The main character in the movie Shawshank Redemption says, “Get busy living or get busy dying.” Every single day of your life you make a choice to move toward your passion or to wander further away from it. We are quick to place blame on our boss, our parents, and our culture on why we have a hard time recognizing and working toward achieving our dreams. Instead, switch your focus to what drives you from within instead of whatever external cause that may have squelched your fire. What’s passed is behind you.
Now is the time to take responsibility for yourself, get busy living, decide what that passion is, and move towards it.
I’m often asked by patients about how to get something they want. Many times it becomes clear that their focus is less on how to get there and more on some tangible thing outside themselves: an ideal salary, an ideal body, an ideal marriage. I typically reflect this question back to my friends and pose it simpler, “What do you want?” Most are surprised with this for two reasons. First, I didn’t answer their question for them. In cases like this, it’s not really my place to do that. Second, and more importantly, is the subject of my question, that many people have little idea what it is they want from themselves or for their life. I will often ask my patients to return with a list of 5 things they want from life. One cannot rightly demand the serenity of an island vacation without doing the work to get it: schedule the trip, buy the tickets and pack the right things. Go inside, find what drives you, then make it happen, one small change at a time.
At this point, that skeptical voice may chime in, “But that’s not realistic because…”After we discover your life’s passion we must determine what is holding you back from achieving it. Again, we may be quick to postpone our dreams because of many conscious reasons like an unfulfilling job, an overbearing family, or the many more unconscious reasons like addiction to food, low self-worth or, again, the lack of a vision.
Find and accentuate your gifts, cleanse and remove your obstacles, then move forward with confidence.
How? One, ask for help. Two, change. Both of these tasks may seem daunting but the most successful people on the planet do these regularly. Here at New Harmony Health I am a certified life coach in the Chinese medical tradition, what we call InfiniChi Coaching. Let us help you shine a light on those hidden fires within you, bringing you ever nearer to passion and greatness in all aspects of your life: mind, body, relationships, career and finances. Contact our clinic to schedule your first 30-minute consultation or visit infinichi.com to learn more.