Passion vs. Practicality

Passion

Over the course of my life, I’ve encountered numerous instances where I’ve had the opportunity to chose between passion and practicality. Without question, I have always chosen the practical path. And without question my achievement in that area of practicality has been slightly above average at best. I’ve grown up in a culture where following a passion is not something you do because it doesn’t provide a stable future.  If that passion happens to be medicine or engineering, then you fall into the fortunate few who are encouraged to follow that passion. But, if that passion or talent happens to fall in the area of arts, music, or anything of that sort, then we are told “This is good, but’s important to remember, it’s only a hobby.”

When I was in high school, I was a musician. I played the tuba from the time I was in 7th grade till my junior year in college. My senior year I was accepted to the USC School of Music. To be honest, I loved music but I didn’t see a future in playing the tuba and I wasn’t necessarily passionate about playing the tuba.  But I was extremely passionate about the arts in general (music, writing, movies, etc).  Imagine if the approach to this “hobby” was embracing it, encouraging it, and growing it. The potential for other instruments and other areas of music with more potential might have been there. So, there is a part of me that wonders if I had gone to USC if I would have further explored this passion for the arts.

Practicality

When I started school at Berkeley in the fall of 2000, I had intentions of being an English or creative writing major. After a five minute conversation with a recruiter at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting), I changed my mind and decided to be an economics major since I figured it would be the best way to get a job. Fast forward to graduation 4 years later.  I finished Berkeley with a degree in Environmental Economics and Policy, which was really just a means to an end. Not only that, my grades were below average, and I really had no interest in anything that I studied. To add insult to injury my lousy grades in a subject I really didn’t give a shit about resulted in no job offers from any consulting firms, investment banks or other career paths that I thought were the key to my long term success and happiness.  By now you might be noticing a theme.  For the first few years after college, I worked in sales jobs for a few software companies, where my main job was to spend the day making cold calls. Needless to say the mindless repetition eventually drove me nuts, but it was practical, and it paid the bills. Fast forward several years to today.

Return to Passion

I started to write on this blog about 2 months ago and I’ve written a post almost every single day.  I rarely have to think about what I’m going to write. I usually have about 30+ topics ready to go, and on rare occasion  does it seem like any effort to spend an hour or two writing.  So, this made me want to explore another question:

What is passion?

Passion (from the Latin verb patior, meaning to suffer or to endure, also related to compatible) is an emotion applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something. The term is also often applied to a lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity or love.
-Wikipedia

When I interviewed Peter Bregman from HBS press, he said something to me that I’ve always known, but never had the guts to follow: “There has been a ton of research that shows that you will be far more successful, far happier, and make far more money if you do the thing that you are passionate about.” However, it takes guts to follow this advice. This is the path that is paved with uncertainty, with risk, a greater possibility of failure. It’s much easier to return to our safe, comfortable, predictable, and practical lives.  Or is it?  Think about the path of practicality I’ve chosen and look at the results it has yielded. Success has been said to be effortless and maybe it is when we decide to do the things that we are passionate about.  So, how do you know you are passionate?

• Work never seems like work, but something you just love to do
• You never have to do anything,  you just want to do it
• You can’t sleep at night because you’re so excited about what you have to look forward to when you wake up
• It doesn’t take an alarm clock to get you out of bed, just enthusiasm
• You radiate a certain kind of energy and enthusiasm that is contagious
• You never work a day in your life if you love what you do
• What you do never seems difficult
• Challenges or obstacles are just opportunities to perfect your art form
• There is a natural magical flow to everything in your life

Choosing the path of passion might not always seem easy. On the surface it appears to be the more challenging one. But, as the results unfold you’ll be surprised to find that the practical path is  what they are talking about when they say “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Tags: passion, goals, practicality, enlightenment

The Skool of Delivered to Your Inbox

Sign up for my FREE Course on the 7 Most Important Things You Never Learned in School