An Oxygen Tank – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

A metaphor for the breather we need right now

Photo by Olga Tsai on Unsplash

Living true to our life purpose is, in a way, a constant search for our own treasure. Like a diver deep in the ocean, the treasure we most hope to find is peace and fulfillment. Yet we find ourselves in rough, shifting currents, and despite how deep we’ve already gone, the choice between turning back and diving deeper becomes a turning point. Here’s what to do.

Those currents are the events we’ll meet again and again as we make decisions true to our purpose. Meanwhile, the safety we feel when we picture the shore drains us in its own way. It’s our comfort zone, always calling us back.

On the way to the treasure there’s one vital, limited resource that should be on our minds more than anything: oxygen. It can also stand for time, passion, attitude and initiative. However rough and murky the water, going further without it is impossible. So there’s a third option besides heading for shore: rise to the surface and refill the tank.

Surfacing can look like a delay, a failure or a step backward. Any of those labels forgets the vision we set out with, which was finding the treasure. Securing the long term takes a great deal of effort, and it means coming up for air many times so we can keep exploring deeper and deeper.

The depths we’ve explored so far are full of lessons and achievements, and to keep going we need a breather. Life is handing us a great opportunity to secure the long term and, with it, reach our visions. What matters is how much more we can gain while holding firm to our convictions, without losing what we’ve already achieved.

What would surfacing mean for you right now? How much would you gain by refilling your oxygen tank? Are you still burning through the little oxygen you have left?

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. This week’s VELA:

• What I’ve been Viewing: Attitude. A TED talk by Victor Küppers, a great human being I relate to completely. Attitude and passion define him. There are many videos of his online, and this is a wonderful one. His enthusiasm and energy are unmatched, and his two big conclusions are worth watching, especially the one on gratitude.
• What I’ve been Listening to: The Value of Discipline. An interview with the great Mario Alonso Puig, another favorite author and someone with a rare gift for making complex things simple. This week someone I admire and care about a lot asked me, "How do you manage to be so disciplined?" Much of the answer is in this video, and I encourage you to watch it.
• What I’ve been Reading: Estados Unidos: La historia, by Paul Johnson. For a long time I’d been looking for a book to study the history of that great country I admire in more depth, one that laid out the values handed down by its founders, and it finally reached me at just the right moment. I’m hooked, and it’s been a long time since a book did that to me. Just as the country marks another anniversary of its independence, I’m reading a book with an unmatched wealth of stories, facts and events. Well worth reading.
• What I’ve been Learning: Solar energy. The video is called "The Rise of Solar Power". Renewable energy has always caught my attention, and I’ve wanted to learn more about solar, especially how costs across this huge industry have fallen. The numbers are eye-opening. There’s a reason it’s catching on and here to stay, and I hope electric vehicles become a reality in our part of the world very soon.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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