“Passion is our Fuel”
For all of you fans of winter, I have great news for you today! Last week the groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil his shadow, which means we will have six more weeks of winter. For those of you that don’t know what that means, it doesn’t matter. I’m just here to report that there are six more weeks of winter, so if you’re a fan of it, you better hurry up and go skiing and if you’re not, just smile knowing that it’ll start getting warmer soon!
Winter used to not bother me as much, but as I get older, the winters seem to last just a little bit longer every year, even though they really don’t. It’s not so much the snow but more of the cold that I don’t like much. When it’s really cold I don’t like stopping for gas in my car either. I usually wait until the last minute, and then sometimes I forget. Last week this happened to me on one of the coldest days.
I warmed up my car in the morning and left my house on the way to work. I was running a few minutes behind as I jumped in the car and closed the door. I was ready to go, and then I saw something that made me say, “ugggghhhhhh!” It was a warning on my instrument panel; it was flashing in yellow, and it said, “18 miles to empty”. 🙁
This basically meant I was gonna have to stop for gas even though I was running behind schedule, and it was cold! I should have stopped the night before, but I decided to push it, and now I had regretted it.
When I arrived at the gas station, I got out and put my credit card in the slot at the pump. Then after my form of payment was accepted, I was told that I needed to choose what type of fuel.
I have stopped at this same gas station many times before, but today, for whatever reason, I realized how many different types of fuel there were. There were three different octane levels, and also all three had the option of no ethanol or 10% ethanol. Plus, there was also a diesel option. I thought about it, and I said to myself, wow, there are seven different types of fuel that I can put in my car; I never really stopped and thought about that.
Eventually, I chose the one that I always choose. It was 93 octane regular unleaded, and I started to fill my tank. I usually never think about this and just do it instinctively out of habit, but today I did. I hesitated and second-guessed my decision, but I knew it was the right one. You might be thinking to yourself right now, why is he saying all this? Well, there is a point and here is what it is:
My car, just like yours, needs fuel to keep going. There are so many different types of fuel, and some cars even run on electric batteries, but either way, they all need some sort of fuel. The fuel helps them get going, and the fuel helps keep them going. Some cars have a required fuel and also a recommended one. It’s up to us to figure out which one is best.
As I was pumping the gas, I started to think to myself what about me? What is the fuel that keeps me going? I’m not talking about the food we eat or the supplements we take, or the energy drinks that we can buy. I mean, what type of things in life do we use as fuel to get us going and keep us going? Some of these choices are great and help us operate at a high level. Some of our choices are not so great, and they don’t really do a good job of fueling us from day to day.
I personally started to think of many things. As I sat there, I started to say them quietly to myself. My fuel is my family and my coworkers. My fuel is helping others and making an impact in the world. My fuel is improving on a daily basis in all aspects of my life. My fuel is being kind to other people and trying to be positive every day.
I have many other things that I am passionate about, but these are my primary sources of fuel. They are not really fuel; of course, they are the things that I am most passionate about. And it’s the things that we are passionate about that get us going in the morning and keep us going all day long. Even as I am writing this right now, I am being reminded about the beautiful things in my life that keep me going. This is something we should all do every day.
Life is not easy at all. There are challenges along the way, and there are daily, weekly, and monthly things that we need to do that sometimes we don’t want to do. What keeps us going all the time? Our passions keep us going, so sometimes we need to remind ourselves what that is.
Maybe a good idea would be to mentally stop at the passion pump every morning and figure out what’s gonna fill us up for the day. Just like I had to decide what fuel to put in my car the other day, maybe we can all decide every day what the fuel is that keeps us going.
We have to figure out what that is, and then we have to remind ourselves as often as possible. Maybe it’s a picture of our family as a screensaver on our phone. Maybe it’s scheduling time to do things that we enjoy in the future. Maybe it’s doing something nice for others. It doesn’t matter what it is, and it’s going to be different for all of us, but we should make sure that we pick our fuel wisely and we keep going!
The passion I have for certain things keeps me going. Sometimes when I feel like I’m running out of fuel, I try to remind myself what I’m passionate about, and I very quickly feel full again. I recommend you fuel yourself with the highest quality variety at all times. You just have to figure out what that is for you, and don’t wait until the last minute to fill up!
Thank you so much for reading, and thank you for your passion! God bless you, and have a great week!
