"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
Harriet Tubman
"And David danced before the Lord with all his might…"
2 Samuel 6:14
In each person lies potential, but for most of us the potential remains dormant. Many times, we wonder why we don't succeed. We watch others succeed and don't know what they have they we lack. This can cause us to feel worthless and depressed. Our life looks like a useless mess, but we don't have to live this way.
The missing ingredient in our lives is passion. Passion is the driving force behind success. Without passion, we cannot reach goals and see our purpose fulfilled. When we have a dream, we must find the passion or zeal that pushes us to work hard to see our dream come true.
When we hear our dreams can come true, we may think of princesses and their fairy tales, but real dreams don't come true with magic. Dreams take work, and, when we have a dream that is important to us, we are willing to face all the hard work. Actually, passion is like a fire that starts out as a spark, but, as you fuel the fire, it begins to grow and grow. All of a sudden, your passion can become a raging fire.
"Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark."
Henri Frederic Amiel
There are some of us who have problems lighting our fires (passion). We go unmotivated and stressed, because we see our lives as a waste. As I thought about passion, I realized there were five steps we can take to fueling our passion. These steps are writing down our dreams, preparing ourselves for success, getting back up and dusting ourselves off, surrounding ourselves with a motivational support team, and practicing until we are experts.
"Another story by way of comparison He set forth before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which he took and sowed in his field.
Of all the seeds it is the smallest, but when it has grown it is the largest of the garden herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and find shelter in its branches.
Matthew 13:31-32
When something is important to us we write it down. It helps us to remember what we wanted or needed to do. This is why writing down our dreams is vital to success. Once our dream is written down, we need to write a purpose and goals that will help us create our desired lives. A dream is what we first envision, but a purpose is our blueprint and the goals are our road map.
A purpose is what we want to do and should only be a short statement. This will help us remain focused on our ultimate desire, so that we don't become confused and bogged down by wordiness. It should not only include the reason, but also the emotion that you feel about your purpose.
"My purpose is to use my passion and enthusiasm to inspire and encourage others to discover their purpose in life and pursue personal development."
Tina White's Purpose
The above statement is the purpose that I wrote for my own life. After I created this statement, I wrote it on a strip of paper. This strip of paper went into my planner, so I can look at every day. In addition, I found a place in my house to put up my purpose, so that I can read it as I get ready. For me, my dresser mirror is the best place, but this may not be best for everybody. Look around the house for a place that is the most visible. Maybe the refrigerator or the bedroom door is the best place for someone else.
Next, preparing ourselves for success is vital. Once we have written down our purpose, we can write down what we need to do in preparation. If we want to write for a living, we need to prepare ourselves for a writing career. How do we prepare for a writing career? One step to a writing career is to write every day. Another step is to take writing classes, which means we might need or want to get a college degree. There are also writing workshops that help writers with content and publication.
One of the most important ways to prepare for success is by making sure we have all the tools we need. For example, an artist needs paint brush, paints, and a variety of canvases. They may also need frames to display their art. A writer needs pens, highlighters, paper, computer, printer, and a dictionary and thesaurus. Some may have more supplies than others due to ability, knowledge, and finances. As we learn, our need and ability to provide for that need will grow.
It is important that we prepare ourselves by dressing and acting the part. As a public speaker, we need to start thinking about and wearing appropriate clothing. If we don't have money to get a new wardrobe, we could start purchasing a piece of clothing a little at a time. Even if you don't have the wardrobe or any opportunities to speak, now, you can practice in front of a mirror or in front of friends and family. Make sure you take even the smallest opportunities, so your skill can grow and turn into a full-time career.
Once we decide we want to pursue our dreams, there will be times we will fail. This is okay because we learn from these failures. Failure can be used as a learning tool if we do not give up. Many of us fail once and throw in the towel. Those who succeed are the ones that get up and dust themselves off every time they fall. Failures fall down once and never get back up.
For instance, I started college in my early twenties. A few times, things got overwhelming and I had to stop attending classes. Once I was able to take classes again, I got back up and enrolled in classes. After a while, I actually graduated from college and started taking graduate classes. There may be times that you feel like your dream is over, but, if you continue to hold onto you dream and prepare yourself for success, you will succeed.
"Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion."
George Wilhelm Friedrech Hegel
The next step should be to surround ourselves with a motivational support team. It is important that we have people in our lives that will support us, give us constructive advice and criticism, and are strong enough for us to lean on when times are tough. There are some of us who have a working support system among our family and friends. On the other hand, there are many of us who need to look for a group of people that are willing to serve on our motivational support team.
A lot of people think they are independent enough to succeed on their own. It is important to understand that we may be capable to do a lot of things on your own, but two head are better than one. Of course, if two heads are better than one, then five heads are better than two. There should be at least five people on a team, so we can reach out to them when we need the extra help in every area of our lives. These people bring a unique point of view to our situations.
"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."
Matthew 18:20
We just need to carefully pick our support team. Just because they are relatives, does not mean they will give us the best advice. If someone has a brother who lies around the house like a bum and watches television, he is not the best person to serve on their motivational support team. The people on our teams need to have a certain level of success themselves and have our best interest in mind.
My mom use to push me to practice the piano. She would always end her lecture with "practice makes perfect." This use to annoy me, because, in my young mind, practice was a dirty word. Now, I completely understand my mom's lecture and wish I had listened to her. Practice is one of the keys to leading a passionate life and to succeed.
The more we practice the better we get, and, the better we get, the more challenges become easier. When we start playing a musical instrument, we are given a simple piece. If we went in to violin lessons for the first time and they gave us advanced music to play, we would look at them like they were crazy.
This practicing concept isn't just for music. We have to start any endeavor at the beginning and practice until we are experts. Many of us want to start out as experts, though. When we realize success in the endeavor takes work, we stop practicing and go on to something else. Unfortunately, we go from one thing to the next trying to find something that gives us instant success, but there is no such thing.
Our society has duped us into thinking that we always need to seek instant gratification. We want to see results in a short amount of time, but this is unrealistic. Believe me; I have bought in to a product that promised results in a few months. Of course, the results usually don't come and, if there are any results at all, they usually don't last.
The best thing for all of us to do is practice, practice, practice. Truly successful people become masters at their trade, because they continuously practice. Those who don't succeed are usually the people who go from one thing to the next looking for instant success. They are never happy, because they can't enjoy the process of starting out at the beginning, practicing, and becoming an expert.
My challenge to all of us this week is to find our passion. We need to write down our dreams, prepare ourselves for success, get back up and dust ourselves off when we fail, find a motivational support team, and practice until we are experts. If we will take these steps, we will become more and more passionate about our dreams. This passion has the capability of speeding up the process of success. When we are more passionate, we are more likely to focus on our dreams and work harder.
"Therefore I always exercise and discipline myself [mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections, bodily appetites, and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects] to have a clear (unshaken, blameless) conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men."
Acts 24:16
The following form will help us organize all the steps we take, so we can lead a passionate life. For a full-sized form, e-mail me at mymondaymaptosuccess@gmail.com.
Finding Your Passion
What is your dream?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How can you prepare yourself for success?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What are ways you could fail? How can you get back up and start again?
(If you write down all the ways you can fail, then you can write a countermeasure and prepare to get back up and succeed.)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who are the people I want on my motivational support team?
(Write down the names and phone numbers of at least five people.)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How much of your time will you give to this dream?
(Write down how many minutes, hours, and days you will put into your dream. Practice makes perfect, so the more you practice the more you will succeed.)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________