Many people want to live out their dreams in life and pursue the career that they love but how many people are actually doing it? Do you want to be one of the few people who actually lives a dream life and do the work they love? These lessons from Joseph’s life will get you on track to pursuing your dreams.

“And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority." Genesis 39: 3-4

There are a few things that Joseph did that if you will do, success is guaranteed to hunt you down and fill your life. If you do these three things persistently for your dream, you will achieve it.

1. Work with what you’ve got. Joseph was sold into slavery by his blood brothers. He was thrown into a pit and his brothers wanted to kill him, but one brother spoke up and convinced the others to just sell him into slavery instead of killing him. Tough crowd, huh? You can’t control what people throw at you, but you can control what you do with what they throw at you. Most people continue to accept the hatred, ridicule, scorns, and cruel words that people have filled their hearts with. These things fester in their spirit and toxicate their lives more and more each day. But you can choose to take those things and use them to build your dream.

Take the lemons thrown at you and make lemonade. Take the tomatoes thrown at the stage of your dream and make a V8! Joseph acted like he wasn’t a slave or s, he didn’t get bitter, he just took the job he was given as a slave and chose to be the best slave out there. If you’re poor, use what you have; if you’re not too smart, use your common sense; if you don’t have a face for TV get on the radio!

2. Work with excellence. Most employees don’t do half the job that they could do, largely because most people aren’t fulfilled in their work to begin with. But we’re pursuing dreams right? If you want to achieve your dream and be significant in life then everything that you do must be done with excellence. Joyce Meyer often tells of how God told her to put grocery carts where they’re supposed to go at the grocery and pick up dropped clothes and hang them back up when she sees them on the floor in stores. That’s the kind of people we need to be. It shouldn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, or whether you like it or not, if you do your work with excellence, God will bless you and people will see your good deeds.

Joseph’s work was so blessed because he worked hard to do his very best job everyday. Don’t plan to be the CEO of the company you work for if you get to work late, leave early, waste time on the clock talking on the phone, running your e-business, or visiting with your co-workers. Your boss can tell an eagle in the midst of a bunch of chickens. But if you’re acting like a chicken too, why would you get selected for a promotion? Work with excellence.

3. Work toward your dream. You need to think about your dream and play it out in your head everyday to nurture it and keep it alive. The only way that you can work with excellence in a position that you don’t necessarily want to be in is if you learn to appreciate the little that you have, recount your vision in your heart, and nurture your dream on a daily basis. Before my wife and I got into business and were working jobs to pay the bills we did these things all the time. We lived in Barnes and Noble, reading business books and magazines about how other people made it and started with nothing. We talking together about what we wanted to do, how we wanted to do it, and how great things would be every single day. We didn’t have much but we were satisfied with what we had and made the very best of it.

You should never settle in life for second best. You need to keep your whole dream alive in life, don’t settle for the scraps. Just keep on moving until you’re living out the dreams of your heart.

An anonymous pastor wrote the following: In the first 5 years of my ministry, I had a sign on my desk that read, “Win the World for Christ!" In my second 5 years of ministry, I put up a new sign that read, “Win 1 or 2 for Christ!" Since that time I have this sign on my desk: “Try Not to Lose Too Many!"

A lot of people end up not living their dreams in life because of the pain of opposition. That’s why I’m writing to you as just another voice in your head saying, “You can do it!" T.D. Jakes and Joyce Meyer both said at two different times, the main key to success that they’ve applied and recommend to others’ is found in one word; perseverance. So don’t you ever give up!