PASSION IS A FEELING YOU CAN USE
Oh, finally! After beaucoup years of nonsense about “finding your passion” and “following your bliss,” people of influence are finally telling us more ordinary sorts a better truth.
Passion is not a path. Passion is not a guidepost. Passion is really not a will-o-the-wisp phosphorescent light that dances ahead of you and maybe leads you into a bog or something.
Passion is a feeling. It comes, it goes, it morphs, it grows. And, more than anything (like every other human feeling), passion is a go-juice you can use to make your moves in the world.
ABOUT THE WORD “PASSION”
For years now “passion” has been a word that postmodern pop self-help psychologies and the human resource contingent have embraced.
Running with it, they have been dragging the lot of us all over the landscape looking for that special source of personal motivation that will spark up a certain intensity of feeling that will somehow give extraordinary meaning to our existence as we know it.
It makes more sense when you understand that at one time “suffer” used to just mean “to undergo.”
It’s interesting to note that the ordeal that Jesus the Christ went through during his last days on earth (leading up to and beyond his crucifixion and then resurrection) was dubbed as the “passion of Christ” in early Latin translations of the Bible beginning in the 2nd century CE.
Poets kept playing with the word until, by the end of the 16th century “passion” came to signify some uncontrollable emotion like rage or a strong sexual attraction or deep love.
Poetic passion involves a lot of trauma and drama and make the best kinds of stories that you really don’t want to have to live through. Many popular writers and poets down through the centuries sure had a lot of fun with it.
THE PASSION “PROMISE” IS A CON
These days we are assured by many self-help mavens and other celebrities offering a profundity of life-advice (mostly in graduation and other motivational speeches) that if we look hard enough we’re supposed to be able to find this “passion” thing somehow.
For years now they’ve been telling us that if we do find some passion or other and then pour it into the work we do in the world then the world will make a stellar sort of sense, our ducks will all line up, and our lives will go along swimmingly ever more.
Yeah, right.
We are further assured that mixing in passion with our work would rev up our disengaged and limping motivational engines and miraculously fix our unproductive “bad” attitudes post-haste.
Mostly it did not quite work out that way.
For one thing, passion isn’t a something that you “find.” It’s already there in you (or it’s not).
However, where the passion “promise” really went wonky was when the human resources contingent got ahold of it and started beating us over the head with the thing.
They tend to quote some fake Confucius thing: “Do the work you love and you will never work again.”
Ummm…guys, for real, there are jobs that need to be done that nobody can love. They still have to be done and somebody’s gotta do them. And, sometimes, that somebody is you.
Deeply held passions do help you find grand directions to explore and passion can help you get through the parts that suck. What it doesn’t do is magically make the suck go away.
Even worse, you may get some nasty shocks when you reach the top of your beloved mountain and can see all the other higher mountains to be conquered in the distance.
ARGH!
PASSION AS DREAM-REALIZATION FUEL
Myself, I’ve always tended to follow the poets. I believe their take on the word “passion” – that it is a deeply felt emotion as well as a source of turmoil, chaos, and change — is more right than not.
I also believe the smarty pants who’ve studied such things and say that all of our very human emotions are the most readily available kinds of fuel we can access for moving our butts around in this old world.
Because of this, I’ve come to the conclusion that passion its-own-self is like high-grade fuel. In my world, passion is just another kind of “go-juice.”
Robbins’ most important takeaway is this: “Passion is the energy that you bring to everything that you do.” It’s not what you do; it’s HOW you do it.
It makes sense, that.
As far as I can tell, in order to develop your own personal mana and refine your power of agency and your ability to just do stuff that’s focused on making your dreams come real you probably need to have a large holding capacity for passion (and even that can be grown).
Some folks come into the world with huge reservoirs of passion and have intense emotions and feelings just oozing out of them; other people, not so much.
(Those who we may consider “mad” are more likely to be wannabe visionaries who fail to focus or control their accumulated cache of passions, but that’s another story.)
Recognized visionaries of various sorts in more recent times have pointed out how passions can, indeed, fuel our own makings.
Harriet Tubman once told us, “Every great dream starts with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Nelson Mandela pointed out, “There is no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
Steve Jobs once said, “You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.”
