Don’t follow your passion!
Nicholas has been a waiter for almost three decades and he so incredibly proud of his work. Seeing him in action at a Greek restaurant last week was pure pleasure. His passion and energy were incredibly infectious.
Did Nicholas always know that he wanted to be a waiter and hence followed his passion? He told me that he fell into the hospitality industry when travelling the world in his early twenties and needed to fund his adventures.
You can bring passion to anything.
According to the dictionary, passion is a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something.
How often have you heard someone say follow your passion? It sends me nuts and I know it makes a lot of people feel restless and frustrated because they are constantly trying to figure out what they are passionate about. Some frankly don’t know what they are passionate about and the ‘follow your passion’ catchphrase can become their predicament.
Rather than stressing out about finding passion, why not relax and get excited or enthusiastic about things you are already doing.
Don’t follow your passion! Be passion! Passion is an attitude, not a competition.
Bringing passion to what you are already doing can be a lot more satisfying and motivating than constantly chasing your tail in search of passion.
Passion does not need to be searched, it needs to be found. This is not to say that you neglect what you love, but it’s an encouragement to bring more enthusiasm and excitement to anything you choose.
Being passionate can have a huge impact on your wellbeing and happiness levels. And while you are busy being passionate, you might even find something else you want to be enthusiastic about. I believe passion brings more passion. Passion also brings energy and creativity.
Passions change, so don’t beat yourself up if you feel less passionate about something and choose to be enthusiastic about something else. And of course you can also be multi-passionate!
Right now I am passionate about entrepreneurship, adventures, surfing and playing music. Music has been a constant passion in my life and probably always will be. However when I was living in Switzerland I was passionate about snowboarding, because there was no ocean, but I was surrounded by amazing mountains. So I could either have been upset about not being able to spend time in saltwater or I could find something else to be passionate about. I chose to strap on a snowboard and freeze my butt off.
On the other hand sometimes when you have this inner calling and you know exactly what makes you happy, you may have to make sacrifices. Why wait for later? I remember when I started my first business almost a decade ago, I had absolutely no money so I was living in the cheapest pad and cut back on pretty much everything, hummus on bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner was perfect (yes, I’m slightly addicted to hummus)! It was worth the sacrifice!
One of my dear friends is an artist and he is so passionate about his art, he knows it’s what he is meant to be doing even though it hardly pays his bills. So rather than giving up on his art, he does random building jobs to help pay for his living expenses and fuel his passion.
I’ve got a little experiment for you (and me)!
If you are in a job or business you are not very excited about right now, ‘do’ excitement for at least thirty days and if you are still not into it, then maybe a change is required.
Just act as if you were passionate! You can apply this to anything really… passionate about work, about a hobby, about a relationship, about your home.
And then see what happens! This is what I’m going to experiment; I’m really not very passionate about cooking right now, so I will bring enthusiasm to it and see if my attitude towards kitchen work changes!
Are you in? Please let me know how the experiment goes for you, I’d love to know and celebrate with you. And you never know, I might even use some of the examples in my next book!