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
