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Passion, Decisions and Closure

Passion – For success and happiness education is important. Effort is necessary. Desire is a must. But passion – that’s the critical ingredient in all success. It is an inner driving force that leads, prods or even requires you to keep on keeping on and never quit, give up or let circumstances beyond your control cause you to relent or retreat. It is in your DNA. It touches everything you touch and it is simply a way of life. Yes, at times in life it can fade or seem to be absent, but it is always there lying beneath the surface waiting for you to act. No matter how discouraging situations might seem it will not let you let go of the need to move forward. It is not attached to specific outcomes or achievements but it is relentless keeping you moving one step at a time into the future no matter how difficult those steps might seem. It overcomes despair, failure, uncertainty, hopelessness and even fear.

Decisions – Every day we all make decisions – some are life changing while others are just routine and easy or even small or insignificant. But, keep in mind whether a decision is a small one or a huge one they all have consequences. The question is – do you have a decision strategy or process when it comes to deciding – anything or do you just leave it all up to how you feel that day, the weather, chance or just luck and whatever will be -will be?

What exactly is a decision process or strategy? Without giving you more information that you want, let me just repeat that making decisions is the easy part especially if you have a history of not following through on decisions. So the real challenge is not the decision but the will, courage and confidence to take action.

A simple decision process is; consider all alternatives and their potential consequences (you can’t guarantee any of these), stay in reality and not fantasy, deal in truth and not just personal perception as perceptions are often based on many false premises, decide, develop a plan to implement your decision and make sure it includes dealing with possible obstacles, opportunities and the potential for failure, write down the plan, give it a timeline for results or outcomes, keep inspecting your actions and adjust as necessary, if you find that you don’t have passion, courage or confidence in the actions then re-visit the decision.

Closure – Sooner or later everything in life ends. A career, a business, a relationship, a hobby or life. In his great book, Transitions, William Bridges talks a great deal about closure and its impact on our future. Native Americans have a closure ceremony and scripture says that “this too shall pass.” When something ends most people want to quickly fill the void with something new – a new relationship, a new job or a new – something. People generally dislike vacuums in their life. If they give up golf they will replace it with tennis. If they don’t like their current church they will search for another one etc. A great quote by Pogo states, “Wherever you go, there you are” in other words we always take who we are – attitudes, likes, prejudices, expectations, needs, desires, mindsets etc. into every new situation. So, if what caused you to need a change was something outside yourself – first ask yourself – could it be me?

Closure is letting go of what was. It is not taking regret, past memories or disappointments or unrealized expectations in what was into the next stage or circumstances of life. Closure is declaring an ending and moving on with faith, courage, belief and confidence.

Live wisely this week,
Tim Connor