Diligence

This post originally published May 22, 2019

In the practice of Diligence, we explored the relationship between passion and diligence. Can you have one without the other? Can they go hand in hand? How do we maintain diligence with tasks we aren’t passionate about? Does too much diligence exist? 

Not all of these questions have a right answer; everyone deals with their own stuff in their own way. However, we found that diligence should include a pace, just like running a race. If we start out too fast, our energy will quickly burn out as the passion and determination slowly fades. But if we go slowly but surely, chipping away a little each day, diligence can become routine. It can become just another natural part of life. Diligence can even pave the way for passion. That might sound odd at first, but a perfect analogy was used to explain: 
  
Think about your childhood sport. I’m taking a wild guess here and saying that mostly everyone complained when it was time for practice. But after years of dedication and a countless number of games, the sport turns into a passion. Playing the sport becomes a pastime instead of a chore. It turns it into something joyful instead of something that is perceived as work. This is not the case for everything, but for me specifically, I thought that it was a beautiful of example of how diligence can manifest into something greater. 
  
We also addressed the importance of being diligent about self-care. Without proper time to heal and rejuvenate, our diligence in other aspects of our lives could suffer greatly. 
  
  
Sarah xx