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Let’s Get Passionate!

May 20, 2010 · 10 comments

The ancient Greeks didn’t write Eulogies.  They asked just one question when a man died…”Did he have passion?” – Serendipity 2001

Artwork & all Content © 2010 Jean Burman

Passion is power. It’s the spark that lights the fire… that drives the engine… that powers the purpose… that gets the whole darned show on the road. But it’s a risky business. Seriously. Hopes and dreams will be quashed. Hearts can and will be broken… [probably more than a couple of times!] But what are the choices here? Honestly… there aren’t any.

Because a life lived without passion is a life half-lived.

There is no secret to having passion. Anyone can have it.

It’s a choice. An attitude. A viewpoint.

“Passion makes the world a better place. It gives [every] job a purpose. It warms the heart. And nourishes the mind. It lights us up from the inside out… and elevates an ordinary everyday into an extra-ordinary experience”

Passion.

Anyone who gives a damn has already got it.
Anyone who ever achieved anything has had to [firstly] find it.
Anyone who wants it badly enough can go within and get it – [you can't look for it on the outside - because you won't find it there]

And it won’t always be easy.

Passion challenges the status quo. It asks the difficult questions. And demands an adequate answer. It holds us to account. It keeps it real. It forces the hard decisions. And offers impossible choices. But it also shows us who we are…. or who we could be… and the stuff we’re really made of!

Passion makes every single thing in life worthwhile. It delivers energy enthusiasm drive and follow through. [It goes without saying that when you love something you're going to want to do it well and often!]

Passion and greatness are within the grasp of everyone. And by greatness we’re not talking fame… [big difference - grin]

Anyone can be Famous… not everyone will be Great!

Passion can be found in the smallest of places… in the humblest of circumstances… and in the darkest of situations. It’s not the job… it’s how you work at it!

The possibilities and opportunities for anyone who wants to find their passion are endless. So here’s the challenge… if you’re brave enough [and you haven't found it already]

Look for the passion that will make your life great!

No matter how hard it is to find.
No matter how long it takes.
No matter how much it might hurt.
No matter how many times you might fail
… or what you might lose.

No excuses.

No regrets.

Because there can be no regrets in the quest for a life lived with passion. There is no downside.

When we do the stuff we love… and surround ourselves with the people who make our heart sing… we will see ourselves for who we really are. And if we have found our passion… and lived it well… there’s a pretty good chance we will like what we see!

So waddayareckon?  Do you want to go out with your heart on fire and your wheels still spinning?

Okay… I’ll race you to the corner!

You start (((chuckles)))

Aunty Heather is 96. She lost the love of her life 4 years ago… but continues to paint.
She recently swapped her oil paints for acrylics.
She loves how the brushes wash out in water!
I just love her!

Comments [as always] are very welcome…
or as you might have noticed I now have a little doover [aussie slang for thingamebob]
below which you can click on to share this post on Facebook or Twitter if you enjoyed it here.
Up to you… but I’d kinda like to see if it works! [grin]

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That other Black Hole

October 2, 2008 · 14 comments

Cartoon Pen & Watercolour Copyright 2008 Jean Burman

HAVE A LISTEN!

Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine – Simon & Garfunkel

(funny how the lyrics work as well today as they did back then – grin)

Had it not been that the Large Hadron Collider was shut down last week… (and remains out of commission still)… we might have been forgiven for thinking that scientists had this week successfully created the first ever black hole with their new fangled contraption!

A black hole so deep and so dark and so unstable that it had successfully sucked a bunch of the world’s largest banks, institutions and corporations into the empty ugly void of financial “deep space”. A black hole of such gargantuan proportions that every man woman and child on the planet will not escape the “gravity” of it.

Alas… unable to blame the Collider (because it has already broken down)… we are forced to cast around for another villain. And what we see is something way more sinister. There at the helm of the mother ship… set on a doomsday course to oblivion… sits a bunch of egocentric greedy individuals whose free-range money grabbing actions have served to rewrite the pages of history with the blood of all those who trusted them to deliver up their dream of a better situation.

Worse still they were acting with impunity.

The fact that it has all gone badly wrong… was (and I dare say, still is)… of little consequence to the perpetrators.

