The Artistry of Passion

Upgrade Your Brain Without Breaking Your Mind

Maalik J Phipps, Kimberly Reynolds

• Publisher: Maalik Phipps
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781087945613
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Art General
• Index: Literature

Maalik Phipps, Author of The Artistry of Passion: Upgrade Your Brain Without Breaking Your Mind designed this book to take you on a life-changing journey of finding and actualizing your purpose. This is not just any book, but one that resonates in your inner subconscious guiding you over the treacherous path of life's obstacles to one's ultimate passion.

CHAPTER 8

If you fail to plan; You plan to fail: The Strategy of Planning Your Life

Preparation for life is so important.

“Luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity.” -unknown

Opportunity is all around us. Are you prepared when the opportunity comes? Preparation is the separator between many successful and unsuccessful people. For you to be prepared, you must begin with a plan. It doesn’t have to be detailed to the letter, however, there should be some sort of mission and the end result of what you are attempting to accomplish. Of course, if you are trying to live the life you desire, understanding exactly what you desire will have to be identified. Therefore, using creativity and imagination to format the vision will help guide the actions necessary for the task.

My father explained this quote to me when I was young; “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This statement sounded so profound to me at the time. I believed in it so much that every decision I made, I would take the time to properly explore possible opportunities, threats, and let that information determine my action. It wasn’t until college, when I realized exactly what this quote meant for me. It suggests that planning is critical and if I didn't plan, paradoxically, I am planning… to fail. But if I do plan, even in failure, I will succeed because failures are the greatest lessons for growth.

I use the example of a road map. The road map for me is the detailed, descriptive path to my desired life. Creativity, imagination, desire, and passion are all channels I will use to accomplish this goal. The mistakes that I encounter will serve as markers or legend keys to guide me to what I should and should not engage in. I have lived my life this way thus far, always preparing myself and altering my road map markers to help me obtain my desire.

Attaining my desire would not be possible had it not been for the artistry of passion. The philosophy is completely simple, embodies the naturalness of the world, and my role in it. This philosophy prepared me to endure situations and encounters that were foreign to me. Yet exploring and understanding these traits of creativity, imagination, desire, and passion at such a young and vulnerable age, prepared me for this life.

My childhood was full of preparation. I embrace reading and history. Two subjects that if used properly, can predict the future in some ways. I spent hours in the library reading about ancient civilizations, war, slavery, and other topics that devastated the world. At this point, I realized the thought of sheer neglect of life humanity once had. One of my favorite novels is Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. Reading this novel created a picture in my mind to look at current events and see the dangers the book warned about. These ideas expressed in books like Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, and others give an interesting perspective of the future. This gave me a clearer point of view when analyzing my future.

Being prepared is vital. The classic books that I have read are becoming more relevant today, however, most people are confused because they have no reference. An infamous quote I live by is “Knowledge will save a man, just as ignorance will kill him.” I focus more on my mental balance of knowledge to prepare for my future and my environment. The takeaway is, you must read. Develop an interest in reading. It will prepare you for things to come.

Just like food, the brain needs to eat. Reading is the most important food for thought, creativity, imagination, desire, and passion because it gives you ideas and new perspectives, along with a chance to reflect. It is also important to diversify your library. I read several genres of books; children's books, sci-fi, nonfiction, fiction, essays, biographies, creative free writes, poetry, romance fiction, and crime fiction.

My interest in reading expands my perspective through the energy that these books channel. When you read someone's thoughts, subconsciously, it feels like you can hear their voice, or what you think their voice sounds like. Have you ever had that experience? Have you read a novel and felt a voice that wasn’t your own? For example, imagine a cell phone transmitting energy and signals to connect people, words have a natural energy and connection that is naturally fused with our conscious.

The biggest take away of this chapter is to prepare your mind. You have to feed your mind with information that will help guide you to what you desire. If your mind isn’t prepared, nothing you desire will manifest. You need creativity, imagination to create desire and passion, thus you need a strong mind. A tip to create this interest is simply, ask yourself questions. If you cannot answer these questions, using your creativity and imagination, revisit Part - I of this book to help shift your paradigm. These questions will challenge your thinking and force you to seek and develop different perspectives. After freeing your mind from constraints , you will have the fortitude and the knowledge to create your road map to your desired life; not by society standards but your own. The only rules for these questions are:

1. No outside research; use your mind. 2. You cannot answer with “I don't know” you must answer with a complete thought and sentence. After you answer these questions, ask your family and friends the same questions. Analyze their perspective based on their experiences and have a discussion about what their future plans are.

Food For Thought:

1. When was the last time you tried something new?
2. What gets you excited about life?
3. Who do you love and what are you doing about it?
4. What can you do today that you were not capable of a year ago?
5. What is the difference between living and existing?
6. If not now, when?
7. When you are 80-years-old, what will matter to you the most?
8. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
9. What do we all have in common besides our genes that makes us human?
10. What impact have you left on the world?
11. To what degree have you controlled the course your life has taken?
12. Do you own your things or do your things own you?
13. Would you rather lose all of your old memories or never be able to make new ones?
14. When you close your eyes what do you see?
15. Why are you, you?
16. How would you describe ‘freedom’ in your own words?
17. Why do you matter?
18. How would you describe yourself in one sentence?
19. Do you see to believe...

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• About The Author