Heart & Soul

As superwomen, we have to save ourselves first. “Passion .  . .Who Needs It?” author Shaunice Hawkins shares the importance of looking out for your dreams and happiness to be a better support of others in the fourth and final part of our passion series.

When it comes to keeping your passion alive and helping others, we have to keep in mind two essential concepts borrowed from the airline industry.  During the pre-flight safety demonstration, flight attendants discuss in detail the use of the oxygen mask and share two important principles:

#1 “Put your oxygen mask on first before helping others”
The reason we are to put on our oxygen masks on first is to ensure our vitality so that we can help others retain theirs.  Our natural role as women is to give and nurture life. So it’s counter intuitive to our nature to do the opposite.

#2 “Oxygen is still flowing through the mask even if the oxygen bag is not inflated”
We tend to view the un-inflated portions of our lives as indicators that passion isn’t flowing. Like oxygen, passion exists regardless as to whether we see it or feel it.  Both are the fuel and energy that supports us from the inside out so that we can reach higher, go further, and continue to pursue a goal, even when the finish line seems elusive…or even unachievable.  Without oxygen, we would physically suffocate. Without passion, our hopes and dreams would suffocate.

I’ve learned that I am no good to my husband, children, clients or anyone else (including me) if I am spiritually, emotionally and/or passionately dead.  If I am unfulfilled, hollow, unhappy or suffocated then what do I have to offer, what can I contribute, what can I invest in others?  Nothing. If I pour into others while functioning at a deficit, I not only create further harm to myself but will create a deficit in others – which is opposite to my nature of giving and nurturing life of others of my own.
Also, if I have no hopes and dreams, what foundation do I lay and what legacy do I leave for others, particularly my children?  If I don’t actively pursue the innate yearning to be greater than what I currently am, I doom myself (and by example, my children) to a lifetime of underachievement, defeat and failure.

So it is in my best interest and in the interest of others that I am whole, fulfilled, happy and alive. When I am, others are. So we have to keep our oxygen masks on before helping others, and recognize the passion is flowing, even if it doesn’t always look like it.

“Passion .  . .Who Needs It?” is on sale at Amazon.

Read previous posts:
Turning Your Passion Into Success
Get In Touch With Your Passion
7 Steps to Transforming Your Life

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