Dedication and Perseverance to Ourselves

Dedication and perseverance are in my thoughts this morning. How do we dedicate ourselves to our chosen paths and how do we persevere when the obstacles seem too great? 

For me, I think it is about a couple of things. First, it is about service to others. Much of what I do is designed to help other people find their path. I feel that responsibility keenly and even when I feel doubts or fatigue, I push those aside if I am in a position to help someone else reach for their dreams. I have taken some serious hits, if you will, while on the road to helping others. Sometimes, I haven’t known until much later that I did indeed help, that my sacrifice was worth it. I have to be okay with that. It is about service, and that is what I tell myself whenever part of me wants to quit.

For my own creative life, it is about expression. I have had to learn that expression in and of itself is worthwhile. If we keep our art, creativity, and/or feelings tucked away inside us rather than expressing them in an open and even positive manner, they will leak out in less than ideal ways. Or, we will hurt from keeping things bottled up inside. So, better out than in, in this case, for me.

The next one is about adding to the creative light in the world. In my opinion, if we create and express ourselves, we are only adding to the life force in the world. That is a post in and of itself but I did want to mention it here.

And last, we carry the torch for those who came before us. Each one of us, no matter what we do, stands on the shoulders of giants. Those who came before have guided us, taught us, held our hands, and sometimes kicked our asses. If we take inspiration from that, we can move mountains and change the world.

I just wrote the following to a friend about Robin Williams’ death and it relates to what I have written above.

“Robin Williams’ death affected me a great deal. The way I look at it is that this is an opportunity to pick up where he/they left off and to bring even more creativity and joy and awesome into the world. He/they had to stop but we can carry on for him/them.”

This is not to say that we are all geniuses like Robin Williams. But I can say that each one of us has a voice and that voice can make miracles happen. They key then is to dedicate ourselves to our voices and to persevere in their expression.

That’s the magic.