The Grand Finale!
(10 of 10) Love is the Cure.
Do what you love and the stress falls away.
The times I have been most stressed, frustrated or unsatisfied in life, are the times when I have been unhappy professionally.
When I am excited and passionate about a business pursuit, no difficulty, problem or set back gives me stress. When I feel fervently about a project I am working on, pressures and problems only intensify my passion and commitment to achievement, thus offering me even more personal fulfillment.
Now, when I am not loving what I am doing, building or pursuing or I am temporarily without a meaningful pursuit, THAT is when I am most unsettled, frustrated and well, STRESSED!
Admittedly I might be a bit of a freak. I have been accused of being a hyper-ambitious over-achiever, but I think most anyone would agree…
If you LOVE what you do and would do IT even over most things recreational, everything in your world translates differently. Challenges become inspirations and set backs only give you the chance to dig deeper and rally harder – all the while having a blast and finding great personal fulfillment in the journey.
Here is how it works:
Stress is created only when there is resistance. If you don't enjoy what you are doing, and you resent it, you are resisting it, thus causing you stress.
Thankfully, we all have different passions or we'd all end up doing the same thing. Actually, I find it amazing that someone can love to do something I hate and vice versa, and that somehow there is somebody who loves to do everything there is. In other words, with all there is to do, there is an individual out there who loves to do each thing. Cool how that works out, huh?
I find this just as wondrous as the idea that we live on a huge ball flying through space, rotating at over 1000 mph, choreographed perfectly with a smaller ball circling it, revolving around another huge ball lit on fire, surrounded by several more huge balls. (My "scientific" definition of our solar system). : )
Everything about life has such perfect harmony... unless it doesn't. And it doesn't if you are not doing what makes YOUR heart sing. If you are defying the laws of your own natural attraction, not doing what you love, your system will be out of harmony, creating resistance and stress on planet YOU.
"So," you ask, "if there is such perfect harmony with each person loving to do different things, then why do people end up doing things they hate doing?"
A kind of question that exposes its own absurdity, huh?
Here is my best guess at why.
Environment and Associations can be powerful, such as...
Family conditioning: Doing what your PARENTS thought you should do and living out THEIR ambitions. Haven't you evaluated a career choice or professional path with the thought, "What would my parents think of this?" Even as adults we do this, I know I have. We end up doing what makes our parents puff their chest up when their friends ask them what you are doing with your life.
Social conditioning: Doing what your peers thought was cool. Picking a career path based on how it sounds when someone asks you at a cocktail party, "So what do you do?" Striving for a title that catapults you high on the societal totem pole. Picking a profession for the money so you can keep up with the Joneses. Becoming a slave to the material lure -- a learned response that your personal worth is equal to your accumulated possessions.
Educational conditioning: Doing what your teachers or other mentors thought you should do. Our education system is great at mass producing little robots to work for someone who overcame the conditioning. Didn't you hear, "Get good grades, so you can go to college, so you can get a secure job"?
And, then there is the "I have no idea how I ended up here" syndrome. "One thing led to another and ten years later, bang, here I am."
Now is the time to TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE.
Don't let society or other people be the puppet master of your life. Live by your own passions; live for your reasons, your values.
If your work causes you stress, that is a clue that it is going against the grain of Who You Are and what You were meant to Become.
I'm sure you have seen many people work at intense paces for long hours, but do not experience stress at all, because they absolutely LOVE what they do. They couldn't be more exhilarated or having more fun lying on a beach.
When you have as much fun at your Vocation as you do at your Vacation, you have found your true love and passion. Then you are the richest among your friends, family and neighbors.
So, what is your passion? What work would make your heart sing and give you endless fulfillment? This is a subject I have spent a great deal of time processing for myself.
Let me give you some questions to ask yourself to find out. Only You know the answer to these questions.
O Who is living the life you most respect or admire?
O What about their life or profession is attractive to you?
O What did they have to do to get to where they are?
O What would you do if you had NO fear and were ten times bolder?
O If you could be / do anything without fail, what would you be / do?
O If you were awarded $10 million dollars (tax-free), what would you do with your time?
O What would you do if you only had 6 months to live?
O People say, "Oh, you are so good at ____".
O Write down at least 20 talents you have been given.
O What are your 5 most important values in life?
O Describe the variables to your Ideal business.
O What is your working environment, what type of people do you work with, what do you do everyday?
O You are in your rocking chair and your great-grandchild asks you, "What are you most proud of in your life? What did you accomplish professionally & financially?"
With the answers to these questions, you will get a sense of what your true passions are, and what your ideal career path might be.
We have all been given the ability to dream -- for a reason. We were given gifts, talents, ambitions and passions for different pursuits -- for a reason.
You can say we were made to live out our dreams.
To not live in accordance to your dreams is living out of integrity with Who You Are and Who You were meant to Become, which will cause you stress.
Pursue what you love and the stress will fall away. Not to mention you will live an invigorating, passionate and fulfilling life, exercising the full measure of your God-given talents.
Passionately encouraging the best within YOU,
~ Darren Hardy
Pass the 10 Secrets to a Stress-Free Life series onto a friend by sending them this link: http://darrenhardy.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/10_secrets_to_a.html





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