Your Passion and Purpose

Your Passion and Purpose

So this is the age-old question that a lot of us sit with. What is our purpose in life, we all have one. And then we ask ourselves, what are we passionate about? Or maybe you ask them the other way around.

What if you do not know? What if you have thought of so many things and were clear on so many things being absolutely sure you have found your passion and purpose only to realise a few days, weeks or months later that you are not so sure anymore. This is a sinking feeling taking you back to the drawing board of life. None of us just want to coast through life, we want to know and feel that we mattered, our contribution mattered.

Yes, there are ups and downs in anything you do, and it will definitely apply to you pursuing your passions and purpose. The test, or so I am told, is that you are willing to push through irrespective of push-back. You will persist no matter what it takes from you to achieve as you are so convinced and believe in what you are doing so much that your bones and DNA aligns with what you are doing. 

For many, the default is to chase monetary gain. And there is nothing wrong with it. Having surplus cash on hand certainly gives you a measure of freedom (time) to be able to take advantage of the opportunities to get on the passion and purpose path. It also allows you to indulge in your passions. For example, if you are like I am, I love my cars. I am very passionate about them. Mechanically inclined, not so much, but understanding them, driving them and reading up on them is definitely a big passion of mine. This takes cash or money or finances to indulge. 

The challenge is though that a lot of people get stuck there, they only chase the monetary gain and then miss the mark in the end.

So how then? how do you find that path that speaks to your purpose and dials into your passions? The answer...live life and allow life to happen. 

As long as we try and control life and what we need to do or think we know what we need to do, and if we haven't figured out the passion/purpose subject in our lives, we will be going round in circles and just exhaust ourselves.

I am not saying do not plan or have goals and dreams, not at all. What I am saying is while having those things, allow life to happen and all those things will unfold. 

Is this easy...no it's not. If it was we all would be exactly where we should be and be happy with life. It is a daily decision you need to make, one I find difficult sometimes, especially when you are a take action and very driven type of person.

But, if you do life truly becomes beautiful and your purpose and passions will come to you in ways that you never could have imagined.

So let's go and live life!

Mindset

Mindset

In these times we find ourselves in it is easy to give up, throw in the towel and say no more. But what then...? 

We tend to look at what is right in front of us when it comes to our stressors and we seldom play the long, or longer, game. If we are just to quit, give up and say no more the next step or what is next is even worse. Self-loathing, depression, anxiety and all of those fearful emotions that debilitates us from taking any action. 

This is where our mindset comes in. Let's break up the word mind-set. It is what we set our mind on, what we think about, work towards, visualise for ourselves. It's not just a state of being. Goals can play a role in this as well...but before you can even look at goals if you are not able to set your mind on what you want out of life, and set your mind on the things you like to achieve, your goals will seem more and more daunting instead of the go-al out purpose and mission you set for yourself.

Let's set our minds on victory, not only victory as in winning but victory as into conquering our fearful thoughts. To live a victorious life. Let's be courageous in our next steps from today onwards. 

All we need to do is take one step at a time. We all know the saying "how do you eat an elephant?". But instead of just taking "one bite" at a time, don't do this alone. That elephant will be finished a lot quicker if you surround yourself with like-minded individuals joining you to take just "one bite" at a time.

Before you know it the elephant will be done, and you will be victorious. Set your mind on victory. And let's get started...

The Journey of Personal Development

The Journey of Personal Development

We often hear about the topic of self-development or self-improvement. To develop or improve yourself, but what does it mean? Well in the broader sense it can mean quite frankly anything that you do to Grow in any part or area of your life. Being it your health, finances or education or wherever this may apply to you. 

We tend to limit this definition and put it, and ourselves, in a box to only refer to becoming a better person...and again the question...what does that mean? Who determines that you are not a good person and in terms of which standard have they measured this...who developed this standard? Is it society, and that again is another long discussion as to who is this society being referred to, but we will not get into it now.

The journey of self-development or self-improvement is an amazing one, and it can be very fulfilling pursuing it, as long as your Growth is the progress of your own determined standards or baseline.

If we pursue the process of self-development or self-improvement to better ourselves based on the norm or standards society sets for us, we will be a victim to society having to acknowledge that you indeed did better yourself through whichever undertaking you have taken, and if that never happens, you will experience a sense of unfulfillment and possibly a bit depressed as your hard work has gone unnoticed.

Find the true reason why you feel you need to Grow, determine your own baseline from which you will be working from, for example, for me to learn more about how people react to a certain situation, I would regard as having Grown if I read a book on it. I would not be an expert on the area I've chosen to Grow on, but I know more now than I did before reading the book, so in terms of my own baseline, from not knowing anything to knowing something, was Growth or personal development. Society might dictate that you should earn some sort of certification or qualification or spend a pre-determined amount of time on the topic before you may qualify yourself as Grown or developed.

Let it be your journey, and the moment you do that, your approach and view of personal development and Growth will change from one that might feel like it is a chore to one of amazement.

Procrastination and Life

Procrastination and Life!

So yes...this is not an April fools joke, and yes the last time I posted was more than a

year ago. As the title states, procrastination definitely played a role as well as life

happened.

I became a dad for the first time, so that blew my mind. I had to recover from knee

surgery, a meniscal transplant which had me a bit immobile for some 8 weeks or so.

But enough excuses or reasons why I have not written any blogs, the main thing

is that I just did not write, but that I am doing so now.

When you read this blog post, it was written while South Africa was(is) In a lockdown

due to the COVID-19 outbreak. And as a result of the lockdown I, and I can only

but guess a lot of others, have some time on their hands to get to the things we have

procrastinated on or just did not get the time to attend to.

There are a lot of negative things about this lockdown and the Coronavirus, we, however,

have a choice to look at the situation in a positive way. Positives such as the situation

creates time for us to attend to the things we never had time for and to form new

positive habits and hobbies. For me, I am hoping to write more, and more often, continue

to educate myself by reading more and make time to speak to people smarter than me. 

There is a post on LinkedIn, and I am sure it will do its rounds on Facebook as well,

which refers to the companies and ideas that were developed during the 2008 recession.

Billion-dollar companies only 12 years later.

Let’s use this time we have to create, innovate and inspire. Figure out what it is you

truly want to do with your life and find the way in which you want to do it. 

I am on the same Journey in that sense, going through the motions of figuring

out my WHY as Simon Sinek would put it.