An Elephant Tightroping

"The only way to do great work, is to love what you do."

-Steve Jobs

     You honestly can never anticipate what life has in store for you. Just like I never could have guessed I'd find an elephant balancing on a tightrope when I type passion in Google images. Even if you have a plan for what is going to happen in your life, it will not happen the way in which you thought it would. A planned life will go as follows... If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. I wish I would've known this before I graduated high school, but I probably would have considered this to be a pessimistic point of view. Now however, I know it's neither optimistic or pessimistic, IT JUST IS. 

     Have you ever woke up one morning and wondered how you got to where you are? Well, that's exactly where I was this morning. I woke up, rolled out of my hammock and out loud asked myself "How did I get here?" The reason I asked that is because it was then I realized that nothing that I've done in the past year was part of the plan I conceived a year ago. In fact where I am now, wasn't even on the map. Where I found myself was disappointing. I never thought that I'd be in a place in my life where I'd feel completely and utterly passionless. In fact, it was just in this past week that I'd finally admitted to myself that I wasn't actually happy. I could smile and put on a good show, but it was just a show. How did this happen? How did I get here?

I added this photo from Trolls, because this is what happens
when doubt wins. Passion is diminished and you're left with
a pale, hollow reflection of how you once were.

     After I'd asked this question to myself, I reflected on all the aspects of my life, and why I was not happy with them. In all areas of my life, I found that I felt passionless for, but why? I have had passion in all of them once before, but what changed? Why is the passion not there? Then I started thinking back in time and found my answer. At one point or another, there was a seed of doubt planted in all of them. Whether it was music, my relationships, or my spirituality I found doubt planted in all of them. It was only now that I realized that I'd been nurturing doubt and not passion, and doubt diminishes passion. 

     Passion doesn't all of a sudden just leave you. It goes away slowly. For me, little disappointments happened, people leaving happened, projects falling through happened, heartbreak happened. It seemed that a lot of opportunities and people that I had planned on being here now had left me behind. So what? Those things and people did happen. That doesn't mean it gives me the right to blame them for where I am, because the only person who decides what you do about those things is you. Just own it! The blame game never gets you anywhere except alone. But how can you regain your passion? If only I knew the answer to that! I don't think there's one answer to that question. I just know that doing what makes you happy, being grateful for it and sharing it with others makes life much better. So maybe that would help regain passion. If not, at least you're doing what makes you happy.

     Regaining passion is a difficult task. Especially when the past seems so full of darkness and doubt. But we need to realize that we didn't lose our passion overnight, so we can't expect to regain our passion overnight. It's a process. All life is a process only to be completed over time. Just remember to LIVE NOW and enjoy the process, and maybe just maybe you'll find yourself passionate and not passionless!

     

     

Conceal Don't Feel

"until you get comfortable with being alone, you'll never know if you're choosing someone out of Love or loneliness."

-Mandy Hale

     Going through any degree of a break up is just hard. Trying to be happy during this break up process and the recovery after is even more difficult. The reason I say that is because for a certain amount of time, that person was a key ingredient in you being happy. Now that that person isn't there anymore, it's like making chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips. The sweetness has been diminished. Now you're just looking for anything to take the place of your chocolate chips in your cookie dough, to regain that sweetness that once was there. The only problem is that a lot of the times after a break up people try and fill that empty space with a rebound relationship. Most often these rebound relationships don't end well, and you might end up walking away from it in worse shape than you were before. That's not what a relationship should be about. A relationship isn't something to fill a hole or a void, it's something to augment and enhance. So what do you do?

     This is sort of the point where I'm at right now. I want to regain that sweetness that I had in my life but there's a catch. I don't feel like it's for the right reasons. I feel as if the reason behind me returning to dating would be because I feel lonely. This being said, makes me think that whatever I find in dating would just be a rebound relationship. Now I know that's not necessarily true, but my mind jumps places.  So before I return to the serious dating world I need to find comfort and happiness in solitude. This doesn't mean that I shouldn't go on dates, it just means that I need to make sure that the purpose for me going on this date is to go have fun and meet new people.

     With life in general it's common for people to try and fill themselves with superficial and temporary things to Band-Aid the real issues going on under the surface. Making them feel OK temporarily, but Band-Aids don't fix bullet holes. They just conceal them. What really helps heal a broken heart is exposing those insecurities and weaknesses that you have, and to face them head on. This will allow you to come back stronger and more emotionally fit for the next relationship. 

     Always remember to live now in the moment and to know the greatness that lies inside of you. Thanks, and will talk soon!

     

The Strength of Kindness

     "Strength is a skill"

     -Kenny Kane

     The other day I was watching an episode from the podcast BarbellShrugged with Mike Bledsoe and Doug Larson and they were talking to Kenny Kane about self mastery. Of course I found this intriguing because I'm constantly looking for ways to master myself, but there was one phrase that was said in the interview that I can recall strongly today. That phrase is "strength is a skill". What is strength though and what is skill?

     Strength is defined as "a good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing". A skill is defined as "the ability to do something well". Now when you put them together it comes out as being able to be good at being good. When I look at it that way this phrase is applicable to just about everything. Whether is working out, eating healthy, being kind, being productive and being helpful.

     Being as strength is a skill, that means we can learn strength. If we could just know that learning to be good at something no matter what it is, is within our grasp, we could learn to do anything, but more importantly be anything. 

      The reason I say learning to be anything is more important, is because if we can learn to be kind, it would make all the other things we desire to be good at more attainable. Allowing for ourselves to give and receive kindness opens the doors of opportunity to new skills and a new environment to live in. Not just for ourselves but for everyone around us.

     If we will try to make kindness our main skill, we will have everything we need to LIVE NOW! Thanks for reading and I hope you try and make kindness your skill!