Passion and Persistence

So what do you do when things don’t work out the way you would like them? Perhaps your life is not turning out the way you dreamed. Maybe your job is not what you would like it to be or your business is not as successful as you would like. There are two things that I would say you need to remember and keep in your heart. They are passion and persistence.

Now when I say passion, I don’t mean some sort of unbridled emotion. I mean a real vision for what it is you want to do. It is a vision that you cannot live without. You think about it all the time. It is you last thought at night and the first thing in the morning.

Now, from my meditation practice, I know that passion is one thing and grasping is another. Grasping means that you cannot be open to things changing somewhat. Let’s say that you want to open a pizza shop. You have a burning desire to have a pizza shop and you think about it all the time. Now that’s passion and it’s a good thing.

Now, let’s say that someone comes into your shop and they say, “You know, I love your pizzas, how about making sub sandwiches too?” You hear what they say, but you want a pizza shop, not a sub shop and that is all there is too it! That is grasping. You hold on so tightly that you cannot see where opportunity presents itself.

Now it may sound as if I am contradicting myself, but you must have persistence. Let’s use the pizza shop example again. You decide that’s what you want to do, but your brother says you are crazy and should open a car service center. He shows you how much you could make and it does look like you could make more money than in a pizza shop. The thing is, you don’t like working on cars. However, you become swayed by your brother’s argument and you are soon in a job that you don’t like and have a hard time making a go of it.

Perhaps your pizza shop opens during the worst six week snow storm in history. There are no customers and you are going broke just keeping the oven on.

In these two cases, you need persistence to stay on course and do what you feel called to do. No business or anything else in life comes easy. If you are ready to quit the first time hardship shows up, you will never get anywhere.

Passion and persistence are crucial! Get passionate about what you want. Feel it in your very bones. Become persistent about getting it. Don’t let life’s little hiccups stop you. It is your life. Go for it!
Here’s to You!