“Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves.” ~Blaise Pascal
In the “Passion-Maker Life Purpose Test,” I asked 10 simple questions to get you clear and committed to your passion and purpose.
Now in “Part 2” I have one simple question that changes everything, and some juicy insights into my own personal struggles with this…
If you haven’t done it yet, you can read this, and then go ahead and take the passion maker test after. Feedback on the passion maker was great, and many people have gone on to complete the free “5 Steps to Freedom program”, which you can access from inside the download there.
I’m moving more and more into minimalism and simplicity now in my life and work. I love the freedom it offers me, and I love the shared experience of being on this collective ride to simple freedom with so many other beautiful, inspiring, remarkable people.
Nonetheless, the reality is, life isn’t always so simple.
Am I right?
There’s the reality of aspects of our work we really don’t love, relationship issues, bills and debt we’ve found ourselves lost in… it’s hard to strike out on the passion conquest, when we’re just treading water, and “reality” strikes.
The main struggle I’ve faced myself, is keeping consistent in my work to accomplish my bigger goals. I understand what I’m “supposed” to do, like practice entrepreneurial time management, kill my to-do list actually execute my to-do list, and break everything into small bite-sized tasks. But the truth is, when it comes down to it, the biggest things are the scariest, and therefore often the hardest to accomplish. Am I right? (“can I get an amen!” ;) )
We get stuck with something, and there’s a chance we’ll never get past the paralyzing fear at the bottom that threatens to overturn every big dream we ever have in our lives. I’m going to call this “passion paralysis.”
My deepest fear? There’s a part of me that’s scared I will fail (again), scared I will let you down, and everyone else that’s “counting on me”. This is a deep running theme. It’s part of the inner game that I have to work hard to master, and that I’ve spent many years working on.
From my experience working with healing and consulting, pretty much EVERYONE has fears like this. The fears won’t be exactly the same, but they’ll be big, stemming from far in the past and running deep. These fears have the real potential to stop you from getting any of the biggest stuff done in your lives.
There’s a few things you can do to overcome “passion paralysis.” But you have to be really fierce. You have to be a “peaceful warrior” with a mission. That’s first. That’s why you start with your passion. Then, you have to commit to the passion. Commit to your purpose and passion, with a passion!
You come to believe in yourself, and your purpose, and then comes the really hard part: you have to walk the talk, and take action in alignment with your truth.
By now, I’ve probably lost you. That’s okay, when you do this work, you’re changing the world. Period. You’re changing the world by committing to a life of passion and purpose, in alignment with your deepest truth. Nobody said it was going to be easy!
The One Question
I started this article with a few different ideas for what this question would be, but I wasn’t totally decided. I woke up with a monkey on my back. ‘Dammit!’ I thought, ‘it’s Thursday, and I haven’t written anything for my blog yet, and there’s so much to do.’ And deep down there was this little voice under the current: ‘You see, I AM a failure.’
Isn’t it funny, the way the mind actually messes with your head sometimes, trying to prove itself right…? :)
So, then it hit me, I’d (temporarily) have to get over the perfectionist thing, and be simple, and just write the passion maker part 2! And I got to thinking a few things…
What’s it going to really take to make this big dream of mine happen? How much to I have to believe in myself? how hard do I have to work, how bad-ass do I have to be, and how hard am I willing to fight, in order to make it happen?
I’ve been coming back to this simple truth lately: The battle is only as hard as you choose to make it. It’s up to you. But you better believe there’s a battle to be fought.
You may have heard it said “Life is a journey, not a destination,” or some other such drivel…(!) The truth is: We fight battles to win. We have a goal, and we have to fight to get there. We can enjoy the process, but the point is, we’re fighting for something, and we can’t give up until we get there. If we’re just all la-dee-dah and enjoying the ride, hey it can make it be a little more fun, or it can easily become a trap to failure. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Please.
So, here’s my question:
What’s it going to feel like when you finally get it done, when you’ve finally won the battle, you arrive at your destination, and you’re really living the dream — 100% in alignment with your purpose and passion.
That’s the goal isn’t it? Isn’t that why you’re doing what you’re doing, why you’re reading this, why you’re here on this earth, to get something done, something big and beautiful and glorious…?
…that’s what I thought anyway.
So — what’s it going to feel like? That’s the question, it’s a big one, and it’s full of deliciousness, sweet, and glorious victory.
You gotta feel that glorious sweet and vicious victory in your heart and soul, until you can smell it and taste it and feel it inside you. Let it awaken your senses, and bring you to life, even momentarily. Then you have some real motivation to go out and kick ass.
I’m rooting for you. That’s what I’m here for. Let your heart lead you, and your senses arouse you.
You can do it! Remember…?
