Igniting the Flames of Passion

How would you like to wake up every morning with the drive, passion, and determination to conquer everything that stood between you and ultimate success? Can you see yourself defeating every problem, completing every test, resolving every conflict that comes your way within any given moment? Have you forgotten how to dream? What if you knew this passion would give you everything you needed to achieve every dream and goal in this life? How would you go about your life then?

Passion is given to all! It is not reserved for some and not given to others! Passion does not discriminate! The absolute truth is that passion is for everyone, but only some will take the necessary steps to ignite that passion and cause it to soar within their hearts!

Where is the passion that we crave, that burning, unquenchable desire that drives us so completely that we know deep within ourselves that we could conquer the world with it?

Our true passion has always lived within us and far too often as we grow up, it becomes buried deeply underneath all of the things that we are desperately trying to figure out how to become. Rather than drawing from the immeasurable and inexhaustible expanse of our imaginations and the feelings that are inspired within the realm of our forgotten self, we go on doing everything to be successful without ever knowing anything about ourselves. We forget how to play and instead trade in the dreams we once had for piles of baggage, obligations, and things that only drive us further and further away from the true power that we were created with even before our conception. Our true passion is conjoined with something called faith, and without faith, we become devoid of the very passion that we seek! Faith always believes, regardless of what it sees in the circumstances presented to us!

Passion is a boundless enthusiasm, and is a force we can only tap into by believing in something with all that we are. Yet, it is so easy to say we are believing in things and external circumstances all while never really being able to believe in ourselves in the way we hope others will believe in us. I know this personally after a lifetime spent seeking validation from everyone else and yet never really being willing to believe what I was told could possibly be true. As I have cultivated my curiosity I have found myself. There is nothing more amazing than the awe of discovery, and the more I discover myself the more in awe I am at all of the things I never imagined I could do and have found that who I am has nothing to do with what I can do...though the more I know what I can do, the more powerful the affect and impact in my life and the inspiration that envelopes me and so many others within my life. As a reward of having such faith and belief, your passion becomes sparked and then ignites into a raging inferno!

Passion is absolutely vital to our existence for it is out of passion that we were created! But, how many times do we feel overwhelmed in our lives and find ourselves at the brink of giving up only to realize that if we give up now, we may miss the very miracle that we so desperately need in our lives? That miracle is passion!

Whether it is passion for your relationship, family, career, dreams, goals, teaching, building, traveling, art, sports, or any of the other vast array of subjects we could be passionate over, you need to make a decision that you will believe in something that is important to you. Then no matter what comes, make all of your dreams come true through the power of that passion within you. Live fearless, and face fear with the presence of your audacious faith! Release the passion from within you!

Passion is contingent upon how willing you are to believe and have faith in who you are, what you do, how you live, and how you see others. Passion will sometimes feel like it left just as quickly as it came because it is a fire that burns bright within each of us. If you don't work to keep the flame lit by feeding the fire within your heart and soul, then it will diminish or go out entirely! Apart from passion, we fade, become depressed, and our faith becomes atrophied, withering away to the depths of despair and hopelessness.

There are a few key steps for igniting passion into our lives, and if you don't do them "On Purpose" every day, your fire won't continue to rage on. Once you've had a taste of passion in your life, you'll recognize almost immediately if the fire is beginning to diminish or is at risk of going out! Then wake yourself up and do whatever it takes to fan the flame and keep the fire burning brightly!

Step 1: BELIEVE in whatever you do with your whole heart, and VISUALIZE yourself doing it in your mind! This will help you to persevere when things get tough. If you can see yourself doing something with your mind, it won't be awkward or uncomfortable when you get where you are going! If you can see it, you can BE it!

Step 2: Have a clearly articulated vision! Remind yourself and others what you are working toward. You may have started working at an entry level position, but you see yourself as president of the company! Write down what you want in your life and what it is going to take for you to get there! Have a clear plan. Remember that vision attracts vision and dream attracts dream...know what you want so that others can help you to get there!

Step 3: Change the way you think and speak! Keep your thoughts and words positive and don't let the negative thoughts in NO MATTER WHAT other people will say about your efforts or your vision. It is a battle to keep your mind clear of all of the negative things that present themselves to your mind, so train yourself to reject the negative and only embrace the positive. Catch the negative things that you are thinking before they get to your lips and you speak them out! Words are containers filled with power. Say something long enough and you will believe that and those things that you believe will come to pass in your life! Then watch your life begin to transform right before your very eyes!

Step 4: Have Audacious Goals! Your level of ability will only grow to the size of your dreams! Dream bigger than yourself and don't let what you see with your eyes affect your faith and how you believe in what it is that you are going after! Audacious goals will take Audacious faith and Audacious action! Always remind yourself that you can do it, and then get ready, get set, and go...never to look back!

Above all, live in this moment at this time of your life with all that passion is! Ignite that fire within you, and make it your mantra that you will live today and every new day that you are blessed with passionately! Passion leads the way to destiny, and destiny is where our life's purpose and meaning are completely fulfilled.

Each moment of our life is filled with steps that we have taken in the direction toward our destiny, or the steps that have led us away from it instead. Now is the time to change your shoes, and make certain that you are ready to lead the way in this journey through life!

You're journey will lead you to the ultimate destination, but first you will need to know who you are and allow your passion to ignite, as you fan the flame within your heart and soul. I encourage you to be confident, follow the simple steps above, stand firm in your faith, and walk forward with passion into your destiny. Your destiny has been patiently waiting for you, so ask yourself now...What are you waiting for?

