Nobody thinks or feels anymore; nobody gets excited or believes
in anything except their own comfortable little God damn mediocrity.
~ Richard Yates

What do you believe in?

What do you stand for?

If you don’t clearly know the answers to these questions, then you’ll believe in anything and stand for nothing.

Exhaustion and apathy are an epidemic in today’s world.

Yet properly understood, they’re an effect versus a cause.

Apathy is rampant, with Gallup telling us that 72% of the people surveyed are disengaged, uninspired and apathetic in their daily work.

You haven’t lost your energy, enthusiasm or excitement.
You just didn’t count the cost before you began;
and you’ve forgot why you started to begin with.

We don’t so much have a crisis of economy in our world. We have a crisis of meaning and purpose.

The opposite of love is not hate, for hate is just dysfunctional love
pointed in the wrong direction. The opposite of love is indifference.

The true leader understands that if/when apathy and exhaustion begin to creep in, there needs to be a reassessment of meaning and purpose.

Flexibility and Adaptability Are Power

A Powerful Transforming Purpose is always more compelling than a goal.
For goals are often about getting and achieving.
Purpose is about giving and contributing.

Many tend to forget that passion is the Latin word for suffering. Your degree of passion (or lack thereof), is your degree of willingness to suffer for your major heart’s desire (MHD).

If you’re not willing to suffer and sacrifice, then you have no passion for what you’re up to; and you’re most likely focused on what you can get versus what you can give.

Sobering I know.

Uncomfortable and unpopular as well.

But true nonetheless.

When you trace the root of the word “sacrifice” back to its origins, it literally means “to make sacred.”

When you sacrifice in today’s modern world, you don’t lay a lamb on an altar as om days of old, you willingly lay your small needs on the altar of life, for something grander and greater.

Easier said than done in most cases.

But a life of enthusiasm and drive are built upon these fundamentals.

So, leaders must fight the battle of apathy and exhaustion.

Does this mean that if you care enough you’ll never get lethargic and tired?

No, in fact when you’re living and giving to the fullest, you’ll most often go to bed each night completely tired yet inspired.

This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself
as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish,
selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that
the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
~ George Bernard Shaw

You see apathy is solved by clarity of purpose.

Exhaustion is solved by efficient recovery.

If you need more energy give more energy.
You don’t need to get more energy, you need to generate more energy.

Clarity of purpose, coupled with efficient recovery, bring a drive that still must be suffered for, sacrificed for and battled for.

Leaders win the never-ending battle.

How about you?

Be a Leader. Live Your Purpose; and Take Your Power Back!

James