Let me know what you think, or what this does for you. I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Plus there’s more to come, so subscribe to my RSS or email, and share this post with your friends with those buttons down there.
Much love,
p.s. what am I doing to walk the talk, and actually Be interesting, rather than just talk about cool stuff…? I took Steve’s life purpose challenge, and wrote ‘til I cried, I started waking up every day at 5:30 or 6am for the past 3 weeks, with a morning walk/run and breath-work/meditation session every day. I agreed to write my first real guest post (coming soon). I wrote this post. I decided to comment on every blog post I read. I committed to living a life of fierce, fearlessness in service to my purpose, I told my favorite leaders how much I loved them…. I just want to say — hey, this is my commitment to what I’m doing. I’m getting over my weird and totally non-justifiable anxiety of really connecting with people I don’t “know” and I love to hear from you.
Love it Satya! We have to live our lives with passion and purpose! I hear you when you talk about passion paralysis. I’ve had that it’s called fear to being successful and putting myself out there. This is a big one. I would rather live my purpose then not to, so this is a huge deciding factor.
Thanks for your insight! You rock!
Thanks Antoinette — yeah, fear of being successful, or fear of failure, don’t know which one is worse! Well, i hope you’ve gotten past em both cause world has got to look out for you, lady! Xo
Very helpful strategy to imagine the feeling of the outcome of success. Once you feel it real, you’ve created it in the causal plane. It will come to you. I have no doubt.
Thanks Deborah, the truth in what you’re sharing is so real it’s scary… :)
Everything you said Satya, speaks to my heart. The desire to step into my brilliance and my fear I’m not good enough.
As to how I’ll feel? Oh, I know how I’ll feel. Check out this video that shares how I’ll feel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg
One Love,
Debbie Lattuga
Hilarious — thanks Debbie! Love that… :)
It’s going to feel really #$%^& amazing and I am so excited that I’m already feeling that now! Some days I can hardly sit still there’s so much energy and creativity buzzing through me. As a coach I know all about motivating others, kicking their butts with love! Over here though? What it took was reading Linchpin, where Seth gave me the butt kickin’ I myself needed. I’ve been creating and shipping like crazy since then.
So I really am starting to think it’s going to feel like now, just maybe a little more sleep please ;-)
I’m so excited for you Sandi! I know what you mean, I woke up at 3 am today and couldn’t go back to sleep my head was buzzing… Love your work, and looking fwd to seeing what unfolds…! Thanks for coming by today and sharing your juicy-ness :)
Satya, it would be like being in Nirvana!
Just thinking about what it would be like to be fully engaged in living a life of purpose and passion makes me eager and energised to make it happen asap:-)
Thanks for the inspiration – and for mentioning my link in your article.
All the best always.
Love and grattiude
Arvind
It’s a fabulous post my friend! The joy was mine in sharing it.
Thanks Arvind for coming by here to share more of your love and serenity. We could all use a bit more of that…! :)
I’m working hard to stay true to that myself every day. It helps me stay on track to know I’m not alone.
- with Love
I’ll know when I’m at my destination when I’m surfing a gnarly 10ft wave in hawaii. Living in paradise, minimalistically. Thats my goal, and my date to get there is Winter 2011. Everything I do each day, should be to help me get to this goal. It’s great looking back on the month of September and seeing all the progress that I have made. Even though each step was so small, they added up to a lot of steps toward paradise. Keep up the great blogs.
I hope your closer than ever to paradise my friend!
Very inspirational post. Lots of good advice that I will try to keep in mind for the future. Thank you.
Inspiration and Knowledge – I received both of these from your post today, and I appreciate it very much. The inspiration has impacted me “right now” to take action and motivate for a new day of God’s Blessings & Success According to His Glory! The knowledge is unlike the short lived inspiration in that it will stick with me for years to come. (I hope). You helped me align what I truly believe about life, journey and destination by sharing your knowledge with me. For that I can’t thank you enough. I may be posting a clip from your blog here over on mine and providing a backlink. God Bless bro!
Hi Curt — a delayed thank you for sharing your inspiration brother! So glad to make a difference — much love
Well this made me think. On the one hand it’s good to think as if you have already achieved because it helps maintain a positive emotional state which will then influence your actions… but like you said, no one wants to be on a perpetual destination we want to win! I know I do. To achieve my goals I have no idea how amazing that would be. Like winning the lotto I think except better and more fulfilling.
Hi David — thanks for your comment — you can do it!
You’ve got my support ~ cheers
Awesome Post Satya.
Fear of failure is what really holds us down from even starting something. But I think a very easy mantra to conquer the same is telling yourself:
“Unless you do it, you’d not know if you’ll succeed or not.”
The PS was actually great. I think I am going to make a commitment or 2 myself and follow up on them.