The caveat to all that is the one about not letting your passions push you around in directions you really don’t want to go. As Ben Franklin once advised, “If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”
Old Ben (a.k.a. The Pragmatic One) did have a point. Passion can be an inflammable and most destructive thing. (Just ask the poets and the storytellers.)
The trick, if you’re going to follow Old Ben’s advice, is not to let reason dampen down and smother the fire it helps you generate. (You don’t want to run out of steam, ya know.)
THE GROWTH AND FEEDING OF PASSIONS: LEARN SOMETHING
The cool part in all this passion stuff is that you can develop a passion for anything by concentrating your attention on some fascinating-to-you bit of the world or other. The feeling of passion is often compounded by your stores of knowledge and the insights and understandings you’ve collected.
One resource you might like to keep on your bookshelf to explore is the 2017 book, MINDSHIFT: Break through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential, by educator, writer and engineer Barbara Oakley.
Oakley is the creator of what’s touted as the most popular massive open online course (MOOC) in the world, “Learning How to Learn,” which she has taught for years alongside legendary neuroscientist Terrence Sejnowski.
Click the button below to learn more about their Coursera class:
You don’t have to “find your passion.” You just need to grow one. You can even grow more than one. In fact, you can grow as many as you can hold.
Combining a number of passions that you hold can help you realize some dream or other or advance a cause that you believe in and then the world is gifted with some new thing that helps the people all around you live better lives.
ADOPT SOMEBODY ELSE’S VISION AND GROW YOUR PASSION
Author and vlogger Simon Sinek has an interesting take on passion. In his 2020 video, “Where Passion Comes From,” he points out that most of us ordinary sorts are not particularly good at being the kind of visionary who can come up with a clear, realistic and credible vision that impacts the whole world.
We mostly do know the kind of world we’d like to live in and we can choose to help make that one more real in the place and the time where we are.
What could be better than living in a neighborhood that has all the things and people you like?
If we want to grow our passion, Sinek says, all we have to do is go look for and find somebody else’s vision that resonates with us and then use our innate talents and the skillsets we’ve developed in our lives to help make that future world come real.
Hmmm….
Here’s a poem:
DREAMING AGAIN
The wise guys
They all say
Life’s a dream,
No more than
A glimmering gleam.
In an instant
It can vanish
Like some phantom
Shadow flickering past
Your eyes’ corners.
This one dies,
That one leaves,
The other one
Loses his way.
The plot thickens.
This game lost,
That one shattered,
The other one
Scattered like chaff.
Where’s the wheat?
This treasure snatched,
That one ruined,
The other one
Null and void.
It’s all gone.
A lifetime built
Around small passions
Melts away in
The acid of
More empty space.
And your heart
Again breaks open,
One more time,
The pieces piercing
Through the veils.
And you sit
And pick up
All the pieces
As you wonder
About the sequel.
They tell me
Passions help you
Move the world.
And help to
Make it sparkle.
Seems to me
Passions just help
You figure out
How to get
Yourself to Next.
Is it good?
Is it bad?
It isn’t indifferent….
Life keeps calling.
What’s your answer?
By Netta Kanoho
Header Photo Credit: “Passion Spring” by Nathalie via Flickr [CC BY 2.0]
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12 thoughts on “PASSION IS A FEELING YOU CAN USE”
I find interesting that the word passion includes an element of suffering and happiness as well. I would say that passion is what makes life interesting and exciting.
When you are passionate by your work, indeed, it seems that you don’t work at all. As for me, writing is my passion. So when I work in it, it seems that I don’t work at all. And money is coming through and through!
Lovely, angelce903! I do agree that passion does make life interesting and exciting. That’s one of the best of the bennies passion has to offer.
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This article was so beautifully written. Everything just flowed together and was like music to all my senses. Passion is such a huge tool to use in your life to get you through the hard times and push you through to your goals. Thank you so much for sharing!!
How do you push through your difficult times when passion is low?
Kirstie, I am so glad you enjoyed the post. As a poet, I try to fashion an “experience” for my readers. It’s a heck of a lot more fun than just blah-blah-bladdadee-blah-blah.
