Staying power.
I saw a magnificent movie this week; The Pursuit of Happyness, and it blew me away. The shear perseverance this man, Chris Gardner, had to pursue his dream, throughout the most challenging of circumstances was truly awe inspiring. It brought tears to my eyes. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Where a large percentage of people would have given up he stayed the course, with no guarantees at the end, and won through.
It made me contemplate my own life and how with some things, compared to Chris Gardner, I have given up at the first fence! We live in an instant society, we are used to having it now, immediately, this minute. The instant gratification. If it doesn’t happen quickly we often give up and move on to the next thing.
Living life spiritually, from the bigger picture, can be a bit like that too. If we don’t see results quickly we begin to think that it doesn’t work, that it won’t give us the experience we are looking for. Many times people try one path and if they don’t see results, they stop and try something else. With this constant changing how can we possibly make progress? There is a clue in all true spiritual paths as to how to embody spirituality and live it. All of them have ‘practises’, things that you do on a regular basis. It may be meditation, contemplation, visualisation, practising gratitude, chanting, prayer, journaling, study, a myriad of things. The main point here is that we need to practise them, do them, have staying power. For us to constantly expand our awareness, grow as both human and spiritual beings we need the one pointed focus. As in the film there may be very intense challenges, where we can feel at our wits end, but keeping going, holding the end in sight and doing all that we can is the way forward.
What things have you given up on recently? Maybe it is time to pick them back up again, invoke your staying power? If you want inspiration go watch the movie and, just for fun, right at the end of the film a man walks past Will Smith and his son – the real, true life Chris Gardner!
I saw a magnificent movie this week; The Pursuit of Happyness, and it blew me away. The shear perseverance this man, Chris Gardner, had to pursue his dream, throughout the most challenging of circumstances was truly awe inspiring. It brought tears to my eyes. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Where a large percentage of people would have given up he stayed the course, with no guarantees at the end, and won through.
It made me contemplate my own life and how with some things, compared to Chris Gardner, I have given up at the first fence! We live in an instant society, we are used to having it now, immediately, this minute. The instant gratification. If it doesn’t happen quickly we often give up and move on to the next thing.
Living life spiritually, from the bigger picture, can be a bit like that too. If we don’t see results quickly we begin to think that it doesn’t work, that it won’t give us the experience we are looking for. Many times people try one path and if they don’t see results, they stop and try something else. With this constant changing how can we possibly make progress? There is a clue in all true spiritual paths as to how to embody spirituality and live it. All of them have ‘practises’, things that you do on a regular basis. It may be meditation, contemplation, visualisation, practising gratitude, chanting, prayer, journaling, study, a myriad of things. The main point here is that we need to practise them, do them, have staying power. For us to constantly expand our awareness, grow as both human and spiritual beings we need the one pointed focus. As in the film there may be very intense challenges, where we can feel at our wits end, but keeping going, holding the end in sight and doing all that we can is the way forward.
What things have you given up on recently? Maybe it is time to pick them back up again, invoke your staying power? If you want inspiration go watch the movie and, just for fun, right at the end of the film a man walks past Will Smith and his son – the real, true life Chris Gardner!
Labels: staying power
posted by Jessica McGregor Johnson at 5:29 AM
3 Comments:
Staying power is very important to help us on our journey. We fleet from one flower to another, not knowing what we are looking for.
Once we find our path, constant private meditation open´s our self-awareness abilities. This way we open our own consciousness. It is a daily dedication.
What is the goal? To be able to give compassion to another, what other gift can we give?
www.myf4t.net
I consider myself a fairly perseverant person, once I know what I want, and I don’t tend to give up at the first difficulty. Sometimes, though, I wonder where is the limit between being persistent in the face of adversity and pointlessly insisting in barking at the wrong tree, and how to know the difference. I also ask myself if the fact that things are not moving fast enough, or not moving in the direction I want them to move, should be interpreted as a “sign” that I am on the wrong path.
But what if the time and tests are all part of the path, ment not as obstacles but as opportunities to learn what we need to succeed in our pursuit. Sure there are times when its not easy to look at things this way.
Perhaps the “signs” should come from inside. From the “feeling” that the path we are on is the right one because it “feels” right. And then we can chose to commit to it no matter what.
When I am true to myself I instinctively “know” which is the right path worth pursuing. The rub is that I don’t always like the implications.
And what if this concern for the “right” path is what holds us back in the first place? What if the path itself is not as important as the commitment and perseverance to stick to the choice and stay the course to the end?
I think it is so true that sometimes it is the perseverance to stick to the choice that can hold untold gifts for us. Coming back to the movie the fact that he had such staying power and saw it through to the end taught him so much about himself. Often we only learn just how strong we are when we hang in there and complete something whilst facing challenges. That self knowledge empowers us for the future. As Elisa says we have to follow the signs from inside, follow our heart.
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