Have you ever stopped to consider why you do the things you do? What ignites a passionate fire within your soul? What lights you up? More importantly, I guess my question is: are you stoking that fire with your every action?
I was that girl who always let the fire burn her out.
What started out as passion and enthusiasm, somewhere down the line without me ever really being conscious of it, became commitment, obligation and even routine. What was a fire in me, what set my soul ablaze, often became the very thing that reduced me to cinders, leaving me with nothing left to give and nobody there to give it to (or ask for help to recover from it).
The difference between burning passion and burning out is very subtle. One requires that you know your “why,” your clear motivations let’s say, and become fiercely protective over that inner fuel. The other requires only that you forget who you are and the precious nature of what you came to share, i.e. YOU!
For me the fire is lit by innovation, creativity, inspiration and integrity. Integrity, put another way is what feels like coming home to yourself. That’s going to look different for all of us.
When you do something because you love it and it comes from a place of alignment with who you are and where you are going, it becomes self-fuelling. Your passion is sustained by the momentum or progress along the path. The minute you begin to do something because others expect it, because others demand it, or because it maintains your position in some way, the fuel starts to get used up because there is nothing new to replace it with.
What lights you up, lights your way.
Life is a path. If you want to stay lit, you have to let your passion (your why), move you along it. Every life you touch along that path will be lit by your passion too… but it isn’t your job to keep them lit. That’s their soul’s journey – their why.
As soon as I began to understand that, I stopped burning out. I focus fully on being Self-Full through self-care, and returning to my own personal “why.” I give myself full permission to be in integrity with my highest good because I know that I am worthy of my own love first and foremost, but also that I cannot serve from an empty cup.
I know that if I let my fire burn out, my journey stops. How then will I light anybody else’s?
Just for shits and giggles, stop what you are doing for a minute and ask yourself these two vital questions:
- Why am I doing this?
- Is it lighting me up and fuelling my passion?
I’m hoping that the exercise will cause you to smile knowingly. If it doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world… but it is the beginning of The Grail Path.
Love, Jo xxx
