Counterfeit Passion

“The question is this, can you be committed to the process of what you do, without being emotionally attached to the results of what you do? Meaning that, if you don’t get what you thought you were going to get, can you still be the same individual? What you bring to it is what it is going to be!

When I lost my football career because of my injury, I wasn’t told that rehabilitation would work. But what they were telling me, is you can try it, but we don’t know what is going to happen. Nobody can give you a guaranteed answer to life. You can dedicate years to a goal, you can hit it five days a week, and no one can tell you the outcome. And for me, it didn’t work, but it didn’t stop me.

So you have to own the moment. You’ve gotta come in every single day and bring your best, or else the process is going to destroy you. Because at the time, it can create a false sense of hope. It can make you think, if you involve yourself, it will work out. It can make you think that you are going to come out of it and be a better individual, because your expectation is set.

But for me, the money was not deep enough to get me going. Materialism is superficial and is not deep enough to get me going. I have to have a certain level of integrity and dignity as a man. So that when I look into the mirror, it does something to me. If i know that I’m not out doing what I’m supposed to do for my family, that bothers my conscience.

And so when I say, can you be committed to the process of what you do without being emotionally attached to the results of what you do, I mean this, everybody knows what thier supposed to do when they get what there supposed to get. Everybody knows what to do when everything goes right. People know how to respond when they get a check. Everybody knows what to do.

But most people have counterfeit passion. And most kids have counterfeit dedication. I say counterfeit to mean, that it is cheap. It’s counterfeit. Most people let life and the politics take their passion. But that is cheap. You are not real, because the moment you don’t get what you thought you were going to get, it’s game over. Your out. Right?

And so when the outcome is not what you wanted it to be, can you still show up and operate as if its day one? Like that founders moment. Like when you first started. You have forgotten when you were still just a kid having fun on the playground.

So if you don’t get what you want, then your not going to give one-hundred percent?! If that’s the case, then you have an integrity problem. You have a character and dignity problem. If your only wired to go when you get a check, or when things fall into place, then come on already, quit that counterfeit passion!”

-Inky Johnson