Passion and Inspiration.

I have to say, the acceptance speech (text)/(video) last night by Barack Obama was one of the most passionate and inspiring speeches I have ever heard.  I feel like I saw history.  I felt the way I can only imagine people felt when they heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak.  It actually inspired me to want to be a better person.  Today I wanted to quit smoking.  I wanted to be more open-minded. I can say, when being honest with myself, that I am sure little will change about me.  However, it does feel good to suddenly see a light at the end of the tunnel.  To finally want to say “Yes I can.” instead of “No, I can’t”, for once in my life.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

I am not usually a very sappy person.  I am not sure I have ever really been so affected by a speech, especially by a politician, but it was a pretty legendary speech.  Barack exhibits passion for his job, his country, and most importantly, his family, that few have the strength to show.  Look at what he has become.

It makes me think, what is Inspiration, what is Passion?  I consider myself a very passionate person, but do I even really know what that means?

At work, sometimes I fight hard for something I believe in.  I feel it would be what most people would call passion.  In life, I do the same.  Problem is, many times passion gets labeled as anger, frustration, or various other negative things.  How can you take passion toward something and turn it into something inspiring, rather than something negative?

Often times, fighting for a cause, or fighting for anything you are passionate about, leads toward a rocky path.  A path that is often a very hard one to traverse.  You will meet hatred, resistance, and other people who want to stand in your way.  Often you will want to give up.

I believe that successful acts of passion are acts which often lead to inspiration.  They allow short-sighted defeatist people, like me, to see that sometimes, just sometimes, if you try hard enough, and don’t give up, you can make things happen.  The tricky part is not allowing passion to become anger.  Not allowing it to become frustration, and allow it to become…inspiring.