We often hear things like: “When you think about quitting, remember why you started.” This is helpful when one is struggling and is considering quitting, and, sometimes, it is good advice. Sometimes, however, it is not.
I think the advice to “remember why you started” may have its greatest impact for the person who is seeing success and/or is continuing down the current path. In other words, we need to be reminded from time to time to keep the passion alive in what we are doing. Otherwise, it is easy to fall into a routine. I follow cycles of this as a college professor. Thus, it is an almost daily process of reminding myself to “leave it all in this room”.
It is easy to be ordinary. It takes extraordinary effort to be (extra)ordinary. Without passion, we fall to being “ordinary”, grow bored, and stop putting in the effort.
We are called to do great things. Our greatness may not be on the national or international stage, but we are not without purpose. Our greatness, no matter the scale, does not go unnoticed.
Remembering why we started renews our enthusiasm. It reminds us to:
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!