Beware: Achievements, success, and money can give you a lot to live with, but nothing to live for. And it is not what you live with, but what you live for, that gives you hope, joy, meaning, happiness and purpose. Riches are a poor excuse for purpose! If you have to pity, pity not the one without money but the one without the purpose and the passion. Your index of wealth is not the balance in the bank but the passion you feel towards your purpose in your heart. Striking passion in your heart is akin to striking gold. The only fundamental wealth we have is that of passion. You can create anything with it and also lose anything without it. However, an insecure man feels too secure with his present to allow himself to try any experiments with it.
People say every cigarette reduces your life span by an hour. That could indeed be true, but more true is the fact that an hour spent doing something unwillingly and reluctantly has already subtracted an hour from your life. Life is not a collection of days you manage to breathe, but of ‘todays’ lived passionately to the hilt - and your life is indeed only as long as the number of such ‘todays’.
People who lack passion, feel that if they could get this promotion, or this kind of a bank balance or get rid of this physical problem, they will really be happy. But the fact is that those whom they find extremely happy or lucky in life usually have similar problems, if not more serious ones. The difference lies in the fact that the latter, unlike them, instead of getting bogged down by their problems may be having intense passion to resolve or overcome these. We human beings, like any piece of iron can propose to finish ourselves in two ways: we may rust ourselves out or we may simply wear ourselves out. Rust looks ugly; wearing out brings shine!
Source:
http://tickledbylife.com/index.php/passion-is-your-real-wealth/
