The Eighth Power 'P' of Enduring Success

By Preston Squire

Passion

I've taken a break for a few days because I knew the next Power 'P' was Passion and I wanted to be feeling really passionate while I wrote it.   However, I'm writing from work, as that's when I have the most time and least distractions - sad I know - and it's really hard to be passionate in this office.  Lol.  Serious.

Government jobs suck your soul.  Good pay, mediocore benefits, but great job security and pension keep people sticking with them even as the dullness and drudgery take their toll.  LOL.   Yes, this is a great start to a chapter on Passion!

The very fundimental problem with government jobs is that they give you security but at the cost of your passion.   You see a lot of young folk come into government jobs with lots of ideas of how they'll change the system, bring in innovation, make it all work the way it should.  They have tremendous energy and enthusiasm and the upper levels of management always seem happy to indulge them.   They are a breathe of fresh air after all.    However, within five years, the enthusiasm is long gone, replaced by a realization that the system will not be changed.   The system, although it screams for change, hates change; unless it's externally motivated change and then it happens lightning fast, because it must.   

That is not so unlike many of our lives, or parts of our lives.   We acknowledge the need for change, we want the change, but no amount of enthusiastic outpour, no amount of great ideas, no inspiration ever really makes a lasting change.   We do not want the change, because we, like settled in government workers, want our security, even though it costs us our passions.    So we're conflicted.   We associate pain to remaining where we are, but we have some comfort level there, and associate pain to change and to the unknown.

Being in a Pain-Pain situation can bring about learned helplessness.   You just accept that you can't change.  Nonsense.   If someone put a gun to your head you'd change in an instant!   We just need to get that motivation generated from the inside instead of from the outside. 
Without Passion we become stagnant.

When we think about passion we think of fiery emotion.  Like a fire, passion must be given fuel to burn and be fanned to burn brightly.   If we don't add fuel and fan our passion, like a fire it will slowly burn out.

For our emotional passion, as far as maintaining our motivation to succeed, the fuel is our Purpose and our Promise.    I will talk more about Purpose in the next blog entry but suffice to say, it is our reason for wanting to achieve, our reason for being.    Like logs to a fire, the mental logs of Purpose must be occasionally added to our passion.   We need to keep reminding ourselves WHY we want what we want and WHY we're doing what we're doing.    What are the pleasures to be obtained by doing it?   And what are they pains of failure for not?

Hand in hand with our Purpose, we must remember our Promise.   That our success is already Promised to us.   That whatever we ask for in faith, and do not doubt, will be given.  In God's terms and time, not ours. 

Promise fans the flames of our Passion.   We know why we're burning, the logs of Purpose, and the knowledge that it's guaranteed, our Promise, helps us to burn brightly, even when the logs are damp or the wind threatens to extinquish our flame.

Passion helps immessurably to help keep you focused, Progressing and on track.   When you are passionate about something it's a lot easier to remain Patient and Persistent when things are not going your way.  You Pray a lot more fervertently.  The more emotion you put behind your prays/desires the quicker you tend to attract them to you.   You can't help but be Positive about something that you feel Passionate about.  

One thing about living in Toronto.  People here are passionate about hockey and the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Every year you hear those fans saying that this is the year that they'll take the Stanley Cup.   Hasn't happened since 1968 but you've got to love their passion and positivity.

The other great thing about Passion is it's a massive enabler.  When people are really passionate about something they are willing to do more and endure more to get what they want.   I remember as a kid when the second Star Wars movie was coming out or even more recently when the Nintendo Wii came out, people lined up outside the theatres or stores for hours, some people for DAYS prior to the launch.  Just so they could have it or see it first.    Really?  Would it kill them to wait a week or a month or even a year?  No.  But they were so passionate, that camping out on concrete, in the winter, was a Price they were gladly willing to pay to get what they wanted as soon as possible.

So take care to fuel and fan your passion for once it's burning brightly, it takes on a life of it's own and will help drive you through some of life's most difficult times.