Living passionately is one of the three pillars of successful living that I believe in and live by. Having passion in your work and life is often quoted as a vital component of successful living. While I agree that passion is a great motivator and leads many towards success in their careers, by itself it is merely a momentary emotional high.
Before I unpack my previous statement, let me first define the meaning I am referring to.
Here are some definitions that I’ve taken from www.dictionary.com.
1. any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.
2. strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.
3. strong sexual desire; lust.
4. an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.
5. a person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire.
6. a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: a passion for music.
The definition of passion that I am referring to is #6, a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything; in particular I’m referring to passion as related to work or action.
To live life with passion means that you live with intense and extravagant fondness, enthusiasm and desire. “Live your passion” is a catchy phrase because it engages our imagination and holds us in a moment of pure excitement. And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to live a life of pure excitement?
The problem with this image is that, as good as it may seem, it’s hopelessly false. This is the illusion of passion. I am guilty of regularly falling prey to the illusion myself. When people talk about their passions, it usually is laden with expletives and suffers from excessive hyperbole. When we speak to others about our passions, we tend to inflate them because that is what someone would expect to hear. However, passion is not a word you should use lightly.
We hype passion up to be something that it isn’t nor ever could be. When someone says they are passionate about X, that doesn’t mean that they spend every waking moment thinking about X. Even though the famous brand Adidas stands for, All Day I Dream About Soccer, I’m willing to bet there is no one on earth that actually dreams all day about soccer. It’s just not physically possible. The human mind is much to susceptible to external and internal stimulus.
The illusion of passion is the illusion that our passions, whatever they may be, are timeless and never changing. Passion is a word we use to paint a romantic picture of a state that is immutable. If I were to say to you I am passionate about dancing, would it be hard to believe me if I told you there were times that I hated to dance? Sounds awkward doesn’t it?
If you’re passionate about something, how could you possibly hate it sometimes? It doesn’t make sense! Well actually it does make sense. That’s human nature. What doesn’t make sense is our particular use of the word and the sense of timelessness that it instills.
In order to paint an accurate picture of passion you first need to dispel the illusion. Passion isn’t inborn, it’s cultivated. It doesn’t run on autopilot. Passion needs to be fed and nurtured. Though some people may have an unusually strong desire for something, that desire still needs cultivation, especially if it is something that doesn’t come by easily.
Having a passion for playing music means that you have an extravagant enthusiasm or fondness for playing music, but that doesn’t exclude the need to practice. I’ve met many people who are passionate about music, but hate practicing. Passion is what motivates you to practice, but discipline is what keeps you practicing. The successful musician is the one that not only has passion, but the discipline to maintain their passion.
Passion is a great word to use because it’s sexy and promotes a vibrant and powerful combination of emotions and imagery. However, we must be careful in how we utilize this power.
We do ourselves a great injustice if we try to pass passion off as an all-in-one solution. It’s not. Success takes hard work and persistence.
To live passionately is an active choice and takes discipline to maintain. Passion by itself, while powerful, lacks consistency. Thus if a person comes to you and says, “I’ve got a lot of passion,” but lacks discipline, success will most likely always be out of reach.
So the real challenge, in my opinion, is not finding your passion, but it is in cultivating it with rigorous discipline. Passion is the hip and sexy component of the success equation, while discipline is the boring and stale part; however, both are equally important.
The illusion of passion is such that people think that passion alone is enough. If there’s anything you take away from this post, it’s this: passion is just the beginning, it’s how you cultivate your passion that makes all the difference.
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< ![CDATA[[...] because people who have cultivated a burning passion that long are unstoppable. In my post, The Illusion of Passion I debunked the notion that passion, by itself, would equal success. While passion is a vital [...] ]]>