“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.”
--Denis Diderot--
“Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.”
--Georg Wilhelm--
“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.”
--Oprah Winfrey--
What is your definition of success? In my opinion a person is successful when they are able to pursue their passion everyday while being able to maintain a standard of living that they find acceptable. What does that mean? I guess the best way to explain it is by stating that a person is a success when they get paid to do the thing or things that they love to do. However, in my humble estimation most people, including me right now, do not lead successful lives because they trade in success for the pursuit of material things.
Passion is the seed to the tree of greatness. That is not just a meaningless saying. It is the truth. However, it seems that today there are too many young brothers and sisters that do not have a passion for anything other than being a consumer. I do not believe that most people do not have a passion. No. I think the opposite. I think most people do have a passion, but most people sometime in their life choose, either consciously or unconsciously, to pursuit safe goals like getting a job and acquiring material possessions rather than explore their passions.
Passion is the engine that drives creativity, ingenuity, and determination. Passion inspires. It motivates. It challenges. It pushes people to new levels, new heights, and new horizons. Passion is the first step, the last step, and all the steps in between on the path to greatness. That is why it is nearly impossible to travel the road to greatness or even to success without the companion of passion.
The problem for many young brothers and sisters is that society does very little to encourage people to seek out and explore their passions. Instead of being given an invitation to explore ourselves we are saturated with images of consumerism. Instead of being compelled to greatness, we are enticed into debt, we are molded into consuming whatever is convenient for companies, and we are lobotomized into wanting whatever we are toward to crave. We are presented the options to trade in our passion (regardless of whether we know what it is yet) for stuff. Most of us have been trained to ignore our passion in order to pursue stuff. Maybe it is time we sought a different training program.
There it is. That is my view. Although I present it as a simple choice, it isn’t. It is a very difficult decision. Be a risk taker and pursue your passion or settle for stuff. A person can pursue how to craft a career that expresses their own personal statement to the world or they can settle for a job and stuff. It is all about choice.
I will ask the question again, what is your definition of success?
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