Love what you do!

Dear readers,

in this discourse I want to add a valuable endowment to my 2012 April blog on Energy and Enthusiasm in which I proclaimed the enthusiastic heart; I now want to encourage you to add another ingredient to the recipe of success: love!

Enthusiasm about your dreams and deeds is indeed closely tied to the love for your dreams and deeds, but somehow a bit different—I surely see both as complementary, where enthusiasm is the outer element with love being the inner part. You can spread and show enthusiasm about what you do, but I would like to encourage you to neither neglect nor diminish the inner part: the love for what you do.

Love for your dreams and deeds is the foundation, the fundamental core for all enthusiasm, because all enthusiasm, if it is real, comes from within; and love is its big bang. Before all enthusiasm can be seen by your fellow friends the love for your deeds and dreams needs to be there—glowing at the bottom of your heart: from within. When the love for your dreams and deeds is fully and entirely established it will shimmer and glow and slowly drift to the outside where people can see you shining and spreading joy and love; but in order to radiate this love you need to have it inside. With the love for your dreams and deeds you will constantly be fulfilled and it will be easy to pursue your deeds and chase your dreams, for you simply enjoy what you are doing...and “[p]eople who enjoy what they are doing invariably do it well” (Joe Gibbs); and when you do things well, you will be damn good at it. Love from within is an indicator, an insurance, a warranty for a successful outcome of whatever it is you do, anywhere, any time; as phrased by the entrepeneur—and founder of NBC—David Sarnoff: “Nobody can be successful unless he loves his work.”

Meaning: love what you do—and by implication: do what you love. When you do what you love, you will enjoy it, and you will then do it with heart, with an unstoppable inspirational flame you have inside your heart, with a relentless passion that then can shine through to the outside, resulting in enthusiasm to be seen by your fellow friends, by other people, enthusiasm to inspire other people, to attract other people all by itself.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell once said that “[t]here are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure,” which is nothing but true. Let the love for what you do come into play here, where learning from failure, hard work, preparation are all parts of the love you have for both your deeds and your dreams, where you stand and fall with the love for your deeds and dreams, where the love for your deeds and dreams makes you forget, how hard the work for it is, how long learning from failure can take; let the love and passion for what you do slip and slide into your heart, love what you do…and then nothing you do is work, you merely do what you love!

...on finishing!

My dearest beloved readers,

this discourse I would like to dedicate to all who are currently at difficult tasks, who are on tough missions, let it be at work, in school, regarding athletic activities, music—whatever it is you do...and I want to encourage you to FINISH!

At an earlier point I wrote about being on the path to some great achievement attempting to inspire you to get pumped up and remain on the path until the goal is reached—and this is what thou shalt do. Do not step aside from the path you’re on, for this road is going somewhere. Stay strong and let the upcoming achievement thrill you, fulfill you. To say it in the words of pilot and author Richard Bach: “The more [you] want to get something done, the less [you] call it work.” See it as a poker game, be ALL IN!

You may be on the road, on the path for a long time, sometimes longer than expected, but when you do it with heart, when you merely do what we all hear in songs everyday, when you are “100 like a fastball” (Dwayne Carter) or when you “go hard, make sure you do whatever it is that you gotta do, that’s your job” (Cameron Thomaz) the time will come when you see the goal line; and when that happens: finish! Many people I met dropped out before they saw the finish line, which is somewhat tenable, if one is not committed to getting the job done...but when you do see the goal line, what is the point of dropping out, where is reason when you consider turning around? Finish!

You have come a long way, you remained on your path, you left blood, sweat, and tears out there, you made sacrifices for a big achievement, you may have been knocked down but gotten back up, you kept on rolling, you persevered...and you are almost there, put all effort in finishing it; and let me tell you something: it feels pretty damn good when you reach the goal line...and even better when you realize that you finished, when you look back at all the hard work you put into the game that now pays off.

If you want the reward, you’ve got to get to the finish line, you’ve got to see it through to the end, at work, in school, in sports, everywhere—and there a big reward awaits you. “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up” (Babe Ruth), because a person who puts in all effort to getting the job done will remain on the path with heart until he or she reaches the goal line; make a difference to all the ones who turn around or drop out halfway through, be the one to finish!

Then you’re not only a finisher, then you’ve proven to yourself that you are ready for new tasks, for higher achievements, because “the reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more” as said by the legendary doctor Jonas Salk—congratulations on your achievement, smile, and get ready for new tasks...and new opportunities! 

Jump-Start

Happy New Year, my fellow readers!

We have just begun a new year, 2013; how have you approached and started this marvelous year? Did you set up a list of new year’s resolutions, intentions, new goals, new mountains to climb? I think it’s time for a jump-start, and the best time to get it going, the best time to start and keep up the effort, to spread ambition, to show heart is: NOW!

In the course of the currently on-going playoffs of the National Football League I would like to kickoff the first blog 2013 with the following words of the legendary Vince Lombardi, who said: "The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price." Let this sink in for a minute and then re-read it. If 2013 is going to be a successful year you must put in effort and hard work...and this is what I want to encourage you to do. Jump-start 2013 with an ambitious explosion, don’t wait, don’t hesitate, start now! If you had been able to take the momentum of 2012 into the new year, get up and continue what you were doing last year, step it up, and furthermore: keep it up!

Work is a privilege, a necessity, an opportunity—and a damn chance to grab life by the horns (cf. Dodge), therefore: work! Success will be the reward for your hard work, no matter what you’re going to do, but do it full-on, with heart, and with passion. If you’re willing to work hard, to pay the price for success, success is merely a matter of time, but always a matter of fact. Let’s make this year an even better, more mind-blowing, more life-changing one than the last. Get it started, for momentum you’ve already got. When people ask you why you already work so hard, knowing the year has only just begun, give ’em the F-150 Super Duty answer: "We own work [...] when compromise is not an option" (cf. Ford).

If people tell you you’re watching to much television, enchant them with the words Henry Ford once said: "There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do." You, as well as any other person, is capable of doing things you don’t even know you could ever do—make do...work hard...and be successful; because inspiration doesn’t favor those who sit still, it dances with the daring (cf. Toyota). Dare, be inspired, be willing to pay the price...and (you will) be successful.

Most of the ideas for this opening blog I derived from (in)voluntarily watching commercials during the presentations of the NFL, so when you watch football, pay attention to the messages, the ideas, the inspiration those commercials convey; you don’t need to purchase inspiring quote collections in your local bookstore, you don’t need to browse the internet for food for the mind, you merely need to open your eyes and ears to what is at hand. Do so and see, what you can learn, where you can get inspiration in your everyday life!

Have a great and incomparable jump-start in 2013...and enjoy the second wild card gameday!