing yourself you had.
Maybe that partner who abuses you isn’t so bad when they fill that hole of loneliness in your heart. Or possibly their gifts cause you to turn a blind eye to it. Or maybe that job pays too good of a salary to quit, even though your manager is abusing you, or you are considering suicide because you hate your job.
I believe there is a lesson or a positive in everything we experience. Sometimes you must pull out the microscope to see it, but that is a win because it challenges you to think mindfully and consider alternative perspectives, which is growth.
If you don’t know how to leverage mindful thinking, enroll in MINDSET MASTERY today!
When I find myself messing up in life, which I do a lot, I do my best to resist kicking myself and focus on finding solutions and reflecting on the lessons or positives. I’m not always great at this, but each opportunity is another opportunity to shorten the participation of self-hatred and practice the skill of unconditional love towards yourself. I focus on shaving at least a minute off each time.
In short, the lessons I learned from this opportunity were:
- I still secretly want a shortcut to worldly success, even though I know they don’t exist. Otherwise, I’d have trusted my gut more.
- I learned I am greedy. Yep, that one hurts to admit. I don’t want to be greedy. I learned a bit more about the beast of greed and how it lurks in deep and dark parts of our core beliefs and personality traits. Stay tuned for those!
- I don’t care about doing life the “worldly” way, and when I start feeling “stressed,” I turn around and return to where I last felt God’s peace.
- I can trust God with my life, career, finances, and future more than I can a paycheck or anything the world says you can trust
- I didn’t bet on myself. Instead, I gambled against myself.
Some days I wish God would just speak through my dog. Hey God, I volunteer him as tribute!
Faith is not for the weak of hearted, but remember, even when you fall off God’s path for your life, as long as you want the Lord’s plans more than your own plans, He will put you on the right track again.
Enroll in Mindset Mastery today if you’re ready to become a tough-minded optimist.
– In the meantime, remember it’s up to you to create a great day!
Until next time,
Liz
