By S.D.
Wilson
“When your passion and purpose is greater than your fears and excuses, you will find a way.” –Unknown
Ever have
something that you really wanted to do? May be it was a martial art and
you were willing to be an awkward novice until you could one day become a
graceful master. Perchance it was a musical instrument where you were
prepared to play some sour notes on the way to being able produce a tune that moved
people’s souls. Whatever it was is not important. The point is that
you were willing to be imperfect or even poor at doing something knowing that
you would someday become better at it. You followed your passion and did
not stop the first time that you stumbled or struggled to make progress.
Your passion and purpose were greater than your fears and excuses.
Why then do
we forget this in so many of our important daily endeavours? For example,
we start exercising and eating better to lose weight. We are gaining
control over ourselves and our behaviours with food and activity. We want
fitness and health. Then something happens and we are not progressing
like we expected. We are angry at our bodies and ourselves. We
start looking for excuses to quit. How about when start a new
business or attempt a new enterprise in our lobs or careers? We seem to
follow this same pattern and recipe for disappointment.
Many of us
seem to suffer attention deficit syndrome when it comes to patiently working
towards our goals. I’ve seen it time and time again in myself and in
others. We lose our passion, or worse, we start off dispassionately. We
start something because it is logical and because it seems to be the correct
thing to do. We think that this will be reason enough to keep doing
it. We leave our hearts at the door and expect the mind and body to do
all the work. We are then perplexed when our emotions rise up in protest
at being forced into a corner.
You may not
need passion to succeed at keeping your teeth clean but I doubt that you will
encounter many disappointments or setbacks on the way to grabbing your
toothbrush. The bigger goals in life like health, lifestyle, career,
family and such are fraught with discouraging situations and obstacles. We
need our passions to work with us when life throws us curve balls. I
encourage the creation of good habits and routines to minimize our efforts and
to lessen our reliance on motivation. However, when our fears come
calling there is only one weapon that can help us overcome them and that is our
purpose and our zeal.
With any
significant goals there come equally significant fears. There are great
fears of failure, loss, the unknown and change. These fears must be balanced
and the opposite of fear is not bravery. It’s love or passion or
zeal. Fear and anxiety always drive us away from something. Love
and passion always draw us towards something. Passion and purpose move us
to find ways to overcome our fears and obstacles. It is up to each of us
to find our own purpose and drive; otherwise our fears will inevitably sabotage
our goals.
So you have
set some lofty goals and now the rubber has hit the road. You have taken
action to make your desires into reality. If this is truly your passion
then you have counted the cost and you have already anticipated that difficulty
and fear will stand in your way. Your resolve will be unbending.
Though the path may not be as straight and easy going as you’d like nonetheless
you will continue until you have mastered yourself and your objective! If
your heart is not attuned to this quest then the eventual troubles will
inevitably derail you. A person divided within themself cannot stand when
opposition occurs; this is a basic principle of combat. Both your mind and
heart need to align for success.
Find your
passion! Find a reason to get out of bed every day beyond the mere need
for survival. You were created to thrive, not to simply survive!
Find the one real thing that makes you feel alive. Dig deep! Beware,
this may take some time and effort, trial and error. You may think that
you have found an objective or drive only to find that it has waned or
changed. That is okay. Be patient and keep seeking! Do not be
discouraged. This is a prize worth finding! Success can hinge on your
efforts.
After you
have discovered your true passion then everything else can be built upon it:
health, family, friends, fame and fortune. Why should I be fit?
Because your purpose requires it! Why should I be financially prosperous?
Because that serves your passion! You will know that you have found your
passion when a day spent serving it will feel successful no matter the cost and
effort and any day that passes without furthering your cause will feel empty no
matter how you otherwise benefitted. Once you know your passion and purpose
then you will find a way past all your fears and excuses and that way will lead
to success!
©2017 S.D.
Wilson
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