If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.
-Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th president of the U.S.



const.jpg
Photo Courtesy of Paul Linton

I’m inspired to write this article by David | Beplayful.org who asked, “How do we distinguish our true passions for our false ones?” in response to my previous article, 3 Simple Steps to Kindle Your Inner Fire.

I’d like to dwell on this subject that has eluded all of us at some cross road in our life. I’ve had waves of zeal and enthusiasm that surfed my mind in the past about a new found passion only to find that these tidal waves receded in the matter of several days. I felt emptiness, a void with feebleness and deep guilt to perceive flakiness as a true, inner passion. I’m seeing many bloggers with talent and stardom only to disappear from the scene to leave thousands of fans hapless in the search of finding someone who kindled their inner fire once with vehemence. What happened?

Our mind has resemblance with vastness of the sky. I get drawn to what appears in the sky - the clouds, the sun, the moon, the rainbow, the showers. In reality, this appearance hinders the vastness that lies beyond what we can see. Vastness of our mind also is akin to the sky. Our constant desire to find happiness by wearing the tags of identity hinders the vastness of mind that possess our true passion, our true purpose.

While driving today, I stumbled upon a construction site that enlightened me with pathway to find a true passion, a true purpose. What follows is a metaphoric resemblance of how we can find our life long purpose.

1. Selflessness:

Our desires are like tidal waves, flirting with our mind constantly. Our mind gets focused momentarily with thoughts of achieving a physical form of attachment. It may be to become wealthy or to become famous. With the identity that we create in our mind, we get excited about others seeing us as a successful business tycoon or a blogger with vast readership. These identity masks create despair, haplessness when an outcome appears fuzzy at best in our mind. The best metaphor that describes a true passion is the sense of commitment and happiness, we feel when we fall in love with a stranger who influences our mind to overcome bad habits and fear of failure. We tend to do anything for that person without expecting an outcome favorable to us. It becomes a selfless act. True passion is akin to this state of selfless act. We begin to feel the deepness of our soul akin to the construction site with the deepness of the ground. Our passion, a true purpose should begin with the vastness for the mankind, with love and well-being of friends, family and our community.

2. Simplicity:

Simplicity is another touchstone of the life long passion, a true purpose. Simplicity is to eradicate attachment to our ego. When we borrow thoughts of passion, we borrow flakiness of identity - sometimes for one passion or another. We tend to buy clothes, books, training manuals in false hopes of becoming a success in chase of that passion. We forget that when passion dissipates as clouds do, our thoughts fall into the trap of hopelessness and a deep void. We end up cluttering our lives with clothes, books, training manuals that remind us of the false chase of a passion. Simplicity allows us to listen closely to our mind with a silence - resisting nothing, wanting nothing, lacking in nothing yet present and complete in all moments. Construction begins with simplicity - with old debris cleared, with land as clear as a mind with simplicity.

3. Mindfulness:

Abundance of articles exists on mindfulness. My intent is not to dwell on the meaning of mindfulness but more on its kinship with a true passion. Our intentions - wise and unwise manifest sensory information we receive filled with fears, expectations, likes and dislikes. Unwise intentions magnify the sensory information leading us to the pitfall of an expected outcome. Wise intentions receive sensory information yet remain aware of the present moment with vast focus on the task at hand - discovering a mind which is boundless. With the focus on the present, we see vastness of the sky beyond the clouds of fear, beyond rainbows of likes and dislikes - a vastness that encompass serenity and an eternal happiness. Construction begins with wise attention by the boundless mind which is determined to manifest the passion on the blueprint into its physical equivalent. Construction continues one day at a time with focus solely on the day until those days of work cumulate to the manifestation of a greater purpose of building an infrastructure that remains to serve humanity for years to come.

If we become conscious to apply these guiding rules to every passion that hits our mind like a tidal wave, we will develop a selfless, simple and mindfulness pathway to see through the vastness of the sky. We will see the true passion, a life long purpose hidden millions of miles behind those dark clouds yet shinier to fill our heart with energy of everlasting happiness.

Have you found one yet?

The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder — waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.
-Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) British historian and essayist.


If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe via RSS feed or email updates.

To Your Success,

Related Posts
4 esstential Thought habits to Attain Mindfulness for Happy Life
You are your own brand
An Interview with Tina Su of Think Simple Now
An Interview with Leo Babauta on Simplicity, Clarity, Happiness and Success
Rainbow of Simplicity

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Written by: Shilpan on 2008-05-07 at 10:57 pm
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.