Passion, Patience and Persistence!

Patience, Passion and Persistence...The three P's of success! ~ Unknown

As many who know me know, I have been working on creating a company, dream and vision for a few years now and it has been a combination of these three P's that have kept me going. These three P's are truly the recipe for success and they don't always come easily, but as I am starting to really get, they sure do pay off in the end.

Passion.
Passion is doing what you love, following your heart, believing that anything is possible and not stopping until you see your dreams come to fruition. I have had many people in my life tell me how lucky I am that I am so passionate about what I do and that I know what I am passionate about. I have always been passionate. But I haven't always known what I am passionate about or had the courage to follow my heart and live my passions.

At some point, my life got so dark, that something inside me just snapped. Something changed and I couldn't go back any more. I have always been passionate about making a difference and have felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. For a long time, I was passionate in negative ways. I was angry at the world when people didn't get it and didn't do good things to make a difference. Most likely that outer anger and frustration was merely a reflection of my own frustration with myself for not acting upon my passions and my convictions to make the world a better place.

I do feel lucky that I am passionate. I feel even luckier today that I am pursuing my passions, living my dream and not apologizing for doing so or shrinking away because of what others think or tell me I should or shouldn't do.

For some it takes time to find your passion, but don't ever give up until you do. Then when you do, go for it! Go after it, with courage, conviction and determination and you will never again feel that emptiness, that longing, that anger or frustration, as you did when you shut it off, ignored it, buried it or stuffed it!

Patience.
Ah yes, patience! I think this is for sure the most difficult for me. I was definitely not raised to be patient. None of us are in this "gotta have it now" society. That coupled with my Italian upbringing, ha, I was doomed! Patience, what's that?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am learning what patience really is and to trust the process. My journey in creating OneGiving has been one BIG lesson in patience - really! From not being able to pay people what they are worth or even anything at all and having to wait until the things that I want or need done for OneGiving to get done until the other things on their priority list get done to seeing how something connects but having to wait until others make that connection for it to come to fruition, I am learning patience with every step.

I am learning how to be grateful for everything that comes and even accepting that it will come on it's own time if it is meant to. With patience comes a higher faith and trust that everything works out as it is meant to and the more grateful I am, the more amazing things show up. I am also finding that with patience comes the mysterious unfolding of the universe. That is, so often I want things to hurry up and happen. Yet, when they don't happen initially, but I am patient, they often unfold in ways far beyond and even better than what my conscious mind could ever have come up with. As I see this happening more and more, I am able to detach from the ways in which I want or expect it to come and am reminded to remain patient to see what magic will come about!

Persistence.
I think that this is something I have always been good at. Probably, sometimes to the maddening of others around me. I remember my first job out of college, I had heard about a clinic that I wanted to work at. So I contacted the director and called him regularly every few weeks before I graduated to ask if there were any openings. Every time, he would say, "Call me a few weeks before you graduate and we will see." When my spring break came about, I called and asked if I could come meet him. He said yes, but that he wouldn't know about a position until later that spring/summer. When he interviewed me, he told me that there would be a probationary period and if it didn't work out, then what would I do after having moved to a new location. I looked at him and said, "I guess go get another job." It was that simple.

He told me years later that he finally hired me, after months of contact and many calls and follow ups, because he said that if I was that persistence in getting hired, he couldn't imagine how persistent I would be in actually doing my job!

I remembered that for many years and it is has been a guiding principle for everything I do. It has sometimes driven people crazy. When I pre-released my first books, I took my years of experience in advocacy campaigns and created an advocacy campaign of my own. I created thousands of post cards with the covers of my book on them and had them addressed to Oprah Winfrey. I gave them out to people all over and asked them to mail them in and write an additional note if they desired. Finally, one day I got a call from Oprah's assistant. She said that they had received all of my postcards, that they knew about my books, and that I didn't need to send any more! I laughed. So maybe she didn't ask me to be on her show, but it certainly did get their attention.

I am still learning to find the nuances of being persistence and bugging the crap out of people. Ultimately, I am not convinced that either one is bad, because as long as your intentions are pure and you are passionate and patient with the process, the persistence will pay off.

As long as we remember to NEVER GIVE UP and to keep going with our dreams passionately, courageously and with persistence and to have the patience to allow it all to unfold as it is meant to and more magnificently than we could have ever imagined possible, we will surely succeed in the ways that matter most!

You can find me at www.facebook.com/pilarstella and www.facebook.com/pilarstella1 and twitter @pilarstella.