Your question is a good one. I look at passion as fuel that is love-powered. When my vehicle (body, car, or whatever else I’m using) gets wonky because it’s low on fuel, I stop and get it topped up again. I try not to push this off as a waste of time because it is not. No fuel, no smooth running.
When I’m dragging, I know it’s time to refuel. I tend to head for something beautiful (a place, a person, or some experience) that I know will help to fill up my tank again. Sometimes it’s as simple as watching the sun rise, noticing what the night sky is doing, talking and laughing with a friend, eating some awesome bean soup that loving hands prepared, playing in the garden, or reading a warm and fuzzy book.
I tend to my body and make sure I am comfortable in my own skin. I notice when my belly is growling. I notice when my eyeballs get square and the world starts turning dark and full of edges. I notice when I’m taking a nap on my pile of paperwork.
Passion feeds on doing, but it also feeds on feelings and other body-things. That’s cool because those are the most readily available resources in my world, I say.
Thanks for asking!
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The thought of aligning your passion with your work is one that I have never trusted. I do not see how to turn my passion into a money-spinning machine.
I agree with you that you can develop an interest in anything. Learn and master the act and turn it into a money spinning machine. It is the exact thing I did with electrical engineering.
It’s a funny thing, Parameter. What I find is that the things I am passionate about — learning to connect with others, learning how to be a better communicator, and discovering how to best facilitate smooth-running for myself and for others — tend to add a lot of richness, nuances and meanings to my life.
For me, at least, “wealth” is never just limited to money.
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I love the quote in your article “Passion is the energy that you bring to everything that you do.”
I would like to say that is true in every sense in my own life. I find a strange thing that happens whenever I’m totally engaged in things I do. It doesn’t matter what it is, it brings so much joy and happiness in the process.
On the other hand, there is work that could be define as a passion but when I drag my feet to work on it and struggle to find the engagement, it somehow makes me feel like I’m not in my line of passion.
So nowadays I always go for the attitude of passion rather than the duty of passion so that in everything I do, the joy of doing it is there.
Hope that makes sense?
That makes perfect sense to me, ht.
Myself, I think that the joy is the lure and the prize that keeps us willing to keep on making the run. It’s the thing waiting at the end of the breakthroughs you make through walls and assorted challenges and obstacles that keep you hemmed in.
I’ve found that what you call the “duty” of passion — that grinding, aggravating, and sometimes mind-numbing push against the many resistances you face down and surpass — is actually the price you pay for the big joys of being in “little-god world,” what I call the state of “flow.”
If you can get a handle on that one, then there is joy to be found even in the grind. Try looking for it. It is so cool when you can find it, and it can help to make you unsinkable and buoyant. And that is another kind of joy.
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts.
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Thank you Netta for the ardent discussion about passion. I do think that the word is somewhat overused and as such has lost a good deal of its original meaning.
I mean it’s one thing to be passionate but quite another to expect others to pick up right behind us with the same sort of emotions that we may have about a particular subject or niche.
I think we can gain understanding of the original sense of the word and the value that meaning carried by considering the passion of Jesus and the fact that meant suffering. The Bible says we will share in His Glory if indeed we also share in His suffering.
Joseph, thanks for your visit and for sharing your thoughts.
I do agree that the word “passion” has morphed into a multitude of nuances because of the way it has been used. It’s always a joy for a word-lover to try tracing the seemingly inevitable transformations of meanings through the centuries.
I also agree that very often when we are very much affected by some interest or other, we do tend to hope to find others who feel as we do so we can all feel good or connected or determined or validated (or maybe even self-righteous) together.
It is often way more fun than just doing the solo vibing. (You can get way better ideas and different kinds of feels when you can find like-minded folks, sez I.)
The shadow-side of all that, of course, arises when the passions we develop are dark or hate-filled towards the other people around us. That one is not so good.
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Hey there, Netta!
Hi, I enjoyed reading your post about passion and how it can help us live a more fulfilling life. I agree with you that passion is a powerful emotion that can motivate us to pursue our dreams and overcome challenges. I also liked how you shared some practical tips on how to discover and connect our passion with our purpose. Thank you for inspiring me to live more passionately and purposefully.
Keep up the great work! 🙂
Marios
Thanks for your kind words Marios. I do appreciate it.
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