A Conversation Between Friends: Are You Willing to Look Inside Yourself, Friend?

The following is an excerpt from The Monday Morning Memo for Aug. 20, 2007, Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads

Do you ever ask yourself hard-to-answer questions like, “What am I trying to make happen?” “How will I measure success?” “What is holding me back?”

Rarely do we question our own objectives. Even more rarely do we question our emotions.People whose feelings ride close to the surface are quick to use words like “passion.”

My good friend Marley said it one time too many the other day, so I interrupted, “Define passion for me please, but accurately, not poetically.”

“What do you mean?”

“Name the ingredients of passion.”

I listened to my buddy ramble and fumble for a minute, then interrupted him by holding up a finger and saying, “One ingredient would be desire, don’t you think?”

“Yes, desire is part of passion.”

“What would be the second part?” I asked.

Marley looked at me blankly for a moment, then raised his eyebrows and turned both his palms upward.

I held up a second finger, “Commitment.”

When Marley speaks of passion, he’s referring to desire with commitment. Unlike most people, Marley is willing to pay the price, suffer the consequences, live up to the obligations of the things he loves. But most people who say “passion” refer only to a desire that provides them escape from boredom.Have you chosen a purpose? Is your commitment to your purpose higher than your desire for personal comfort? Most people drift across the surface of life without ever seeing the guiding beacon of purpose. They fail to see it because they’re not looking for it.Purpose is more often chosen than appointed.Do you want to experience the joys and pains of it?Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Roy H. Williams