When I was a kid we would sing Eye of the Tiger over, and over, and over. It was an anthem for many young men in my generation. The problem was that once the song ended, we lost the Eye. It was only when the song was playing that we could relate to the dedication, hard work and focus of Rocky Balboa.
Like many other young men in my generation and in my town, we had no desire. No fire in our belly. Nothing was for us so we were for nothing. My grandfather told me to get a trade and talked about his days in the Navy. Then one weekend a friend of mine came back from the Marines with a new Ford Mustang. So I thought, "Hey, join the Marines, learn a trade, and get a Mustang." Except the Marine recruiter was at lunch so I joined the Navy.
I meandered into the Navy at age 18 and had never experienced the Eye of the Tiger in any meaningful way until I hit boot camp. During an introductory in-brief to the jobs available in the Navy, a Sailor gave a brief about Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal. I thought I had heard all the jobs in the world until this brief. The first time I heard the acronym "EOD" I received the Eye of the Tiger. It was all I could think about and I spent the next 6 months skipping lunches to work out and excelling at every inspection to get my orders to EOD School. But a Master Chief noticed my dedication and cancelled my order to send me to Submarine School. I succeeded in getting picked up for the most elite Navy in the world, but that wasn't my target. I spent the next 4 years, 6 months and 26 days onboard two different submarines before I was released to EOD School.
During this time I did whatever it took to get into EOD School. There were times I waivered but my resolve never broke. Through opposition and a lot of hard work I graduated EOD School and spent 20 years in the Navy EOD Community. I deployed to several conflicts and wars and gave it all I had to be successful. It was never work.
I am not telling this story to brag - not at all. I'm sharing this because I believe every young man and woman on earth has something inside them right now that once awakened will produce the Eye of the Tiger, a relentless focus and source of energy.
It's easy to get lost in our heart about what we want to do in our life. Then, our head gets involved with logic and rational approaches to success. We look for patterns and "career paths" to help us navigate with our heads something that was never intended for our brains to sort out.
The Bible sais in Proverbs 20:5, "The purposes of a person's heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out." The one who has insight is God, and God will draw the purposes out of your heart. Once your heart is engaged in your purpose there isn't a force on earth, in heaven, or hell that can stop it.
If you're struggling with the purposes in your heart. If you're head is making things complicated. Stop today. Sit down. Release this to God. Give it over to him and ask him to draw the purpose out of your heart that he planted there when you were in your mothers womb. You won't regret it.