What Are You Passionate About?

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How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

– Coco Chanel

I once asked a man what he was passionate about and he replied, leadership. “Leadership of what?” I asked. “I just want to be a leader, it doesn’t matter what.”

I could be wrong, but that sounds a bit like a power grab to me.

It’s a bit sad, if you ask me. But it’s not an unusual answer.

So many of us seek the most coveted position, which isn’t a bad thing if we’re seeking it in an area that we are passionate about and we have the gift-set, but when we want it just for the sake of having it, we will find ourselves in an excruciating uphill journey that feels mostly like trying to run quickly under water.

Worst of all, we’ll not be happy with the experience.

Co Co had it right. I think she knew well that putting aside our wish to be something, and seeking to be true to who we are and act from where we are passionate, immediately releases us from unnecessary cares.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

So, what are you passionate about?

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How To Set The World On Fire

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Be who you were created to be and you will set the world on fire.

St. Catherine of Siena

There was a time when it was considered good and sensible to accept one’s lot in life with grace and gratitude. A time when if your father was a servant, it would follow that you would be a servant, and your son would be a servant.

These days, we tell ourselves that we can be whoever we want to be. Some folks achieve their dreams, many don’t.

I wonder have we set ourselves up for failure and ultimately, a life of misery because of it?

Just as with any stream of contemporary thought in any given time in human history, when we examine our ideals over a long period of time, we discover that the pendulum has swung from one extreme to another.

So I find myself thinking it best that the pendulum rest somewhere in the middle.

That it doesn’t have to be completely this way or that.

That purpose can be found in this way AND that.

That any person using their unique gifts can set their world on fire; no matter their station in life.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

ALIVE – My Word For 2017

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Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

Ernest Hemingway

I love this Hemingway quote. It calls me to be present in the NOW and to give all of myself to the moment at hand. And not only that, it dares me to fully experience the moment using all of my senses – to be wholly alive.

Life is sweet. Just to be here is a wonderful thing – even in difficult times. The odds were stacked against me to even be born! Yet here I am, and how easy it is to take my life for granted, to forsake what is right in front of me for what was, or what may, or may not be.

Alive.

I can feel my blood pumping through my veins just saying it! And so I know, it’s the perfect word for me in 2017.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

My words for previous years

Unbecoming

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Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.

If you’ve ever tried to please everyone at the same time, you probably know firsthand how utterly impossible it is to do so.

If you’ve ever tried to toe the company line when you didn’t necessarily agree with it, you are probably familiar with that unsettling feeling you get in your stomach when you are not being true to yourself.

Yet we spend a lot of our lives trying to squeeze ourselves into acceptable societal and familial moulds because it makes life easier, things just go more smoothly if we conform to the way things are.

We wonder what is wrong with us; that we don’t see things in the same way as the majority and we struggle to become who we think we are meant to be.

Are we actually struggling against ourselves?

Fortunately for me, the older I get, the less insecure I am about living my life authentically.

Maybe our journey is more about finally unbecoming everything we are not.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Vulnerability

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“The marks humans leave are too often scars.”

John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

I have this thing I want to share with you. I’m not particularly proud of it, but I’ve learned so much about myself because of it. But I’m afraid to tell you. I’m afraid you will leave me. I’m afraid you won’t want to be in my life anymore. I’m afraid you won’t look at me in the same way.

We’ve all felt this way at some point with someone, whether it was a lover, a parent, a child, a sibling, or a friend. But sharing whatever it was came with the threat of losing the other. And not sharing came with the threat of losing honesty between us and the laying of the first brick of a wall that will eventually divide us.

It’s no wonder we struggle with vulnerability. It can hurt us, and most probably will. After all the root of vulnerable comes from vulnera which is Latin for “to wound.”

Yet if I am not honest about who I am and you are not honest about who you are, do we even really have a relationship?

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

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It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesnt interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon…
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moment.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Ever Want Something, But it’s Not Right?

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“Every time I’ve done something that doesn’t feel right, it’s ended up not being right.” – Mario Cuomo

YOU KNOW WHAT this quote is talking about, right?

There’s this thing you want to do. Like maybe get revenge on someone that’s hurt you or a loved one. Or maybe it’s not so black and white and if you just leak certain information about your competition, you’ll get the promotion or the contract or whatever. Yet even though you want to do it, you know it would be wrong.

Or maybe there’s something you really want, something you’re secretly obsessing about, but having it would mean someone else might get hurt or miss out in some way. And you know it’s not right but you struggle with it because you really want it. You tell yourself if you don’t get it, you will regret it for the rest of your life. And up until you finally decide, it could go either way.

It can be tough, but here’s what I’ve learned.

Whenever I’ve heeded the feeling that something wasn’t right, I have not regretted it. Whenever I’ve ignored the feeling, it’s always ended up not being right.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

A Leap of Faith

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And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~ Anaïs Nin 

When you take a leap in faith to follow your heart, you do so knowing that there is no guarantee that you will succeed.

Often, when you finally do pursue your dream, it’s because it has become too unbearable for you to remain docile in a particular situation or way of being. For whatever reason, you resolve that change is needed.

And so you calculate the risk.

Is it what I really want? Is it worth pursuing even if nothing comes of it? What are the pros and cons of taking this risk? What might I lose? What might I gain?

All growth seems to happen when it becomes uncomfortable to remain where and how you are. And whether it manifests itself the way you hoped it would or not, growth always adds value, sometimes it even leads to more than you envisioned.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

What’s the most important risk you ever took? Did it work out the way you hoped it would? What did you learn through the process?

What Kind of Giver are You?

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Teach us to give and not to count the cost. ~Saint Ignatius

I ADMIT IT. I’VE ALWAYS BEEN a bit of a scorekeeper. I don’t like that about myself. But it’s true.

To be fair, I used to be way worse. I’d like to think I’ve grown as a person during the half century I’ve been on earth. And really, I mostly keep score when I feel indebted to someone.

You know, as in ‘you paid for breakfast last time so I can’t sleep peacefully until I buy you breakfast and then we’re even,’ kind of way?

But the concept that I might keep score, especially when I begin to feel as though I’m always giving and someone else is always taking, is not a foreign one to me either.

So what is my motivation for giving?

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes when I give, it’s from a place of love and compassion. But when I give because I feel indebted, or I give because I expect my giving will be reciprocated, can that truly be called giving?

When I give, I want to give without counting the cost.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

What kind of giver are you?

Integrity

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Wherever you go, take yourself with you ~ Lolly Daskal

You know what’s really hard to do?

Trying to guess and do what would please someone else, even if it’s something you wouldn’t normally do – that’s what!

Not only does it make you feel awkward, most times it doesn’t work. It’s true what they say, people can spot a phony a mile away!

The mal effects go beyond that one circumstance as well. Because if you do this often with a variety of people; you will appear flighty and inconsistent to others.

And inconsistency is percieved as a lack of integrity. Being a person with integrity requires you to be the same on the outside as you are on the inside. It means that people who know you can predict how you will respond to a given situation.

The truth is you cannot possibly please everyone anyway. But chances are you’ll gain more respect from others by being consistently true to yourself and your values, than you will by pretending to be someone else.

In the end, it just makes more sense to bring yourself everywhere you go.

– DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES –

Do you bring yourself everywhere you go?