Five Steps to Build Your Passion and Reach Your Goals
by Kirby S. Llaban

If you want financial, spiritual, physical, and emotional blessings to come, you’ve got to build. God gave you the intelligence and the creativity — build on that. The way to build your career and live out your vocation is to understand that success is a process. It doesn’t come overnight, but by way of passionately following through day by day.

Follow these steps and B.U.I.L.D. your fire!

Brick-by-Brick Mentality
Unique Value
Intensify Your Training to Expert  Level
Leverage
Deliver on Your Promises

Step 1: Brick-by-Brick Mentality: Have a Builder’s Mindset

With one brick at a time, you can build your passion into something great.

In an interview with LeBron James, he was asked, “Can you deliver an NBA title to Cleveland?” He replied, “I can’t promise an NBA championship to anyone, but what I can promise is that my team will get better every day.”50 Eventually, his team won a championship for Cleveland.

If you want to build something great, lay your foundation one brick at a time, day after day, until it becomes a great tower of achievement. Do not get paralyzed by the enormity of the challenge. Remember that big successful businesses are built one client at a time.

Wisdom is gained by reading one book at a time. Marathons are won one stride at a time. Do good on each of your bricks and let each of it build up your reputation.

We can learn from Nehemiah. He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. e walls had great signi cance. When their walls were down, it meant exposure to many dangers, shame, and it signi ed that those living there were a defeated people.

With God’s help, Nehemiah and the Jews were able to rebuild the walls and restore the city of Jerusalem.

We have to fortify ourselves by building up a stronger character each and every day. We have to build our integrity, skills, and spirituality.

Step 2: Promote Your Unique Value

Identify your unique value. is is the best way to assert yourself in the market especially when it is highly competitive. is is connected to nding your niche. Within your niche, how can you be di erent from others? How can you stand out?

I once watched a 5’5” contestant join the Dunk King TV show. Porter Maberry claimed to be the best 5’5’’ dunker in the whole world. At least he believed he was. He eventually won the contest by defying the status quo and gravity itself. Maberry asserted his unique value and won!

What’s your unique value? Each person is a combination of various experiences, educational background, family background, hobbies, and capabilities. You are composed of all these. You just have to promote who you are and why people should entrust you with responsibility.

Step 3: Intensify Your Training

You’ve got to see your passion as an investment that you have to grow. Like any investment, you’ve got to put in some time and even some money. How can you grow your passion to reach the expert level? ere are many paths you can take, such as increasing your experience, enrolling yourself in school, working under a good leader, and by trying out a new venture.

e more you know about your eld, the more you can add value to your passion. is is good stewardship. God gave us the ability and the desire. It is our task to make ourselves really good at what we are doing.

Intensifying your training also means reaching out to more advanced experts in your eld. Seek them. Find out why they are successful. Be bold and talk to them. Read books about them and follow their wisdom, but also incorporate your own unique value.

Step 4: Leverage! Form Your Dream Team

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world,” said the mathematician Archimedes.

A lever gives you the ability to move heavy objects. As your work grows, it becomes heavier, and you need the help of more people. You can leverage by working with a good team.

Building your passion means involving others with the same dream as yours. As you pursue the goals of your passion, enroll people in it so you can lift some heavy problems.

Famous director, producer, and screenwriter Steven Spielberg once said:

“When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it’s you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, lmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these lms by yourself.”

ere will be tasks beyond your own capacity and resources. Face these challenges by the power of leverage. As your passion grows to a level of excellence, there will be more people attracted to what you do. Your time will increase in value and you need the leverage of your teammates.