Physics, Freedom and Fairy Tales

Our Cat named Dogg :)

Looking in the mirror the reflection is not just me anymore, and the mirror is not one that hangs on a wall for there’s no wall large enough to fit the mirror that illuminates the beauty in the reminders that no longer haunt me when I look at the image shining back at me. For this is the reflection that I’ve never yet seen until now, and it makes me think with wonder…how I have always been created to be this way and even though I have never seen myself this way until now, my creator, the one who made me, has never seen me as anything else than the perfection within His own reflection. For I was created just like Him and He is the one who made me like this!

 

I’ve looked in every mirror as far back as I can remember, always wondering when I would become the me I always dreamed was possible to be. But as far back as I can remember, every moment felt like it took forever. I never even knew that when your dreams are bigger than you are, that you were never created to do it alone … 

 

And as a little girl even though “grownups” told me that fairy tales don’t really come true, I never gave up believing, striving, passionately pursuing, studying, and overcoming every obstacle and opposition of those who tried to convince me that I need to stop living in a fantasy world and come back to reality. 

 

What amazes me is how perception alters reality, and most of the time all the facts just become co-mingled with in the feelings and strangling grip of guilt and shame. And in order to face the world, and ourselves hiding behind the curtain that we call “another day” that self justification taking place within us in order to subdue the emotional agony that imprisons every fiber of our being. 

 

Incapacitated yet whirling deep within the emotional and dizzying spiral into the abyss of hopelessness with every moment that goes by that we choose to stand behind the curtain rather than just step out into the brilliant lights and walk out onto the big breathtaking stage. 

 

It is our survival instinct that kicks in. The fight, flight or total paralyzation like a deer caught in headlights that resorts to primal habit which is accursed from the infinite generations that have preceded us. From our beginning, to be still for even a moment, was certain death, and to be the one responsible for masterminding the “trouble” was even worse. Unsung heroes and misfits just trying to find a way to get to the age where we are finally old enough to take the plunge…the freedom to really call our own shots…take the dare, the one that your heart can hear in the warm summer breeze as it whispers to you that anything is possible! 

 

Within the unexpected there lies the myriad of variables too numerous to have backup and exit plans established so that if we leap and land funny, that we don’t as they say in the industry, “Break a leg”…we’re not blindsided and left open and totally defenseless in a moment where we feel we’re going to die; 

 

Overwhelmed by pain that overloads the motherboard of our human circuitry, we are rendered frozen all over again by the reminder of what feels overwhelmingly more like the agony of traumatic defeat and not just some sort of rejection or question related to personal qualification. 

 

When everything comes to a screeching halt regardless of whether it’s an emotion or physiological sensory malfunction, our brain interprets what has just happened as a life and death situation… And to be perfectly honest, it is! 

 

Because it is within that moment, and what you choose in the next moments that follow that are crucial to the outcome. It may feel like a death is taking place throughout your entire being but there is nothing that you can’t do if you believe that you can, and nothing you can do if you believe that you can’t. Never forget that for it has the power to remind you of exactly how powerful the Master Jehovah, Lord Almighty actually created you to be in every moment including this one right now…not someday! Our internal torment seems to be more related to our deepest knowing that we were created for such a time as this ..right now and instead we look at what we see, and then rationalize and explain away why we have to wait until we all get to "heaven."

 

You see, each moment that I spent just going through the motions, meant that I was totally on autopilot. I found that the more on autopilot I was, the more fear and anxiety I had. Fear became the awareness that I was thinking too much and doing too little. Each moment of my life it didn’t matter how hard I worked, how much I knew, or how perfectly I tried to do everything I was told to do. I found that I could never meet anyone’s expectations because I was covertly furious that I had absolutely no idea how to meet my own. 

 

For what seems like forever, this way of thinking and struggling only resulted in immeasurable pain, loss, and the self imposed judgments that never seem to quiet and make everything open to critique. Ultimately the judgment which is always built upon the foundation of doubt and unbelief does have its own “belief systems.”…and if we believe that someone is an idiot or incompetent they have become human weapons of mass annihilation as unbelief will always attempt to shatter the impenetrable power that is only found in unity!

 

The greatest unity is that of wholeness, you in balance with yourself. Once you know who you are and who you were created to be, and become friends with all of the parts of yourself that once seemed better to keep hidden, there is only light and the light of love beaming brilliantly within you, through you, and illuminating the path upon which you stand. The darkness becomes a welcomed ally because it is in accepting the polarity of darkness that the reflection, the clarity, and the breathtaking contrast are made possible!

 

Learning to love all of the pieces of yourself and accepting that you are who you are right now, good and bad, happy and sad, up and down...I have been taught that life is not complete until we accept that it is not " either/or" but life is all about being, "both/and." In the either/ or scenario it is all about having to separate and choose one or the other. When the truth is that by accepting both halves of the whole, the whole is restored and brought to life in a new way that wouldn't be otherwise possible.  

 

When I was trying to be all good and get rid of all of the "bad" things I didn't like about myself, I was still exhausting myself by trying to get rid of something that made  it possible for me to choose to become everything I am now. I am thankful for all of the things that I used to despise about myself and wished that I could forget. Life becomes magical within self acceptance. How can we say we believe we are accepted before the Lord, if we are completely unwilling to accept ourselves? 

 

I have discovered the power and freedom that comes to really experience the fullness of life because I see now just how important it is that I chose all that I have before. Until one knows sorrow there can be no realization of joy. Until you know one you cannot understand the experience of the other. Just as in Physics, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is that same polarity, and understanding this has been instrumental in changing everything because now that I understand the "both/and" I have finally learned how to choose, and for this I give all of my praise to the Living God, the One who made me and you!