Put Your Everything Into It

by Lori Burns

“No matter how good you get, you can always get better — and that’s the exciting part.”

When someone in your life is asking the important “What should I do with my life?” question, what is your answer? I know for most of us it depends on their age, gender, and stage of life. For example, by the time I was 15 I knew I wanted to be a physical therapist. I geared my heart and soul to the pursuit of how the human body worked and how I could help other people facilitate healing. I even made my way to the best PT school in the pacific northwest my sophomore year of college. And then anatomy and physiology happened. I failed the class miserably. That was to say the least a difficult phone call to my father…. So, what was next?

Passion.

Hard work.

Focus.

Commitment.

People that have big dreams and follow them put their whole heart into something they love. So, what does it mean to ‘live your passion” and how do you know when you’ve actually achieved it? Let’s get into the weeds of it.

I have a 16-year-old son that loves to golf. From the time he was 4 years Tiger Woods old he had a golf club in his hand. He comes from a long line of golfers, so it was inevitable that he would take up the game. By the time he was 6, he had his first set of “real” clubs and his passion was ignited. We lived in Arizona, a golfer’s paradise. He and my husband could golf almost year-round. This child could not get enough golf, and by the time he was in elementary school he wanted professional lessons. When we saw how committed he was, we knew this was not a passing phase; he ate, slept, and breathed golf. He didn’t play video games, skateboard, or other things boys were doing. He was always putting chipping and swinging. Even inside our home. We began to see a profound connection between the joys and challenges of golf and the joys and challenges of living, especially as he has gotten older- that the more dedicated he is to the game, the more he has learned about himself.

By the time he was 12, the game of golf had become a lifestyle for him. He has set goals for college and beyond. I have had the privilege as his mother to watch him many times in tournaments. I have watched, transfixed not only by the purity of successive strokes but also by his decision-making processes, the debate between risk and reward. Even though I couldn’t actually hear the discussions in his head, a mother knows the thought process. I feel the joy of a win, and the sorrow of the loss. His strength and perseverance shines regardless of the outcome. In life, just like the game of golf, there is more than one way to get the ball in the cup. There is more than one way to achieve your goals in life. Some may have a straightforward approach to their goal with few bumps in the road, while others may detour to achieve their goals. Sometimes we have random “shots” in life, and our next shot – our next step – is a recovery, but it is necessary to ultimately get to our goal.

Take a look at your passions, goals, and things you love to do. It’s easy for a 16-year-old to have a love of a sport and do it well. For the rest of us, the stuff we take from the world — be it money, cars, stuff, accolades — is much less important than what we’ve put into the world. So, my recommendation would be following your contribution. Find the thing that you’re great at, put that into the world, contribute to others, help the world be better and put your “everything “ into it. You never know where you’ll end up but getting there is the exciting part.