Ifeoma Chuks-Adizue 
Many high-achieving women treat their God-given assignment like an afterthought – squeezed in after work and family time or when there’s “extra time.”
But for how long will we keep squeezing our true assignment into the margins of our life, treating the very reason God put us on earth like a side hustle?
I know this struggle well. In 2021, I stepped into my first C-Suite role and amidst all I needed to learn and deliver, I soft-pedalled on my work at Uncommon Woman Movement (UWM), where I helped Career Women identify and birth the MORE in them in a way that impacts lives, fulfills them and makes God proud.
By the end of that year, thankfully, the results at work were outstanding – actually the best ever in my entire career at that time…but deep down, I felt strangely empty. So, I re-started the Uncommon Woman Community and a small-group coaching programme for about 10 women. That was all I could manage with my workload… and I convinced myself that surely, God understood.
But He clearly did not!
During a work trip to Cameroun, He confronted me as I watched the video of Bishop T.D. Jakes passing the Woman Thou Art Loosed mantle to his daughter, Sarah Jakes Roberts. In that moment, He showed me what UWM could become and told me plainly that I was sitting on its destiny because I was treating it like a hobby, an afterthought… something I touched only when I found the time. I wept.
I told Him I was happy to resign to focus on it and once again He reminded me that the women I was called to needed to see me working and birthing my MORE. Instead, He instructed me to build a team to support the work, and to focus on one flagship transformational product rather than scattering myself across many offerings. That became our EMERGE Accelerator which at the time had reached about 20 women. Today, that same programme has graduated more than 500 women.
Yes, your career is important as it places you in rooms, gives you resources and influence but it cannot and should never take the place of your God-given assignment…which is the main deal – not a hobby or something you fit in when convenient.
Here are 3 things to Do Stop Treating Purpose Like a Side Hustle
1. Build a Self-Sustaining Model
If you keep trying to fund your purpose work aka your MORE from your pocket, it will shrink to what you can afford and never grow beyond what you can spare! God’s vision for it is far bigger than your budget. That’s why every purpose project must have a financial engine behind it.
For some, this might mean charging appropriately for services or products. For others, it may mean building a framework for fundraising and partnerships. Whatever the case, your MORE must be designed to sustain itself, otherwise you will only push it forward when “extra” money is available, truncating its growth.
2. Remember the Lives Tied To It
Your obedience is not just about you. There are destinies connected to your assignment – people waiting for the solution, encouragement or transformation God has placed in you. If you delay or keep treating it casually, God will not allow those lives to suffer. He will raise someone else to do what you refused to do. What a sobering truth, right?
Indeed, Heaven’s work will continue but you’ll lose your part in it. Don’t let inconsistency rob you of your divine place in God’s plan.
3. Focus on a Single Flagship Offering
Many of us scatter our energy across multiple “small-small” projects, trying to do everything at once. But true impact comes from focusing deeply on one thing – the flagship assignment that carries the full weight of transformation you are meant to bring to the world.
When you identify that one thing for now and pour your attention into it, God multiplies the results. For me, narrowing down to EMERGE changed everything. Instead of being spread thin across ten small efforts, one focused program grew twentyfold in impact. Purpose thrives on focus.
BONUS: Build Systems Not Just Teams
Teams are important but people come and go. Systems remain. If your purpose work is only built around individuals, it will rise and fall with them. However, when you establish structures and systems…replicable frameworks and repeatable processes, the work can outlive you and scale beyond your personal capacity.
Systems also make room for growth. They allow fresh instructions from God to fit into an existing framework that can carry them forward. Without them, you will always be capped by what you can personally manage.
I learnt the hard way that purpose doesn’t thrive on leftovers. It is not a side note but rather, heaven’s headline for your life and it needs your full weight.
You don’t have to repeat my mistakes or wait for hard lessons to teach you the value of obedience.
This is why I write to you every week, to remind you that while your job matters, your assignment is bigger. You are made for MORE and can have it ALL, as long as that ALL is what God had in mind when He created you.
Until next week, when I’ll be back with more insights on merging calling and career, keep saying YES to your MORE.
And if you’re ready to journey deeper, you should watch my free webinar, “The 5 Mistakes Even Brilliant Women Make When Building Purpose-Driven Projects”, where I’ll show you how to avoid these traps and start building your legacy with clarity and structure.
Ifeoma Chuks-Adizue, fondly known as Iphie, is a seasoned professional with a rare mix of experience in brand management, sales, media and over 20 years’ experience building global brands across Africa. Iphie is the Managing Director Africa at Global Citizen – an international advocacy organisation focused on ending extreme poverty now. She is the author of two books – The Uncommon Woman and Made for More, and is Founding President of the Uncommon Woman Movement.