You Are Only Powerless If You Believe You Are Powerless
The key word here is believe. In my book “Brave the Wave” the focus was on what you think and what you believe and what you know. There has to be a transition from thinking to believing to knowing. You really do have access to power. The transition is what requires effort and time. Do you believe you are powerless?
My second book is on passion, power and purpose. Who doesn’t want power? The essence and source of power comes from passion. It is a supernatural source. Our passion is a gift from God and is unique to us. In this book, I talk about what drove me to write,
“Before we talk about supernatural power, I’d like us to look at our own unique passions. Is there anything that is burning deep inside you? Is there anything that you absolutely must do because if you don’t, you will die. Take the CAN’T NOT test. You can’t not do something or engage in some activity. That’s passion. Once discovered and developed, it can become a force in your life that drives you. Some people will say, “but I don’t have anything in my life that I am really passionate about.” Have you tried new things? I never dreamed or even thought about writing a book. I was telling my mom about all the things I had learned and had recorded in my spiritual journal and I told her, “mom, if I don’t write some of these ideas down and expand on them, my head will explode.” You see, there were no other options. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. That’s passion. Who knows if anyone will read this stuff, but at least, I’m getting it down.”
I wrote that paragraph about a year ago. I was trying to capture the essence of passion. The book essentially wrote itself because of the nagging idea that was grating in the back of my head. How many people around me are actually engaged in passion? I’m talking about God given passion that is linked to purpose. Look around you. Look at all your family and friends and co-workers. If you have read “Brave the Wave”, you have developed some keen powers of observation.
When we are engaged in passion, we have access to power. When you ignore your passion, you ignore your own power. Then you begin to believe you are powerless. If we link passion and power to purpose and inject discipline, we are closer to our authentic selves. The selves we were created to be.
Passion, power, purpose
I was just looking at a blog article from Ryan Holiday the author of the magnificent book “The Obstacle is the Way”. I highly recommend that book for people who are going through difficult circumstances. Look at what he wrote about the process of writing a book,
Painters like painting, the saying goes, writers like having written.
Are there exceptions to both sides of this rule? Of course. But anyone who has run the gauntlet and written a full-length book can tell you, it’s a grueling process.
You wake up for weeks, months or years on end, and at the end of each working day you are essentially no closer to finishing than you were when you started. It’s particularly discouraging work because progress feels so elusive. Not to mention that the pages you find yourself looking at rarely match what was in your head.It’s for this reason that “wanting” to write a book is not enough. It’s not therapy. It’s not an “experience.” It’s hard f******* work.
People who get it into their heads that they “may” have a book idea in them are not the ones who finish books. No, you write the book you HAVE to write or you will likely not write it at all. “Have” can take many forms, not just an idea you feel driven to get out. You know, Steig Larsson wrote the Dragon Tattoo series to pay for his and his wife’s retirement.
If you honestly think you might be fine if you nixed the project and went on with your life as though the idea never occurred to you–then For The Love Of God, save yourself the anguish and do that. If, on the other hand, this idea keeps you up at night, it dominates your conversations and reading habits, if it feels like you’ll explode if you don’t get it all down, if your back is to the wall–then congratulations, it sounds like you’ve got a book in you.
I include all this because I believe those are some good descriptors of passion.
keeps you up at night
dominates your conversations
dominates your reading habits
feels like you will explode if you don’t get it down
For me personally, I wish I had a nickel for all the times I woke up at two in the morning and I had to get up to get some ideas down.
Here are some other characteristics of passion that you may find useful to apply to other activities other than writing that you may or may not be engaged in. I go into detail regarding each one in my second book on passion.
Excitement (this tends to bring energy)
Determination
Positive attitude
Perseverance
Focus
Resilience
Infectious enthusiasm
Servant’s heart
Self-motivation
Goal directed behavior
These are the components of passion defined within the framework of our authentic selves. The selves we were created to be. Notice the inclusion of servant’s heart. When I am talking about power and passion, I am talking about supernatural power that comes from our relationship with Jesus. It’s supernatural. It is awash in truth and love.
The thing I found interesting is the word explode. I used the word explode describing my drive to write the book about passion because that is the only way to describe it. It was like a controlled fire or explosion deep inside of you. YOU MUST DO IT. If you don’t have a fire or an explosion deep inside, you are not tapping into power that is just waiting to be released. That is where the power lies. You may have to put effort into discovering that passion. I never knew that I had a passion to write until I tried it. You are only powerless if you believe you are powerless. You have access to power when you discover your passion. Which is a key to fulfilling your unique purpose.
Listen to Dr Cavazos in the brand new Discover Your Authentic Self podcast !
https://www.realmenconnect.com/podcast/episode/c5a4abaf/422-how-to-discover-your-authentic-self