Moving Forward with a Driving Passion

    This week we talked about what it means to move forward with a driving passion. It was exceptionally helpful for me to remember where I have gotten my passions from. If you’re anything like me, passion for life has come and gone. I’m sure you can relate on some level and to some aspect. I wanted to talk for just a second about reestablishing passion for life in general. For me, it seems like when I am working towards a goal of some sort, I feel the progress, and I fall in love. For example, I had a different teacher assign us goals to stay accountable to. He wanted us to choose three goals for each of these three areas of our life to work towards for 4 weeks: physical, spiritual, and relational. He didn’t tell us how to set these goals, except for they needed to be goals that make us stretch individually and were achievable, and measurable (for example: working out for 4 days a week). Ever since I started working on all of these goals, I have remembered how much I love life! And as a byproduct of that, I love myself a lot more. (side note: I’m someone that is critical of myself, so occasionally some self-love is necessary)

    Concerning the study this week, we studied “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. The seven habits are: 1- be proactive; 2- begin with the end in mind; 3- put first things first; 4- think win/win; 5- seek first to understand, then to be understood; 6- synergize; and 7- sharpen the saw. The habit that has the most meaning to me is to be proactive. I can’t do it justice to share my simple thoughts, so I’ll encourage you to read the book or short articles for yourself. The reason why I love it so much is because it is the most foundational principle. It encases self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and independent will. To be proactive means that you take initiative no matter the situation. It means that you act and are not acted on. “Proactive people are driven by values that are both well thought out and internalized.”

    These things that I have talked about, including all of the 7 habits of highly effective people, have helped me, and will continue to help me, to fill my life with passion and purpose. They will do this because it helps me to keep myself in check, while still being effective. I know that when we are passionate and are achieving personal goals, that will eventually be translated into outward goals. These things that I have talked about today are just the internal motivations, but by working on them, I will eventually get to taste the fruit of what I have been growing.

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