“Passion and Purpose” | Anthony Satori

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.”

– Confucius

It is healthy to approach whatever you are doing, in any given moment, with all of your energy and attention. This is what it means to be dedicated, to be engaged, to live life with passion and purpose. Do your very best, every day, and bring your entire self to whatever experience you are having, big or small, with the most optimism and joy that you can muster. This is the single best way to get the most out of life.

And then, if at times you feel like the results of your efforts have somehow failed to live up to some preconceived standard or another, it is just as important to simply be able to let this go. Tomorrow is another day. None of us is perfect. None of us even comes close. And even on top of this, we all have moments, days, weeks, even months, when we struggle even harder than usual with one thing or another. It is important, especially during these times, to be patient and kind with oneself. Show yourself the same love that you would want to show someone that you care deeply about: the love of accepting and appreciating yourself exactly how you are, right now, in this moment. Strive to be encouraging and supportive of your own Being, and to feel true gratitude for everything good in this moment. Doing this for yourself is vital to your own emotional, spiritual, and even physical health.

And, quite wonderfully, making this a practice – a structural, habitual feature of your own internal monologue – also helps one to develop and cultivate the empathy and compassion that it takes to be patient and kind with others, and to love them just as they are, in the same way. The bottom line is this: You do not have to be perfect to be perfectly worthy of love.