Letting of your passion

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to stop many of the habits I had taken up in the past two, three years. That meant a lot of coding, consuming entreporn and talking a lot about opportunities we should be exploiting. What triggered this was not that I was feeling burned out, unmotivated or discouraged but I decided to find out what it felt like to live in an inhibited world once again. Among many of the lessons learnt, the most valuable is that a lot of the times we need to let go of this one thing we seem so passionate about to see the bigger picture. We have talents that eclipse most of the problems we are too engrossed in. After letting go of my most immediate and pressing issues, I found myself able to dream and conceptualize problems in other areas of life I never thought I would be vaguely interested in! I managed to let go of almost everything that had kept my mind in a loop and was able to wander until I found myself brainstorming for solutions on some medical, transport & social problems in Zimbabwe. Many of the ideas might have been good or bad but what I found astounding is the fact I was able to think broadly on some issues that affect me, something I wouldn’t have done on a normal day. When our minds are focused solely on what’s in front of us, outside thinking counts as drifting but sometimes that is where the jewel really lies.

The more we live life fixated on very specific, immovable visions, the more we let go of our ability to adapt and challenge ourselves in life as a whole. For I see life not as one component but the intersection of compromise and accommodation. To tap into our potential we need that courage to dream, to get outside “naked” for some of our most burning passions to materialize. We gain a fuller understanding and appreciation of our abilities when we see how we fit into other domains in life, which inevitably results in an increase in confidence.

Letting go of dreams we are working on is as challenging as achieving them. Many wise men and women have advised entrepreneurs to find other pastimes to free up our minds from the shackles of “now”. The benefits espoused were not apparent to me until I gave it a shot, it’s a breath of fresh air.

Spread your wings, let go of now. You will still come back to it. Take some rest, breath the life of people you’re creating solutions for. It helps.