I've been reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Things Done and this morning i came across this analysis and advice:
What, then, makes one company or one branch more productive than another? A growing number of human resource professionals point to the passion that prevails within the organization. ...
Be on the lookout for ... "purpose by default." If your purpose fails to reflect your true, underlying passion, this can lead to a lack of focus and less-than-desirable performance ...
Stick close to your passion. You may have abandoned it once before—it's all to easy to fall back into becoming a totally reason-based manager. Use your passion to help others latch on to your ideas and to what you want to achieve. Stay close to your passion and diligently seek to preserve it. ...
Tap your personal passions and harness them as the driving force to get things done ...
Davidson is primarily addressing a business audience, but there are things we can learn from him in our search for purity, both individually and together as brothers. The foremost of these is: What are you passionate about? The Broncos? (Substitute your preferred sport/hobby/whatever here.) Getting a great career? Hanging out with friends? Going out with that hot girl? Getting married and having someone with whom to share your life? In our battle for purity there can be only one goal for our passions: God. All of the advice that we've been giving, and all of the information in Every Young Man's Battle is really secondary to this goal. It's all about God. (You can read the apostle Paul's take on this in Philippians 3:7-14—his entire life was focused on God and his purposes.)
The next question to ask yourself is: How passionate are you for God and his purposes? Are you sold out on living for him, or are you just playing church? Is he the ultimate reality in your life, or are you just going through the motions in between trips to work, home, and social events? We started talking about the battle because we are passionate about all the members of our church community being 100% devoted to God's purposes for their lives. It is my hope that as we journey together God will become our "one & only", and that our passions will always be directed by him and focused on him. May we all be examples in the way that Proverbs 23:17 instructs:
Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
God bless,
Paul
Quote from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Things Done, by Jeff Davidson, New York: Alpha Books, 2005, 32-34 (emphasis added).
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