Viola Davis on Success & Finding Your Purpose

“I imagined that success would be more fulfilling.  I didn’t imagine it do be so isolating.  But it is because not everyone is for you…The disillusion is that all the things that defined success and could fill you up was defined by other people, not by yourself.  You have to stop and ask…what makes you happy.  And that is really frightening because the things that make you happy might not look good to other people.”  – Viola Davis

Now, I’ve never reached Viola’s ranks, but the feelings she talks about are familiar.  (I think I had my mid-life crisis about 20 years early, but that’s another story.)  The experience of choosing one’s purpose over the need to be liked is choosing love.  Being great isn’t easy.  If it was, everyone would do it.  Major cheers to Viola Davis and her perseverance.  Look at how courage like that can inspire the millions who were deeply touched by her work.  Bravo!

It takes great courage to stand up and be who we are – especially when who that is doesn’t fit a mold or the expectation of who you thought you should be.  When you choose love, you take a leap of faith.  In that moment, you choose your purpose – and for each of us, that looks a little different.  A sunflower was not meant to be a rose and a rose was not meant to be an oak tree.  In full bloom, we are all striking in our own way.  The choice is to listen to that quiet voice that is truthfully – and always – telling us who we really are until the beauty within us unfolds for all to behold.

“They say that the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.”  – Viola Davis

♥ 90 Days of Love: 3/90 loving choices. ♥
Little choices + time = wholehearted change.

 

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