Passion of the Catalyst

During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank.

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.

Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second partition. Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks. Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until eventually the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.

The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.

The moral: Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. In other words, we continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go.

Dont let fake barriers keep you from the life you deserve and were created to have .

 

There was an older more experienced truck driver who had been all over the country in his career.

One day, he had to train a new, much younger, inexperienced driver. The old one allowed the younger one to drive for awhile. The young one drove the big 18-wheeler for about five hours and became very tired and asked the trainer to take over for a while.

The trainer drove for 10 hours and was not even tired as he had done this for years. The young man was flabbergasted and asked the old man how he could drive for hours and not get tired.

The old man asked him, “What do you do in the morning just before you leave your house?”

The young man replied, “I kiss my wife good-bye and tell her I am going to work.”

The old one said, “That is your problem.”

The young man asked, “What do you mean, problem?”

The old man said, “When I leave in the morning, I kiss my wife good-bye, but I don’t tell her I am going to work, I tell her I am going for a drive in the country.”

Everything is a matter of attitude.

One of his main principles is that there’s no excuse for not trying. The first setback came when he didn’t make the varsity basketball team in sophomore year, because he was only 5’9” and his taller classmate Leroy Smith had taken the last spot on the team. Vowing to himself never to be in the same position again, he made a habit to practice daily – without fail. Hitting a growth spurt and reaching 6’3” he made the team the following year and never looked back. He went on to win two gold medals in the Olympics, and winning the NBA’s most valuable player 5 times in his career, it was his determination and practice that gave him the greatest success.

From 1968 until 2001, Fred Rogers was an important part of the morning routine of many of America’s young children. The host of the iconic television show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, Rogers had some routines of his own, too. On the show, he’d come into his “home,” take off his coat and hang it up in the closet, put on a zippered cardigan, and change from dress shoes into sneakers. In real life, he was also a creature of habit: according to writer Tom Junod, Rogers woke at 5 A.M. each morning and, before starting his day, prayed, studied, swam, replied to fan letters, and got on the scale.

And every day, Fred Rogers weighed in at 143 pounds.

His weight  from his mid-40s until his death at age 75 in 2003, Rogers had a neat daily goal — keep his weight exactly the same. His generally trim physique was part and parcel of his suite of healthy habits — Rogers was a non-drinker, non-smoker who, for most of his adulthood, was vegetarian. But there was more to it than that. The affable Mr. Rogers wished to see his best traits — his compassion, warmth, and kindness — reflected back at him.

For Rogers, there was something magical about the number 143. To him, it stood as a symbol of love, or, more accurately, of the phrase “I Love You.” “I” has one letter, “Love” has four, and “You” has three. 143.

Blubrry Podcast Media Hosting

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”

Reflection:

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever.

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

Blubrry Podcast Media Hosting

We lose a lot of time in life over this confusion of “what exactly is my passion and life purpose.” There is this feeling that one’s passion should be self-evident from the moment one lays eyes on it. And that a burning desire for it just persists in our consciousness on it’s own, carrying us through all the hardships and difficulties of the path.

The truth is, if you want an extraordinary life, then you have to endure extraordinary hardship. And nothing outside of you is ever going to get you through that. The only thing that will make you endure are the resources that you find within yourself.

Look back over the last 100 years of publishing in the self help genre, and you would find many titles revolving around the subject of getting rich. At one point in time – it seems – people considered becoming a millionaire the panacea that would solve all of their problems in life.

These days we seem to have gotten wiser. No longer do we believe that money will solve all of our life’s problems. But we seem to have fallen into another insidious trap. What was once all about getting rich has now turned into finding one’s passion. Why? Because life will become so much easier, work won’t feel like work anymore, and we would never have to worry about meeting our basic economic needs by “trading our time for dollars.”

So deep is this thought process embedded into our culture that even the most successful people in the world repeat it. Never mind in what way they mean it, and in what way the rest of us understand it. The point is that the “find your passion” maxim has become the magic bullet solution of our times.

Frankly I am starting to believe less and less in this. Well at least in the idea as it is conceived in popular culture. Not sure if you agree with me? Here’s a quick test: would you be willing to slog 80 hour work weeks at a job you hate, for the opportunity to pursue your passion for 1 hour a week? I think I’m safe in assuming the average person would not take that deal. Yet passion implies “at any cost” and “whatever it takes.” If a person were truly passionate about something, they would do whatever it takes to earn the time to invest into it.

This is why I think becoming a passionate person is more important than finding your passion. It all starts with self transformation. Finding the best version of yourself from within yourself, rather than finding the ideal medium for expression out in the world.

We lose a lot of time in life over this confusion of “what exactly is my passion and life purpose.” There is this feeling that one’s passion should be self-evident from the moment one lays eyes on it. And that a burning desire for it just persists in our consciousness on it’s own, carrying us through all the hardships and difficulties of the path.

The truth is, if you want an extraordinary life, then you have to endure extraordinary hardship. And nothing outside of you is ever going to get you through that. The only thing that will make you endure are the resources that you find within yourself.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. He then hid himself and watched to see if anyone would move the boulder out of the way. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.

Many people loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none of them did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

A peasant then came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to push the stone out of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.

After the peasant went back to pick up his vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King explaining that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

Moral of the story: Every obstacle we come across in life gives us an opportunity to improve our circumstances, and whilst the lazy complain, the others are creating opportunities through their kind hearts, generosity and willingness to get things done.

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Imagine you had a bank account that deposited $86,400 each morning. The account carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every dollar each day!

We all have such a bank. Its name is Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever time you have failed to use wisely. It carries over no balance from day to day. It allows no overdraft so you can’t borrow against yourself or use more time than you have. Each day, the account starts fresh. Each night, it destroys an unused time. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, it’s your loss and you can’t appeal to get it back.

There is never any borrowing time. You can’t take a loan out on your time or against someone else’s. The time you have is the time you have and that is that. Time management is yours to decide how you spend the time, just as with money you decide how you spend the money. It is never the case of us not having enough time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do them and where they fall in our priorities.