My Super-Charged Life

Sign-up now to receive our articles for free via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!

The intensity of our desire is often the single most important factor that determines whether we get what we want or not.  Think about it.  I’d wager that if you are honest with yourself, you will realize you have accomplished most of the goals where you had a burning desire.  Staying focused on the desire is usually the hard part.  It is easy to start out with a strong desire, but then get distracted and diverted along the way.  When this happens, we lose our focus and rarely end up accomplishing the success we want.  Therefore, it is important we understand how to use intensity to achieve our goals and fulfill our desires.

A fire sparked this idea about achieving our desires.

This weekend I spent a little time out on the patio in my backyard staring at the stars.  The kids were in bed and the day was done.  It was wonderful.  My wife and I listened to the crickets as they sang their song of enchantment.  It was a bit cool after the sun went down which created the perfect opportunity to start a nice fire in the chiminea.  Outdoor fires are so mesmerizing!  If you have a chiminea, fire pit, or have ever had a campfire, then you know what I mean.  It seems almost impossible to draw your eyes away from the flames. 

I watched the flames in the chiminea as they danced, twirled, and glowed.  I moved closer and looked at the various parts of the fire.  It is fascinating to me.  Fire appears on the surface to be nothing more than brightly colored air.  It is see through and like the wind, you know it is real, but you cannot grab a hold of it.  Fire is also powerful.  It can destroy an entire house in minutes.  This fire seemed angry as it whipped about inside the chiminea.  Its power was evident in the bottom of the clay fireplace.  It had reduced some of the wood to nothing more than a few glowing embers.  In addition, the action of the flames created light and shadows on the wall behind us.  It was all very dramatic and made my mind race.  As I was being hypnotized by the fire, I started relating it to how people focus on their desires.

Three things the fire can teach us about achieving our desires.

It occurred to me that there are really three significant ways that I could use the fire to help illustrate the importance of intensity and focus in fulfilling our desires.  Let me see if I can put into words what seemed so powerful in my mind.

1.  Desire is the fuel of accomplishment. 

A fire does not burn without fuel.  I’m sure that you have fed a fire before.  If so, you know that it consumes the wood at an amazing rate.  You have to keep feeding it if you want it to burn.  A true desire is like fuel for a fire.  It is more than a whim or want.  It is something that burns inside of you.  It fills your thoughts.  It doesn’t go away.  It continually feeds your efforts.  Of course, true desire is like firewood.  You have to collect it.  There is a little work to be done before you can get the flames started.  Sometimes, people lack direction in their life.  This is usually because they don’t take the time to fully develop their desire in their mind.  They don’t gather the fuel for their desire.  So, either their fire never gets going or it quickly dies and goes out.  You have to develop a strong mental image of exactly what you want to accomplish.  You need to emotionalize it.  That is, you need to fix the picture of the end result in your mind and then vividly imagine how you will feel when you have met the goal.  This may seem a little too touchy, feely for some, but it works.  It is like gathering the firewood.  You build up the fuel to feed the effort you need to achieve your goal.

2.  Keep your fire focused. 

The flames of a fire are tossed about by every breeze that blows.  It doesn’t take much of a wind to whip a fire all about.    I picture the wind as all the distractions and diversions that come along and try to steal our focus.  I don’t know about you, but it is easy for me to start out in one direction only to have something else catch my attention a few minutes later and before I know it, I have ten things going on.  Of course, I then make very little progress on any of it.  We have to guard the fire of our desire against all these distractions.  We have to stay focused if we want to achieve our goal.  There are so many things vying for our attention these days that this is often difficult.  I find that creating a tangible record of my desire is effective in maintaining a laser focus.  I usually write out my desire, but I have seen others use a collage of pictures very effectively for this purpose.  When you begin to feel distracted, you pull out this record of your desire and use it to stoke the flames of your emotions.  Find what works for you and use it.

3.  Burning intensity will drive you to your goal. 

The hottest part of a fire is often the glowing embers at the bottom.  These are what keep the fire going.  Even if the flames go out, you can toss some wood on the white-hot embers, fan it a little, and the flames will jump up again.  The embers symbolize the core of your desire.  This is the source of your most powerful intensity.  What about your desire is the easiest for you to emotionalize?  Hang on to this.  Recall it when the going gets tough.  When you are up against your biggest critic or obstacle, you will need this glowing ember.  It will revive the flame of action inside you.

You have to keep the fire burning to accomplish your desire.

Keeping the intensity of your desire burning hot is the single most important factor in accomplishing what you want.  You have to clearly know what you want, stay focused on it, and recognize the core of your desire to achieve success.  Those that do these things realize the big payoff.  They live the life of their dreams!

Please Stumble this article!

Photos by Carey Tilden and Steve took it and The Joy Of The Mundane