Passion, Potential and Success Like Kung Fu Panda

Image by ifindkarma via Flickr

Have you ever watched the kids movie Kung Fu Panda? If you haven’t you are so missing out!

Filled with humour and homily, there is a place in the movie where the Panda, played by Jack Black finds that the one thing he spent his whole life wanting to do with all his heart seems to be beyond his reach.

…and then, Panda in the kitchen eating because he that’s what he does when he is upset, it’s his fall back behaviour, you know the behaviour pattern we have that helps us stay marching in place and prevents us from achieving our potential, our dreams and success? What’s your fall back behaviour, something you love to do, but it is one that seems not to have any use to you perhaps it even seems to be your downfall, your achilles heel?

Well enough of that for now, let’s get back to the story, there’s Panda eating and eating and all the while he is in a bit of a frenzy, busting through cupboard doors with one punch and climbing to the top shelf easily and doing the splits which seemed impossible while he was trying to learn. Funny thing while he was doing something he loved, he could suddenly use all the skills he found so difficult when he wasn’t doing what he loved.

His mentor (sensei) was also able to suddenly see Panda’s potential too, and saw the way to finally teach this seemingly useless pupil how to reach his potential and step into his purpose. He too had to let go of his beliefs about how a Kung Fu pupil would act and learn and find a way to help Panda. The next scenes show Sensei teaching Panda using food in many ways, and we see Panda easily doing what he found so difficult before.

Huge AHA! right there!

Are you stuck in trying? What would happen if you just did what you loved, and allowed new skills to develop naturally as a result of doing what you loved. What do you love? Do you know?

What if you stopped trying, and working and started doing what you love and allowing the love of doing that to propel you forward, to motivate you to take on new skills, to step into your purpose and potential and suddenly found how easy it is to be successful without all that trying?

I am reminded of the words to one of my favourite pieces of prose, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer:

There is nowhere to go. What you are looking for is right here.
Open the fist clenched in wanting and see what you already hold in your hand.
There is no waiting for something to happen,
no point in the future to get to.
All you have ever longed for is here in this moment, right now.
You are wearing yourself out with all this searching.
Come home and rest.
How much longer can you live like this?
Your hungry spirit is gaunt, your heart stumbles. All this trying.
Give it up!
Let yourself be one of the God-mad,
faithful only to the Beauty you are.

Now this may seem like nothing to do with business or social media, but think about it are you trying, hard enough to feel exhausted on a daily basis, does it all feel like work. all the time? Or are there moments when you feel so in flow that you forget the time and wake up suddenly and realise you have to stop doing this and get back to work?

Why can’t you create a business around doing that? That thing that puts you in flow, makes time stand still or move too quick, and allows you to feel as if you are doing something you were put here on earth to do. If you do, you can be sure you’ll never have to ‘work’ another day in your life, you can also be sure you’ll never have to market your business because the flow and the passion you have for doing this one thing will exude outwards into every word you speak and write.

Think about it and then start fresh tomorrow and create a business around that.

Related articles

• ‘Panda’monium unlimited! – Kung Fu Panda 2 (bharatkashyap.wordpress.com)