"PAYCHECK OF THE HEART" A Work-from-Home Opportunity By Catherine Moran with Cathy Fairbairn
There are many intangible benefits that originate from the home-based business I’m in. These intangibles are what I call “paychecks of the heart.” I hope these musings bring hope and inspiration to you.
I get to start my day in my office at home with things around me that remind me of God: the Last Supper picture on the wall, a picture of Our Lady with the rosary in her hands. I can pray here, any time I want. I could never have that before, when I was working outside the home. That’s a gift from God. No one can say to me, “You can’t have those pictures in here.” I remember asking God during Adoration one time if I could just work in an atmosphere that could be calm and peaceful. Well, God answered those prayers! I love the peace and serenity of working in my office from home. And If I want to stop for 10 minutes to pray, I can. And I call that a “paycheck of the heart.”
I can throw in a load of laundry while I’m working. I can start a pot of stew and have it cooking slowly while I’m working. And in between phone calls and webinars I can go in and give it a stir. I can fold laundry while I’m listening to a conference call on my speaker phone. And when my family’s ready to eat, dinner is ready!
My business is portable. It’s great. The flexibility is wonderful. I just take my cell phone with me, and I can take important calls while I’m out.
I can set my own schedule around my family’s needs. I have the flexibility to change my appointments if, say, my sister needs me to take her to the doctor, or my friend needs help moving. And that’s very wonderful.
To learn our business, it takes a little time; you have to give yourself time to learn it. Some people learn quickly, others more slowly. But that’s OK because there is training available. That’s another paycheck of the heart. The training we get online, by phone, and in person is so helpful! The company puts together special events and two conferences per year. At these events, we get to meet like-minded people; people who have a heart for others; people who want to help other people because they have been blessed.
I think a lot of us fall in love with this work-from-home business because it feels so good to help another person. I mean, it feels good to get a paycheck—and everybody who works wants to get a paycheck--but it’s just a paycheck. I heard someone one time say that he made millions of dollars, but he felt empty. I remember thinking, “What? Gee, he makes all that money and he still feels empty?” He was just business, business, all business, and he got his paycheck, except it wasn’t a paycheck of the heart.
The Kalogris Foundation is a paycheck of the heart. It’s the heart of our company. Every single time that I introduce these products or this business to a person and bring hope to them, I also bring hope to a hungry, malnourished man, woman, or child in a third-world country, or even in our own country. That’s a bonus. That’s a double paycheck of the heart to me.
I think the world would be a better place if people had that focus to help others, not just the focus on money alone.
The paycheck of the heart is people helping people.
Our company is based on that.
I remember I was going through some health issues when I was introduced to “HopeInA Can.com” by Mary Peters, R.N.. She brought hope to me at a time when I was crying and praying for hope. Since then, I’ve learned how to pass that hope on; that’s a paycheck of the heart.
By sharing hope with other people, I feel the rewards that come back from sharing a gift, passing the blessing on to other people. I share hope by sharing stories of recovery with people. Some may be similar stories of an illness overcome or a financial crisis averted. It could be both.
I connect people. I think, I pray, then I connect. This is a business of connecting people to people so that the blessing gets passed to the other person.
It’s not just a “me-thing.” I can’t do this alone. I love that.
I help people with their health and their finances. For example, one couple’s child had special needs problems, and was experiencing seizures. He was the youngest of eleven children. I had previously shared this hope with a friend of my daughter who in turn passed it along to the boy’s mother. If I hadn’t shared, that little six-year-old boy may still be having seizures today. As it is, he has been seizure-free for the past two years, and can now speak in full sentences, whereas before he only knew 3 words. That’s a paycheck of the heart that you can’t put a price on!
There are a lot of people locked up in fear, which is the opposite of hope. Maybe they’ve just been diagnosed with leukemia. If you can say a kind word to that person, that’s a good thing. But if you can take it a step further and connect that person to another individual who had positive results with leukemia, someone who has been dealing with the same experiences, you can bring hope and healing to that person. These are rewards a mere paycheck will not give you.
I think the world would be a better place if people had that focus, not just the money focus alone.
Maybe a person is afraid because he is about to lose his job. My prayer partner in Adoration was laid off after many years at the same job, and was devastated. He had a heart attack. That lay-off affected his health in a very critical way. Had I kept my mouth closed and thought, “That’s just none of my business,” maybe that person wouldn’t have pulled through that crisis. But he did. And not only that, he no longer needs some of his diabetic medications, has developed a new collateral pathway, and in time regained his health. Can you think of a more meaningful paycheck?
I’ve helped someone who was very overworked and overcommitted; she couldn’t say “no” to all the volunteer work that needed to be done. I helped her. She was afraid of the side effects of all the medications doctors were prescribing for her. In time, the situation turned around for her. That’s a wonderful thing.
I helped my friend who was diagnosed for the second time with breast cancer. She looked like death itself. Her skin was so yellow. The cancer and the chemotherapy were killing her. She was also diagnosed with osteoporosis in her back. So I just let her hear stories of other people who had recovered and she decided to try it, and took [the supplements] to her doctor, who advised there was nothing in the products that would hurt her. She took the products and after she retired from her job of 42 years, and she decided to come into the business with me. Now she’s able to live life in a new and healthy way. She looks great! She’s lost weight, her bone density has improved, she’s no longer taking medication for osteoporosis because she’s getting enough calcium, her back feels better, and she shares this hope now with others, too. Seeing her happy, healthy, traveling, doing things, enjoying her retirement, doing the business part-time; that’s a paycheck of the heart for me! I had a sense that God wanted me to share this with her. If I hadn’t shared this with her, I have a feeling that she might not be here today. She inspires me to keep sharing with others.
My sister was on thyroid medicine, and the side effects were really starting to kick in. She called me to come and pick her up because her heart was racing. She was feeling sick and thought she was having a heart attack. She got through that crisis. Today, my sister is weaning off her synthetic thyroid meds and she looks great; she’s got great energy, she feels so much better, and that’s a paycheck of the heart. And that’s close to my heart because it’s my sister.
Overcoming one’s own fears. That’s a paycheck of the heart.
My fears included thinking, “I’m not a college graduate, how can I do this [work]?”
I was afraid of using the computer. I didn’t know about computers, I hadn’t really worked with computers before.
In this company, you don’t have to be a wizard with the computer. I came out of my comfort zone and trusted that God had a plan. He had something for me to do. There was something here that God wanted me to get, but also to give back. The awareness of His love for me, that He wants to use me to help others, is priceless.
God helped me to see the value of me, as well as the gifts and the talents He gave me, and that I could use them--a talent to reach out to people and talk with them, and share my heart.
To see the results of others coming out of their comfort zones and sharing this with other people, that’s a paycheck of the heart.
Paychecks of the heart are also people with whom I’ve shared hope sharing it with others. I think to myself that if I hadn’t opened my mouth, they wouldn’t have opened their mouths, and that’s what God wants us to do, love one another the way He loves us.
I think that God revealed the business to us, to give us an opportunity to work for Him in this crazy world in which we live, so that we can love and help one another. That’s a paycheck of the heart.
Appreciating what we’ve been given is a paycheck of the heart.
A paycheck of the heart gives you purpose in life. That’s really what I see. Your family is your purpose, your children are your purpose, absolutely; however, we need to feed those children, we need to put them through school and provide for them and for ourselves so many important things in life. And what a wonderful way to be able to do that, by helping other people, so that we can help the people we love and who are near and dear to our hearts. How about you? Would you consider earning a paycheck of the heart?