99% perspiration

After attending Symposium Neun Thinken yesterday(3rd April) and hearing inspiring words from social entrepreneurs, i left with "PASSION", "BELIEF", "JUST DO IT", etc running through my head. But i shouldnt be forgetting various other "words" which were mentioned; along the lines of hard work.

All of us out there have these visions, ideas, plans, and most likely we are all burning to get started on the journey towards our goals. Correction : LONG ARDUOUS journey. I feel it is this 99% perspiration that differentiates the passion from desire. I've always imagined goals as a peak on a high mountain (as many of us would imagine it as :) ) and i imagine many people going on the journey to conquer that mountain and reach the peak. The journey is not easy with forests, rivers, seas, desserts, rocks, boulders, heat, wind, snow, and every other obstacle we can imagine. At various points, people falter and fall out of the path, because they are simply too tired or because they are distracted by something else along the way. Eventually, the numbers start reducing as the journey progresses. At the end of the entire journey, only a few have conquered the peak.

This actually points out a few key lessons

1) The difference between passion and desire.

2) Identifying whether what we have is desire or passion and this i believe would be one of the hardest to identify.

3) Work= Force*Distance which indicates that hard work is not a walk in the park

4) The importance of support systems to push us, give us a hand when we fall, to provide words of advice, to motivate and to support.

5) The wise saying "failure is a stepping stone to success" makes perfect sense. So maybe you failed because you were distracted or because you lost energy but hey if the goal is where your passion truly lies then try try again right.

At the end of the day, it is the hard work that is going to ensure you reach what you've set yourself to/aimed to achieve. The 1% inspiration matters. A lot! But if you do not even give the remaining 99% perspiration a shot, then clearly you do no value the inspiration. It is just a desire rather than a passion.

I conclude by saying I am a lost sheep like many of you out there, with no clear direction or focus as to what i want. I can say that i have many desires but till now i can't clearly say i am passionate about any one particular thing/cause/issue. But if and when i do get there, I am definitely gonna give my 99%.