Do you have passion? Do you have something you love to do or want to achieve, and you are constantly working and thinking about how to get there? Or are you marching in place, content to be in motion without actually getting anywhere in life?
I’ve realized over the last few years how important passion is in what I do. Passion is what helps me stay up late at night. Passion is what gets me out of the bed each morning. It’s not fear. It’s not habit. It’s not a sense of responsibility. It’s the idea that I want to accomplish certain goals, and so I do things like stay up until 2:00 a.m. writing blog posts when I should be asleep.
I see people who live lives without passion. They have nothing that inspires them. They leave for work at the same time, drive the same route, and do the same job, year in and year out, because it’s easier than working hard. They lack drive, they lack passion. They haven’t set goals, and they’ll never try to achieve them.
They don’t want More. They don’t want to be better, do better, have better, or live better. They are content with Good Enough. The problem is Good Enough is deadening. It will suck the life right out of you. Once you have achieved Good Enough, there’s never a reason to try to achieve More.
I’m not talking about being greedy or taking more than what you deserve, or sacrificing happiness for achievement. I’m talking about wanting that next thing in life, whether it’s a promotion, or owning your own business, or even getting married and having a family. I’m talking about wanting the More, and not settling for the Good Enough. So many people do that before they’ve barely even started on their path.
When we were kids, we heard from our parents, teachers, and even our friends that “you can do Anything, be Anything, have Anything.” But for many people, when they got to adulthood, reaching Good Enough was, well, good enough, and for some, that was even an uncomfortable stretch. They lost their motivation and their desire. They forgot they could be Anything, and settled for Nothing Special instead.
Surround yourself with people who aren’t done
You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with people who have settled for Good Enough, pretty soon they’ll drag you down with the anchor of mediocrity. But if you surround yourself with people who burn with passion, you’ll be swept up in their energy and you’ll find the way to accomplish your own goals
It doesn’t matter if their passions are different than yours. What you want are people who love what they do, whether they love their work, or they have love a particular hobby, sideline, or collection. They could be musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, authors, or even scientists. They just have to burn with the desire to do something more than what they’re already doing.
Read the books they read, attend the events they attend, introduce them to other passionate people, and learn from each other. Build a group of trusted advisors who can help steer and channel your own energies and guide you to the success you want. And if you are constantly being dragged down by the dead weight of people who are content with Good Enough, and never want More, cut them loose. If you can’t get them to take the journey with you, go without them.
If you’re passionate about something — and the fact that you’re reading this on a blog about making yourself better tells me you are — you need to align yourself with the people who can help you do it. Avoid the nay-sayers and the settlers and the members of the Church of Good Enough. Hang out with the big thinkers and the pioneers and the missionaries of More, and see where your life will take you.
If you have energy and passion to do More, if you’ve read these last 686 words because they speak to you, then you can do Anything and be Anything you want. I believe in you. You can do this.
Author:
Erik Deckers is the owner of Professional Blog Service, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself. His new book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing, which he wrote with Jason Falls, is in bookstores and on Amazon now.