Self regulation? Yeah right. No regulation? Oooo yeah even better!

Well what in the heck did we expect? Every mother out there could tell you… give a kid an inch and they will take a mile. And there is no reason to expect that growing TALLER will change a thing! (grin)

Loss of confidence in financial markets will have far reaching consequences… reverberating far beyond the US domestic market. Whether we like it or not we are in the midst of a global economic crisis. Everyone everywhere will suffer in some way. The US bailout may not successfully avert the inevitable… but it might shore up confidence just long enough to stabilise the markets for a short time until something can be worked out.

However without significant regulatory change the climate of corruption will continue to exist. What happened before will happen again. The challenge now (indeed the obligation) for politicians of every stripe is to get off their political high horse… and ensure that it can’t. This is not the time for politicking and political point scoring.

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A Beautiful Mind

July 7, 2008 · 6 comments

Pen & Watercolour Copyright 2008 Jean Burman

It’s funny… but the human mind is not something that we “think” about all that often.  And that’s a paradox in itself isn’t it?  Here are a couple of mind teasers to kick off this post

You know… I could have sworn there were only 3.  But there’s 6.  Honest!

And how about this one?

Seems no matter what you do… the answer will always be that infernal 9!

But the classic is the Spinning Lady… and I will come back to her in a moment.
(You might want to scroll her out while you read on – she can be extremely distracting! LOL)

First I wanted to tell you what I discovered this week whilst having my eyes tested for new glasses.  As part of the test the Optometrist tested my eye dominance.  To do this… she asked me to look though the gap between my outstretched overlapped hands and focus on a point in the distance.  I then closed one eye and then the other without moving my hands.  The eye that continues to see the focal point is the dominant eye.  For me… it is my left.

This got me thinking… and when I got home I did a little research to see if my left eye dominance had any influence over the way I see my world.  And guess what?  Turns out it does.

As most of us probably already know… the left brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa.  [I feel sure this was God's way of showing us that he has an overtly perverse sense of humour] (grin)

And we’ve heard a lot about left brain dominant people being analytical… whilst the right brain dominant are considered to be more creative.  What I wondered then… was whether my left eye dominance had anything to do with my being right brain dominant.  And guess what?  Turns out it does.

Getting back to the Spinning Lady and the test which is supposed to sort the left brainers from the right brainers. Take a look at this.

Hmmm… now what does it mean when she spins both ways.  Does that make me a no-brainer?!

When I first watched this… she would only spin clockwise (which puts me fair and square in the middle of the creative right brain dominant camp).  No matter what I did… even standing on one ear… I couldn’t get that aggravating woman to spin the other way!  Then someone interrupted me with a question.  It was a question that required an analytical response.  Sure enough… when I looked back at the screen… off she went in the other direction.  But then I couldn’t get her to go back!

I have since perfected this… and can now control her at whim.  When I want her to go clockwise I listen to a beautiful piece of music and dream of my next painting.  When I want her to go anticlockwise I have to think about… um…well… what I’m going to cook for dinner… (ha… and you thought I was going to say econometrics didn’t you?)

Seriously… anyone can do this.  And here’s the trick.  Stare at her pivotal foot and the shadow crossing the floor.  Soon you will see that she is in fact not even making a full rotation… but simply going back and forth!

Mind bending?  Yeah… you betcha.

In reality… I believe our brains are multi-functional and multi-dimensional.  Our ability or otherwise to use elements from both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously is determined by how often (and how well) we utilise the abilities of each side… and how well we are able to “make the swap”… (further developing neural pathways between the two).

Certainly genetics has some part to play in this… but I believe most of us ultimately “become” what we think about (and do) the most.  We are the product of our own activity and learning.  To limit the potential capacity of our brilliant minds to one hard and fast rule about whether we are left brain or right brain dominant seems somehow to insult the creator… whomever “she” may eventually prove to be!

Truth is… we are more than probably… a little bit of both.  Or maybe even a lot.  Exactly how much of both is determined by you.  Each and every one of us is unique in our own special way… with something to offer that no-one else can.  Our challenge is to find that uniqueness and bring it to the table.

It’s a no-brainer really!  (laughs)

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