A few weeks ago we had a guest pastor at our church talking about marriage relationships. One of the bullet points he taught for having a marriage that rocks (as opposed to a marriage that’s on the rocks) is to be a good steward of your passion.
Years ago, I heard from a successful multimillionaire that we have a limited amount of passion that we can apply to our worthwhile endeavors.
At the conference for independent business owners I recently attended I was reminded several times about the importance of focusing your passion.
See, the universe is telling me to blog on this topic.
Passion, excitement, enthusiasm can be a driving force for your goals, dreams and visions. But it is possible to squander your passion by trying to focus on too many things at once. And not necessarily stupid things like video games and television. You might be trying to do too many good things at once.
Confucius say: A man who chases two rabbits catches neither.
Some of us may think that we are human dynamos, that our excitement and passion will never fade. Sorry, but that isn’t the case. We grow weary. We even grow weary of things we love.
We need to be intentional about applying our passion and creative energy towards things that matter. (<–Click to tweet)
I’m looking back on the first two-thirds of 2014 and thinking that I haven’t got as much done as I’d like to have gotten done.
- My buddies and I are still struggling to iron out some website difficulties for our business/non-profit launch.
- I’ve finally finished a ghost-writing project that really should have been done as long ago as January.
- I plotted out a joint writing project with a friend that we still haven’t started.
- I’m behind on some financial goals.
- I’m behind on some business growth indicators.
- I’m behind on completing my third book (which will drive back the dates for 4 through 7 – yes I’m up to 7 books that I plan to write).
- I even missed blogging a couple times in the past couple of weeks. (In my defense I had a great blog post all written up to announce our business launch, I just didn’t post it because I didn’t want to drive traffic to a site that isn’t working).
- And of course I’m way behind on meeting my dream woman and getting married.
- I’m even behind on battening down the hatches for a pair of hurricanes that are just 36 hours away.
What’s the point of me recounting all the reasons I’m behind the eight ball? My point is my energy has been directed in too many directions. It’s like trying to light eight fuses with a magnifying glass by rapidly zooming from one fuse to the next. Sometimes you need to stick with one thing, apply a consistent amount of work towards it and give it a chance to ignite.
We have a limited amount of creative energy that we are allotted each day. Some of our best hours we are forced to spend at work, but of our remaining time, we need to make sure that we are applying it to what is most important in our lives; our vision, our purpose. You may not have the freedom to give all the time to your dream that it deserves, but be sure to give it your best time. Give it all the passion that you can muster up and stay focused on it.
Remember the Native American saying, “If you chase two rabbits you will lose them both.”
Have you ever felt like you are pouring your best effort and energy into many different things – and somehow nothing is getting accomplished?
Step back.
Prioritize.
Pick a rabbit.
Kill it.
Just be careful you’re chasing the right rabbit.
What’s your rabbit for this week? This month? This year?
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