Fires of Passion, Clarity Of Viewpoint
There's something I've been thinking about lately, and I feel like I need to go ahead and write about it again to work this out. I want to begin this by posing a question:
Have you ever felt passionate about something?
I don't mean a simple like or dislike. I mean, a driving, burning force within you that drives you to step forward and act upon it. Something that colors your decisions and frames your responses to life's events. Something that gives you goals to set and a direction to move your life towards.
I admit, I am almost 29 years old, and for much of my life I have done little more than sought comfort and enjoyment for myself. I had no lofty ambitions. My life's choices were easy for me. I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps, get a nice job, and basically sit around and play video games for the rest of my life. I had no desire to go out and meet people,or to do many of the things that others might have found 'fun'. I had no need for nightclubs, horseback riding, sporting events, or much else. I had a dispassionate life. I thought that I was in control of my emotions, but I had no idea what I had been missing. In my subconscious mind, my attitudes and reactions were already shaping my future.
How far you will go in life, and what you will achieve, depends entirely upon your mindset, viewpoint, and attitudes. With the right ones, you move forward, achieve more than the next guy, develop a strong self-image, and become successful. With the wrong one, you will slip back and eventually lose what you might have gained.
The attitude is the steering wheel. The passion is the gas in the engine.
I will admit, I am certainly not in the position in this world that I want to be in. There are things in this world that I want to do, want to see, want to feel before I eventually pass on. Inertia is dangerous to me, however. I've been sitting here for so long that I have become stuck in a rut. I can recognize this intellectually, and logic will go a long way in showing me what my problem is and how to get out of it.
But unless I develop the passion to move forward, I will never get out. Have I found one? Or perhaps, have I found more than one? I don't know. It's been so long that I've felt strongly about something that thinking about these things brings tears to my eyes. It's an overwhelming rush of emotions... Is this a burning passion? Perhaps.
But I know I will never be able to achieve these things if I stay where I am. I remember telling a friend a long time ago, that I feel like there is something great that I feel like I want to find. And she told me that I'm not going to find it in front of a computer screen.
She was both right and wrong. I have found things that are great. One of them I found through a computer screen. One I have not.
But the way to make these things happen require me to make some choices about my life. Is this emotion, this burning passion enough to move me out of the rut I had been occupying for the last several years? Am I going to move forward?
I think one of the great things about life is that as long as you're alive, you always have a choice, you always have a chance to make things right, to take action towards doing what you feel like you were meant to do and be the person you were meant to be.
I know some great people. They help me to learn the attitude I need to succeed, to take the right roads on the highway of life to get to where I want to go. It's up to me, though, to supply the passion I need to get there. They can't do it for me.
I can see some of the futures laid out for me. I can sit here until I am old and gray, having accomplished nothing in my life, imagining all the great things I could do, but making excuses about why I never did them... I admit it, I am comfortable here. I admit that I could survive like this. It's comfortable and familiar to me. But can I truly call this life? This isn't living, it's just existing.
Or I can use this time, use these thoughts and concepts, the passion and attitude to move forward and go out and achieve those things. It will not be easy. It will take hard work, dedication, and guts. I will have to move out of the comfortable environment I am in and actually experience things. Maybe there will be times that I am scared out of my mind.
But that way... Maybe then I can say that I lived.
Have you ever felt passionate about something?
I don't mean a simple like or dislike. I mean, a driving, burning force within you that drives you to step forward and act upon it. Something that colors your decisions and frames your responses to life's events. Something that gives you goals to set and a direction to move your life towards.
I admit, I am almost 29 years old, and for much of my life I have done little more than sought comfort and enjoyment for myself. I had no lofty ambitions. My life's choices were easy for me. I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps, get a nice job, and basically sit around and play video games for the rest of my life. I had no desire to go out and meet people,or to do many of the things that others might have found 'fun'. I had no need for nightclubs, horseback riding, sporting events, or much else. I had a dispassionate life. I thought that I was in control of my emotions, but I had no idea what I had been missing. In my subconscious mind, my attitudes and reactions were already shaping my future.
How far you will go in life, and what you will achieve, depends entirely upon your mindset, viewpoint, and attitudes. With the right ones, you move forward, achieve more than the next guy, develop a strong self-image, and become successful. With the wrong one, you will slip back and eventually lose what you might have gained.
The attitude is the steering wheel. The passion is the gas in the engine.
I will admit, I am certainly not in the position in this world that I want to be in. There are things in this world that I want to do, want to see, want to feel before I eventually pass on. Inertia is dangerous to me, however. I've been sitting here for so long that I have become stuck in a rut. I can recognize this intellectually, and logic will go a long way in showing me what my problem is and how to get out of it.
But unless I develop the passion to move forward, I will never get out. Have I found one? Or perhaps, have I found more than one? I don't know. It's been so long that I've felt strongly about something that thinking about these things brings tears to my eyes. It's an overwhelming rush of emotions... Is this a burning passion? Perhaps.
But I know I will never be able to achieve these things if I stay where I am. I remember telling a friend a long time ago, that I feel like there is something great that I feel like I want to find. And she told me that I'm not going to find it in front of a computer screen.
She was both right and wrong. I have found things that are great. One of them I found through a computer screen. One I have not.
But the way to make these things happen require me to make some choices about my life. Is this emotion, this burning passion enough to move me out of the rut I had been occupying for the last several years? Am I going to move forward?
I think one of the great things about life is that as long as you're alive, you always have a choice, you always have a chance to make things right, to take action towards doing what you feel like you were meant to do and be the person you were meant to be.
I know some great people. They help me to learn the attitude I need to succeed, to take the right roads on the highway of life to get to where I want to go. It's up to me, though, to supply the passion I need to get there. They can't do it for me.
I can see some of the futures laid out for me. I can sit here until I am old and gray, having accomplished nothing in my life, imagining all the great things I could do, but making excuses about why I never did them... I admit it, I am comfortable here. I admit that I could survive like this. It's comfortable and familiar to me. But can I truly call this life? This isn't living, it's just existing.
Or I can use this time, use these thoughts and concepts, the passion and attitude to move forward and go out and achieve those things. It will not be easy. It will take hard work, dedication, and guts. I will have to move out of the comfortable environment I am in and actually experience things. Maybe there will be times that I am scared out of my mind.
But that way... Maybe then I can say that I lived.