The Fire that Forges and Cleanses

Welcome to another episode, Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you’re listening to the podcast, but we recognize that in the middle of your game of life, whether you’re by 10 or down by 20, each of us, you and I, we both need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level performance it’s gonna take to win the game.

So we’re back. It’s another episode, and before we get into it, we get into a little bit of appreciation. So let’s go ahead and rock it today. I want to appreciate something that is very near dear to my heart. I want to appreciate my coming of age music. I love my coming of age music. It’s that music between the ages of 12 and maybe 22 when you’re first introduced to understand why music is great, you’re beyond listening to what your parents love. When you start mentally identifying the biggest moments of your life. Have that soundtrack of your coming of age, music, and now, as we’ve evolved and grown older, that same music now serves a different function, to transport us through time to those moments of early life, discovery, early life ideas and everything That was amazing about that time in our life.

You gonna begin this episode with a common quote that I know you’ve heard before, so I’ll say half of it, and then in your mind, finish the rest if you can’t stand the heat, then, Yep, you got it. Get out of the kitchen. And so in this episode, what we are hoping to explore is what happens when we invest in standing in the flame, the fire, and that fire takes on so many aspects of our lives. It’s that area that is uncomfortable. It’s uneasy, that area where most people flee and run away from in street photography, it’s that two feet away point where you snap somebody’s portrait to capture a moment in time, a scene that cannot be crafted again, and just capturing that image instead chair pose and yoga holding it for five breaths.

It’s going into that sauna for a little bit longer than you thought you could. It’s getting on the Versa clamor of the Jacob’s Ladder and punching out 1520, 2530, minutes. It’s running not just one or two miles, but maybe 567, miles, not just one day, but maybe multiple times in a week. It’s these areas that I want to discuss. It’s investing in enduring the flame of the fire that most want to retreat from. So I’ll ask you, what areas of your life have people marveled at? What areas of your life do you want to invest in that uncomfortable heat that the fire can bring it begins with with something very special that allows us to endure, endure more than we thought possible for ourselves.

And that’s commitment, because in our mind, we have first to form a vision of what is inside that fire as we invest and build equity in that endurance, that capacity to sit while others. Lee, understanding that there are skills inside the fire. There is an understanding inside the fire. There is an adaption that happens, not just in that one dimension, but all across the board, as we begin to build equity in that fire, the great African story about the Bennu bird, Greeks will call the same bird the Phoenix, because that bird would be cleansed by the fire and forged in the fire and reborn again.

And I’ll contend to you. I’ll contend as passionately and with a firm level of conviction that there is another life through the fire, you have the mystery systems, who they have to cross the burning sands. And while I am not part of any of those systems, I have studied the benefit of the fire. I understand that fire can do two things. It could do a lot of things. It can cook, it could burn. But the fire, which I speak of to you right now, we wanted to perform two functions. The first is to burn away anything, not with any integrity of who we want to be.

And if our Spirit begins to move and thrash and violently resist the fire, that’s when we get burned. But if we remain calm, we can see that the fire has a cleansing aspect to it, where we no longer have to identify with the volatility, the fear, the resistance we’ve trained ourself to stand the heat while other people want to flee. Another aspect of the fire is it forges steel, metal put in fire makes it malleable and adaptable and capable of taking on the desired form that lives in our mind. So you have blacksmiths who temper steal in the kilns of the fire. We are no different the body that we want, the mind that we want, the skills that we want, the tools and the performance that we seek comes at a cost.

Typically, when you look at the world, everybody’s trying to avoid the quote, unquote fire. They’re trying to find an easy way. They are trying to read a book and adapt shortcuts in order to discover the path toward quote, unquote, success. Is it possible? Yeah. But guess what? Life is fire, life is contrast, life is adversity, and it’s not what happens to us that matters as much as it is how we respond to what matters. Can you keep your wits about you when all others are losing theirs. Can you remain calm knowing that you’ve invested time and built equity in areas that everybody else will call uncomfortable?

Because no matter what doesn’t get easier, but we get better, and as we get better, our sword slices through the resistance with more ease. We can remain calm, steadfast, because we have a vision on what’s on the other side. I remember when I used to weight train. I used to always tell myself, it doesn’t matter how much is my max weight, it’s. Always heavy, doesn’t get lighter. Our muscles get bigger, and we believe in ourselves. Recently, I’ve been running for no greater reason than to hear all the aspects of my mind that doesn’t want to run, that wants to quit, that wants to stop, that doesn’t want to run, that that voice, and I use the fire of running.

I to squelch that inner voice that wants to quit, that doesn’t want to fulfill the highest degree of potential. And guess what? Name a mileage. It’s all long. It doesn’t get shorter. You get better. It might get a little shorter. For five miles, six miles, seven miles, eight miles, 10 miles, a marathon, a half marathon, it’s still distance, like you can’t cheat the race. Build equity. Face it, but guess what? If you can’t stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen, and once you’ve crafted a vision of what you want from that kitchen, return build equity. Enjoy the fire, enjoy who it’s allowing you to become just some ideas.

My name is Rahim Rasul. Thank you guys for listening to another episode of halftime talks. Make sure you go to iTunes, subscribe, rate and review. We definitely want to read your reviews. And if you’re curious about some more ideas that we have, go to Rahim R, A, H, I m, Rasul R, A, S, U, l.com, and until next time, be easy. Peace.