The Heart determines success

A few years back, I used to have an e-mail list (for the younger set, it was a kind of pre-blog alternative). I'm working on a longer blog post now that is taking quite a bit of thought and prayer, but so that I don't go so long between posts, I thought I'd pull out some of them from my archives:
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A number of years ago, sociologist Charles Garfield studied two groups, Olympic athletes and NASA astronauts to determine what made a successful athlete, and what made a successful astronaut. Another study studied commercial airline pilots and nurses, a field dominated by men and another by women respectively, to try and determine what factors could balance the two gender wise. All the studies determined it wasn't raw athletic ability, courage, strong academics or other traditional factors that determined success. The number one factor in all cases was simply passion, the heart to want it. In the case of the nurses, the report showed two case studies, one woman who was bright, who had full ride scholarships, parents that supported her, just everything going for her, but she didn't make it because she was just looking to qualify for a job. Another woman, who had dropped out of school, had two children out of wedlock, and worked at a diner with no one but herself as support and a mother willing to babysit. She was determined to become a nurse, and today she is.

Harold Whitman once said "Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive". If you want to impact your world, if you want to have meaningful, fulfilling success, just have the courage to follow your heart.

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life" -- Proverbs 4:23

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life" -- Proverbs 13:12

"I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly" --- Jesus