James 2: 17?faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

It has been my experience in coaching people to finding their life's purpose, generally, actually FINDING their purpose is a simple process. But, helping them to actually taking that first step into doing something about LIVING their purpose has been challenging.

Let me tell you a story about Susan.

After working with Susan for a few days, it was evident by her talents, passions and abilities that she was meant to write. She was born to write. She loved it. She told me that every since she was about 6 years old, she kept notebooks in which she wrote stories and poems. She never really shared her writing with anyone. She actually kept them private. Her family had never even read her writing. They knew she loved to write and knew that she had notebooks that she carried around with her all the time and was always scribbling something down. But they never showed any interest or ever even asked her to read any of her stories. So, she has spent most of her life, hiding her talents under a bushel.

After a lot of pleading and persuasion, I finally convinced her to share some of her work with me. She finally agreed and I was blown away. Her work was touching, moving and inspiring. She was a true writer, yet, no one other than herself and now, me, was even aware of her talents.

I was dumbfounded. Why are you hiding your talent? Why haven't you put this information into booklet form and shared your talents with the world--or at least with your immediate family?

Susan's answer to me was that she has only planned to put it into book form. She had been inspired, on numerous occasions to share her writing with others, but she never got around to doing it. Her days are filled with work, coming home and taking care of her husband and children, and pets and on the weekend she has to clean the house, the yard, run children from one event to the other-she simply have never found the time to do so. She wants to and agrees with me that she is extremely talented, and one day she is going to take me up on my suggestion.

I gave her a complete outline of suggestions on what to do. I suggested that she find magazines she wishes to write for and find their Article Submission requirements and submit some of her articles. I suggested that she contact ezine producers and submit her articles to them and even though she will probably not get paid for her articles, it is good publicity and can help to get her writing out there. I also suggested that she start her own ezine where she can write what she likes and get people to subscribe who will enjoy her articles. Another suggestion was that she submit her articles to the millions of web sites that simply host articles and I gave her a few she could start with.

About a month after speaking with Susan, I contacted her like I do with most people that I deal with in any way-just to see how things are happening in their life. I was convinced that when I contacted Susan she would have exciting news about the many places her articles were being published and perhaps she had taken the step to even writing her own book.

But what I discovered when I contacted Susan was that she hadn't done any of the things I had suggested. She thought about it on numerous occasions and had planned to spend sometime gathering the information. She knows that she should do something but she simply hasn't done anything yet. But she will. She will get to it this weekend because she has a lot of time on Saturday.

I didn't say anything to Susan except quote James 2: Faith, by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.

Susan had the faith that her writing was wonderful. She believed that she had something to offer the world. She was convinced that she could serve others by giving them joy by sharing her gift of writing.

But Susan had done what so many of us have done. We know our talents. We know the gifts that God has given to us. We can feel it.

BUT WE DON'T TAKE ACTION!

Why don't we take action?

This is a very personable question.

Why aren't YOU taking action?

Why are you hiding your talents under a bushel?

Why aren't you using the abilities that God has blessed you with to serve his people?

What excuses are you telling yourself to justify your lack of action?

Is it that you don't have the time?

Perhaps it's that you need to study more before you take action?

Maybe you want to wait until the time is right.

That's the same as saying, "We are waiting until the time is right to start our family."

The time is NEVER right. The time is RIGHT NOW!

ACTION POINT: TODAY, not tomorrow, not next month, not next Monday, not after the holidays, not on January 1 - TODAY make the decision to TAKE ACTION. Do SOMETHING. ANYTHING. It doesn't matter because SOME action is better than NO action.

If you know that your spirit is calling you to do something, stop making excuses and start taking action. When you make excuses, you hurt yourself and the others that are waiting for you to bless them.

If you are a writer and your spirit is telling you to contact a certain magazine and submit your article-THEN DO IT.

If your spirit is leading you to speak and teach others about discovering their gifts and talents, THEN SPEAK. It doesn't matter where, and, it doesn't matter if you get paid for it or not- JUST SPEAK.

If your talent is to start a business and you haven't started on your business plan but your spirit has been gearing you towards writing it, yet you haven't started, START.

I don't care WHAT you do-JUST DO IT! (As Nike would say.)

Dawn Fields is a Motivational Speaker, Life Coach and Author. She teaches how to discover your life's purpose and incorporate it into a career. Visit her web site at http://www.dawnfields.com and be sure to sign up for Your Life's Purpose newsletter by sending a blank email to dawn@dawnfields.com with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Tune in to Your Life's Purpose Interactive Internet Radio Show each Thursday at 9 p.m. EST at http://www.dawnfields.com/radioshow.htm