“Passion is the spark that lights the fire. Your principles and purpose is the kindling that keeps it burning all night.” — Brianna Wiest

We are all passionate about something. Passion is a great thing to have, to an extent.

I read an old article by writer Brianna Wiest: 7 Things You’re Relying On In Life That Are Holding You Back.

On passion, Wiest wrote:  

“Passion is such a heavily used buzzword when it comes to defining what makes for meaningful and aspirational work. When people say ‘pursue your passion,’ what they really mean is to find something you care about enough to work on consistently.”

She continues, “Passion is emotion-based, and therefore, unpredictable if not fleeting. If you rely on passion to propel you through your life’s work, you will be constantly at the whim of it. Cultivating principles means adopting behaviors that consistently work you toward your goals, whether or not you always ‘feel’ like it.”

This resonated with me. “Cultivating principles… that consistently work you toward your goals (and gifts), whether or not you always feel like it.” The passion gets us going, but the purpose, our principles, and our gifts will keep us on the right track and help us to achieve what we set out to do.

Cultivate principles that consistently work you toward your goals…

At the end of the article, Wiest goes on to talk about happiness. She says we shouldn’t rely on arriving at our next goal before we let ourselves be happy.

“If you were not able to sit back, sip your coffee this morning and enjoy the day ahead of you, you will not be able to do so no matter how wealthy, successful, in shape, popular or admired you become.“

“It is one of our most devastating failures that we have convinced ourselves that life begins on the other end of our achievements. It doesn’t. Happiness is not something we earn, it is something we become. Life unfolds from the inside out – not the other way around.”

As I always say, the joy is in the journey. I wholeheartedly believe that. You can be in a situation that seems unfair — or not ideal — and still have joy for the overall picture, to see beyond the current circumstance. Joy is the bigger picture. Choose joy.

I enjoy Wiest’s writing and you can always find some great gems while reading her work. Below are a couple of books that I recommend:

101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think and her newer one: The Pivot Year.

Let’s cultivate principles that consistently guide us toward our goals — and help us to use — our gifts. 

Begin by being clear on what it is that we want, practicing self-compassion, setting short-term goals within our bigger goals, and celebrating the small wins.

Believing in our victory!