Desire. That is the first word that jumped out at me after reading today’s fortune. And for good reason. Desire is probably the single most determining factor in any venture. Brené Brown might label this grit. Rocky Balboa might have termed it guts. Steve Jobs or Picasso might have called it drive or inspiration.

But at the heart of grit, guts, drive, or inspiration is desire. A deep, lingering inner wanting. A hunger, a passion. That word, passion, gets thrown around a lot these days. Perhaps too much. And the more pedestrian a word becomes, the more power it loses. But let’s really consider these words, really soak up their implications.

Desire. Passion.

I don’t know about you, but the those are very stirring words. At least for me. In my movie-mind, it conjures up images of some swarthy, lusty-eyed pirate ripping off the bodice of his true love in his captain’s chambers, having just rescued her from the evil clutches of his arch nemesis.

Can you picture the scene I just painted? Can you feel an aliveness in your body? Has it altered your physical state?

Is it me or is it getting a little bit steamy in here?

I don’t know about you, but this is what desire and passion sound like to me. Not, “I want to quit my crappy day job and follow my passion.” That doesn’t sound much like desire to me. Real passion would have boxed up your cubicle and walked you out the door already.

If we operated from that kind of true, genuine desire there is nothing we couldn’t undertake and complete.

To your good fortune!