Imagine walking into your house after a long day of work to find someone sitting in your living room smiling and holding a small box wrapped in lime green wrapping paper and tied with a silky purple ribbon.
The person looks familiar to you, but you cannot really place where you know them from and when you open your mouth to ask who they are, they begin to open the box. Inside, you see a small, glowing glass ball. The ball is emitting such a radiant light that you have a hard time looking directly at it, but you can’t turn away because the glow is beautiful and basks the room in a warm, soft hue that reminds you of a quiet, Sunday morning.
The person hands you a card that was inside the box and then walks out the house. “What the heck is going on?” you say. The card is small and simply reads, “Tomorrow you will begin a life of passion.”
You start to laugh and say, “This is crazy!” and toss the card and ball back into the box. The next thing you remember is waking up the next day in your bed and turning over to turn off the buzz of your morning alarm.
“What a strange dream,” you mumble as you get ready to go to work. You park at your job, enter the building, ride the elevator to your floor, and head to your desk. Your co-workers, look at you strangely and start to whisper. “What’s up with them?” you wonder.
As you get to your desk instead of seeing your things, you see someone else’s stuff. As you look around a tall women with shiny brunette hair comes to the desk with a cup of coffee in her hands and bubbly asks, “Are you lost?”
“Uhh, no. I work here,” you say.
“Since when?” she asks with a clearly dumbfounded look.
“What?” You ask as you try to stay calm, but are increasingly becoming irritated at the obviously lost new employee.
“Hey! What are you doing here?” You hear across the room from one of the office veterans as they start to come towards you.
“What is wrong with everyone? I work here! This is my desk!” You state with an ever-increasing amount of frustration.
“Whoa! Calm down Buddy!” The office vet states. “You haven’t worked here since you created your dream company.”
“My what?” you ask.
“You know the company of your dreams. One day you gave your notice, left the office, and started to make millions,” the vet states quite matter-of-factly. “I even came to have lunch with you one day to learn how you did it.”
“Okay, there must be a mistake. Where’s the manager?” You ask still not believing your ears.
“Yeah, Sue is still in the corner office. We were just talking about going to your next conference. She’ll love to see you again,” the vet states as he walks away to his desk.
As you head to Sue’s office a huddle of employees start whispering about the morning’s strange events. You knock on the door of the corner office and you hear Sue call for you to enter. As you come in she looks up from the monitor and bursts into a big smile jumping up to give you a hug. “Hey Superstar!” she exclaims.
“Hey, Sue,” you mumble with a mixture of surprise and concern. “Do you have a minute?”
“For you, I do!” she replied still standing and obviously excited.
“Umm. There’s some new person at my desk. Do you know what that’s about?” you ask.
“Yeah, that’s Lisa. She took over your position after you left to start your company,” Sue replied very matter-of-fact.
“What company?” you ask.
“Your passion company! It was the company of your dreams. One day you came to work and said you were leaving to focus on your passion. The next thing we know, you’re on the cover of magazines and becoming everything you wanted to be. I just couldn’t believe that you did it.” Sue says with clear admiration in her eyes.
You stand there with your bag still in your hand and begin to wonder if you were in a dream l.
“Hey, I even saved one of the first articles you were featured in,” Sue stated, starting to dig through one of the many piles in her office. “Here it is!” she said, proudly holding up a piece of paper and handing it to you.
“Local Business Owner Leaves Job and Follows Passion to Success!” reads the headline. As you skim the article, you see a picture of yourself at your home office with a big smile. The article explains how you decided to follow your passion and start the company of your dreams. You are quoted in the article saying, “I decided one day to give myself a gift and that changed everything!”
“That damn box!” you say aloud.
“What box?” Sue asks, looking over your shoulder at the article. “Oh, the gift!” she states.
“You know about the gift?” you say in amazement, hoping that she would give you some answers.
“Yeah, silly. It’s what you put at the end of your books, emails, speeches, everywhere!” she says. “You say, ‘Give yourself the gift of following your passion.’” She quoted from memory.
“Oh, yeah!” you say, faking a smile. “I just wanted to see if you remembered,” you tell her with a smile. “Matter of fact, I really just came by to see how everyone was,” you lie.
“Oh, great! Well, we sure miss you around here. I didn’t even know you had all of that potential. We could have made you a manager,” She speaks with a noticeable amount of regret.
“Well, you know how to find me! I gotta go,” you blurt out, now rushing.
“Okay. Well, thanks for the visit!” she says as she goes back to her desk and start to stare at the computer.
As you get back into your car. You almost speed home to find any clues to the whereabouts of the box from what you thought were your dreams. “Something has to be here!” you state in a huff of frustration. In the corner of your home office, you see a small box.
You rush over and find the card from last night. It still simply reads, “Tomorrow you will begin a life of passion.” Instead, this time you flip the card over to see printed on the back: “This is the gift of a lifetime of passion. By deciding to keep the card, you will be given everything you need to pursue your passion. You will have happiness, joy, resources, and money. You will change the lives of those around you and receive fame and notoriety for your choice. This gift can only be given to those who have a passion inside of them that shines bright, but has remained uncovered. Keep the card hidden and when asked about your amazing transformation only state that you ‘decided to give yourself a gift.’”
As soon as you finish reading the card, a rush of memories overwhelms you. You begin to see yourself setting up your dream company, spending hours working on projects, and meeting with clients. You see yourself speaking to rooms of people about how to pursue their dreams. Then you see yourself taking fabulous trips with family and friends to exotic destinations. Moreover, you begin to see what a wonderful life you have had since that night you received the gift.
You stand up and begin to walk towards the phone to make a call and catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. You look like yourself but not exactly. Your eyes, nose, mouth, and ears are where they should be, but your face has a different glow. You seem to radiant some kind of inner light that encompasses love, peace, confidence, and success. As you get closer to the mirror, you gasp, realizing that you were the person in the living room the other night.
You gave yourself the gift that changed everything.
You gave yourself the gift of passion.