If This Is A Secret Why Am I Telling It?
A guide to
Living Life with Passion and Purpose
Also by Russell L Drake
A Walk in the Park
The Sounds of Truth
Spoken Word Jazz CD
When I Think of You
Russell L Drake
Copyright© 2009 by Russell L Drake
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
All care has been taken to acknowledge ownership of any material that has been used. If any errors have occurred, they will be corrected in subsequent editions provided notification is sent to the author.
If This Is a Secret Why
Am I Telling It?
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0080-8
All rights reserved.
Photograph by Harriet Drake.
For information address: Russell L Drake
1 Business Success Lane P.O. Box 1634
Cranberry Township, PA 16066-1634
or
For Qierra, Sasha, BJ and Devin
Prologue
Quiet set over the room as the shadows of the evening crept upon the library walls. I lit the kindling in the fireplace to ward off the coolness in the air. My library study has always been a place of peace and solitude. The books that line the walls are precious to me. The answers to any question I had ever asked were in them. I feel at ease knowing their reference is available to me when needed. I hear a soft knock at my door.
“Come in,” I call out. My son enters the room. He takes after me tall and easygoing. He too enjoys the solitude and peacefulness of the room.
“Dad?”
“Yes, Son, what can I do for you?” He walks to the front of my desk and sits down in one of the chairs.
“Dad, its time we had that talk.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Didn’t we have that talk when you were ten?”
“Not that talk Dad. I mean the one about how you have made it in life. I want to know your secret to making it.”
I ease back in my chair and look my son squarely in the eye. “What do you think the secret is?”
He hesitates and looks down at his shoes. He knows when I answer a question with a question he is supposed to know the answer already.
“I don’t know for sure but money has something do with it.”
I look at my son but do not say anything.
“Well maybe not just money Dad. You have always told me to put everything I had into whatever I do. I should care about it and stick to it.”
I just sit there looking at my son. He starts to feel a little uneasy because he has not thought his question through before he asked it. I have always taught him to do that and he wishes he had remembered before he walked in.
“What else Son?” I asked.
“I should have a reason for doing what I do.”
I smile at him. “There you have it. You have described passion and purpose. That’s my secret which is no secret at all. If it were a secret, I would not tell it. I live life with passion and purpose.”
“What about money, Dad?”
“Money will take care of itself when you are passionate about life and have a purpose.”
“So how do I do it? I hear the words but I am looking for something a little more concrete not as abstract.”
“That’s a good question.” I reach into my desk and pull out a folder and hand it to him. “This is a manuscript that I am preparing for publication. Read it and we will discuss what you think of it.”
He opens the folder and scanned the headings of the chapters.
I watch him as he reads over the topics of the manuscript and speak when he glances up.
“Son, the combination of the thirty-one “secrets” in your hand supports my philosophy for living life with passion and purpose. The current order is for my benefit and how I remember them. Every element can stand alone. The only exception is the first one. You must start there.”
1: Love Who You Are
Love yourself. You are unique. You are one of a kind. Your life is fullest when you are able to help others. Here’s the catch. You need to love yourself to effectively help others.
A mother fox had a large litter during the winter. Every day she would venture into the woods to find food. Day by day she fed her litter but neglected herself. Undernourished the mother fox died leaving the litter unprepared to fend for themselves. They perished too.
The mother fox hunted for her litter and did so unselfishly. She did not however take care of herself and sacrificed the survival of her litter.
Flight attendants instruct parents to put their oxygen mask on first when it drops and then assist their child. Why? To be sure the parent will be able to assist their child. If the parent blacks out who helps the child?
Are you starting to get my drift? Loving who you are is like the foundation of a house. In order to build a sturdy house you must have a solid foundation.
Believe in yourself. You must be confident in who you are and how you act. Believe that you are a person capable of receiving and giving love.
We get in our own way. We listen to others rather than believe in our selves. There are people who are uneasy with the idea of loving who you are. They characterize this approach as selfish. Selfish is being concerned chiefly or only with oneself, without regard for the well being of others. You are not selfish when you love who you are because you have a higher purpose that includes
