Get Your Passion for Life Back | April OSTEEN SIMONS

Welcome to the Better Life Podcast. I'm April and I'm so glad you're here today. Today in this episode I want to talk to you about finding your passion. Mark Twain said, the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. In other words, the day you find out what you're passionate about. A story that I like to tell on this subject is about our little dog, Missy. Missy was a little Yorkie. She was such a great dog. She's in heaven now. And at the time Missy was around, we had another dog, Trevor. He was a Maltese. He's also in heaven, lived to 16 years old. When I would come home from places, every time I came inside the door, Trevor and Missy would meet me at the door, as most dogs do. Trevor would just be so happy. He would be barking. He'd be wagging his tail, jumping up on me, wanting all of my attention. But Missy, on the other hand, just came to the door and just kind of looked at me with somewhat of a puzzled look. She just stood there doing nothing. And honestly, I didn't tell anyone, but I was so concerned. Every time I would come home, I would look for Missy to be happy for me to be there. She didn't jump up on me. She didn't wag her tail. And y'all, to me, when a dog's tail wags, that means they're happy. Now, don't correct me if I'm wrong, but in my mind, I thought, oh, my little dog, Missy, she's just not happy. And it concerned me so much. This went on for about nine months. Every time I walked through the door, I looked eagerly for Finally, one day I came home and guess what? Not only was Trevor barking and happy and jumping up on my leg, but Missy was too. And she was wagging her cute little stubby tail. I was so happy. It was like my little dog, Missy, found her breakthrough. You know why? Missy found her wag. Now, I know you're wondering, what in the world does that have to do with me and finding my passion? Well, I'm glad you asked. You need to find your wag. Get your wag back. Find your happy, your purpose, your place, your motivation, your reason for being alive. How do you do that? Well, you figure out what excites you, what motivates you, what inspires you, what makes you happy. I'm not just talking about what you do for a living. I'm talking about the underneath stuff, the real you, the person that might be buried under the pressures of life, maybe the pressures of parenthood, somebody saying amen right there, the pressures of circumstances surrounding your life. Maybe it's extreme debt. Maybe it's things happening in your personal life. Let's just get real honest right here. Life happens, and it's easy for our zeal, for life to get buried, to be stuck on the back shelf, or even worse, to be abandoned altogether. Various times, all of us go through things that cause us to feel worthless, or maybe we feel like a failure because we've made mistakes in life. These attitudes and emotions can come from how we respond to our past, our struggles, our health issues, work situations, so on and so on and so on. No matter what it might be, to be honest, life has this way of overwhelming us if we allow it. During these times, these instances, we can easily lose our place, our focus, our grounding. We can easily lose our passion. I don't know if that's you today, but maybe you've lost your passion. Maybe you've lost your wag because of things that you've gone through in your life. Maybe things you're not proud of. Hey, we've all been there. Instead of feeling worthless because of your past, get your passion back and see that you can help someone else who might be in that same position of what you went through. You know, one of the greatest ways you can learn is through other people's mistakes. Let people learn from you. Let people learn from your mistakes. You don't have to give them the deep dark details, but let them see how you were down and you made it through. You never know who it's going to help. Don't let failure cause you to think it's the end of the road and you'll just get by as good as you can. No, find that passion. Instead, see failures as a new opportunity to grow and to begin again. Beside that, remind yourself that the past does not determine your future. You may have lost your passion because of fear or what's going on in your business. Maybe it's not thriving like you want it to. Maybe you feel incapable. Maybe you feel not smart enough, not talented enough, not good enough. Or you may have lost your passion because you are just plain tired. I want to encourage you today. Dig deep. Get your zeal for life back. Get what excites you back. Get your hopes back up. Get your smile back, y'all. Get your happy back. Get your I have a reason for getting out of bed back. How about this? Get your I'm excited for this day back. Find your fire. Find that passion that's on the inside of you that you might have buried. See, the things that excite you, they're not random. They're connected to your passion. Don't let your passion get lost in the chaos of life. Don't let your passion lie dormant. Your passion just might be your calling. What you're passionate about, you are more than likely going to pursue. And when you're passionate, ideas come. You look for opportunities. You have a new lease on life. You have new ways of doing things. And y'all, your passion just might become your paycheck. Let me encourage you today. You have what it takes. It's not too late and you're not too young and you're not too old. You haven't messed up too many times. Ooh, can we just stop right there? You have not messed up too many times. Just because you've failed doesn't mean you're a failure. Let me remind you, God doesn't pick people the way people pick people. The only kind of people he uses are imperfect people. You are not past your prime. If you're still breathing, you still have a purpose here on this earth. If you're not where you want to be, make an effort today to dig down deep. Find that passion and then begin to move in the direction that you're passionate about. My dog Missy can find her wag. You can too. Get your passion for life back. Start living life to the fullest. Remember this y'all, the world needs what you have to offer. Don't let your passion lie dormant. Get it back. Go for the gusto. Do all you can. Don't live life with regrets. Don't go 10 years down the road or even one year down the road and say, I wish I would have started. You are God's masterpiece. He wants to use you just as you are. And I tell you this, if you commit your life to him and surrender to him, he's not going to leave you the way you are. You're going to grow and become better and just do amazing things for him. Hey, if you haven't subscribed to this channel, I would love for you to do that today and hit that notification bell. Let me remind you that Better Life Night is coming up on March the 3rd. Tickets go on sale on January the 15th, 2023. We're going to offer an early bird special. If you're not connected with me on social media, I would love for you to do that today. You can go to my website, aprilsummons.com, get connected. I'll send you information on special deals that we'll have going on. Until this time next week, I hope you have an amazing day.