It sounds like good advice. “Just follow your passion” “Do what’s in your heart to do.” In fact I highly recommend it…sometimes…in some circumstances…at the right moments.
At first glance it seems like a searching for your true north thing to do. We all know or have heard of people who have risked and followed their passion. They left their dead-end job, embraced their entrepreneurial life and started a business…and it worked. The world wouldn’t be as rich a place without the contributions of people who followed their passions. We needed the animations of Walt Disney, the self-sacrifice of Mother Theresa, and the melt-in-your-mouth baking of Mrs. Fields to inspire, entertain and satisfy us.
We also have in our heads those people who took a risk and followed their passion and it didn’t work. We can’t list their names because they went bankrupt and sunk into oblivion joining the unknown number of unmotivated workers living from paycheque to paycheque, just trying to hold it together.
Talking about passion is a difficult thing. If you have passion, you don’t really need to be told to pursue it. If you are passionate you almost can’t help but take action to follow it. You wake up early with it burning within you. You spend tireless hours exploring, researching, practicing and developing only to fall into bed deeply satisfied and eager to do it again tomorrow.
On the other far more difficult hand, if you don’t have passion, it’s pointless to tell you to pursue it. Just follow your passion is akin to being told to saddle up a unicorn and ride it over a rainbow. Yeah right, like that’s a reality.
For the Passion-less – Don’t Worry About it.
There is a lot of conflicting thoughts about passion floating around and that’s good news for those of you who are feeling passion-less. Ryan Holiday emphatically states “Don’t follow your passion – it’s what’s holding you back” He is the author of The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy. He believes that we are misguided in following our passions. Take a look at how he defines passion: “Passion in this sense is just ego. Pure and plain destructive ego. It’s self-absorption at the expense of reality.” He goes on to say, “Passion…is breathlessness and impetuousness and franticness are poor substitutes for discipline, for mastery, for strength and purpose and perseverance…while the origins of passion may be earnest and good, its effects are comical and then monstrous.” Wow! Comical and then monstrous? That’s pretty harsh but it doesn’t take much looking in the news to see he may have a point. Many people die daily around the world simply because someone is living out their “passion” in a destructive way.
If you are experiencing a void of passion try this instead:
- Ask, What do I need to do now? Just because you may temporarily be passion-less doesn’t mean you should be purpose-less. What should you be focussing on right now? Your health? Your family? Your family’s health? Your schooling? Passion comes and goes. Let it simmer for a while while you take care of the important things in your world.
- Follow your curiousity. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic, became famous for taking time to pursue her passion and write about it. Interestingly enough though she recommends that if you don’t have a passion, you shouldn’t worry about it. She instead recommends that you follow your curiosity, “Follow it,” she says. “It might lead you to your passion or it might not. You might get nothing out of it at all except a beautiful, long life where all you did was follow your gorgeous curiosity. And that should be enough too.”
- What are the needs of the people around me? Often our passion is found in serving others. Improving the lives of others is a fast track to developing passion. What can you do to show love to the people in your world? I mean seriously, what is one specific way? You don’t have to be passionate to take note of the coming and goings of the people in your world. Take a moment for them. Notice the person serving you, how can you make their day brighter?
For Those With Passion, It Doesn’t End There
You should follow your passion AND…
- Practicality. It must be followed with an eye on practicality. The majority of waiters and waitresses are not passionate about bringing you food. They may enjoy their job but their passion lies elsewhere. In Nashville, a good number of these are passionate about music but the tips are what pays the bills; in LA, wannabe actors keep the lights on by serving the table and in New York the artists and performers do double duty to support the pursuit of their passion. Bills have to be paid – it’s a reality.
- Check your heart and motives. Is your passion a completely self-absorbed interest? Following your passion shouldn’t harm others. I’m crazy passionate about animals. I think dogs are the greatest and I adore cats. Truth is I also love bunnies and gerbils and guinea pigs, calves, horses etc. but The Man I have chosen to spend my life with is equally and emphatically passionate about breathing. Breathing is a pretty basic passion that you take for granted until it’s compromised or compounded by serial sneezing. His need to breathe and my desire that he continues breathing trumps my passion for animals…always.
- Your Values. Be sure your passion lines up with your values. Many young parents have to put their passions on hold in order to create a stable and loving family life. If you have children, they are your first passion. Period. All other passions take second place. No debate.
- Don’t follow your passion if it means someone has to die. I wrote that tongue in cheek several months ago but in the last few months so much as happened that it no longer even holds a hint of humour. Grown men falling off cliffs in pursuit of Pokemon Go. People shooting police officers. Police officers shooting people. Terrorism. All of this can be contributed to an unbridled pursuit of passion. Passion alone can lead us down a very dark road.
Follow Your Passions but Also Follow Something More
Follow your passion but balance it with other factors . Despite the extremes, I still do encourage people to explore their passion. I wholeheartedly believe, unlike Holiday, that not all passion is self-absorption. In fact, much of our passion can spring from seeing the injustice in the world and having a sincere altruistic desire to help where we can.
I also believe though that we need more than passion. We also need to focus on our purpose, as well as the people who are placed in our worlds. Passion AND Purpose AND People. (If you haven’t read about my love for AND read about it here.) I’ll write more about this secret sauce soon.