Any kind of love without passion, That ain’t no kinda lovin’ at all
~The Eagles
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The “One Thing”
As you set out on your quest to conquer the business world with your wit and charm, what’s the single best thing you can do? Follow your passion. The history of business is the history of passion; as is most of life in fact. It’s the “one thing,” defined as well as anywhere in the movie City Slickers:
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
[holds up one finger]
Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean s***.
Mitch: But, what is the one thing?
Curly: [smiles] That’s what *you* have to find out. (1)
Mitch did go on to find his one thing, but how can you do that in your business career? The answer is simple, and complicated at the same time. First, you may want to ask your doctor if you heart is healthy enough for passion. If not, there may be a pill for that. Secondly, trust your feelings. Feelings carry a great deal of information, but you have to learn to listen to them.
In Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell explains that what seems like a gut feeling can actually be your brain assimilating a wide variety of recent inputs and combining them with your whole history of experience. He says we’re conditioned to NOT trust our instincts, our feelings, our gut reactions: “We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it.”(2) He concludes that “…decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.”(3)
This doesn’t mean you should always rush to judgment — it’s ok to think on your feet, but important to keep your foot out of your mouth. Don’t discount your intuition, take how you feel into account when you make choices — especially when making important, large-impact decisions about topics like career direction. If you know where your passion lies, it’s time to turn that passion into action. Now.
OK, so here’s where the skeptics step in and say, “Well, gee, sure, but my passion lies in understanding the subtle nuances of the importance of bathing in ancient Egyptian rituals.” I can’t help you there — you’re on your own. Let’s assume that you’ve identified your passion and it’s something at least vaguely translatable to the modern business world. So, then, how to fit your passion into your career, and vice-versa? Here are some ideas about how to start:
· Try to identify the top several things that you actually like to do, things you enjoy. If you like what you do, it’s not “work.” (Although it may still end up feeling that way sometimes.)
· Figure out what motivates you. Motivated people are likely to work harder and take more ownership of their tasks and activities. Hard work and ownership are key components of successful career development and advancement. Think carefully about what motivates you, what matters to you. Even a causal evaluation will reveal that there’s probably more at work (so to speak) than money. Money might not even be in the top 5. For you, maybe it’s the act of creating, the challenges to overcome, the meaning you derive or create, taking ownership and responsibility or even forging your own personal and professional identity.
· While you’re in your Zen zone, try a little more self-analysis — actual satisfaction can be elusive and fleeting, but can be easily defined with the application of a little brain power. Think back to the last time you truly felt satisfied, inside or outside of work. What contributed to that feeling? What was special about that occasion when compared to other times? Was it something special you created? Something unselfish that you did for someone? Remember that time when you put in the extra effort to create something meaningful, something for which you were recognized?
· Live positive. Before, during and after figuring out how to bring your passion to your work, make the commitment to live positive. Make the best of where you find yourself every day. Avoid the naysayers and your local Negative Nancy (no offense to anyone named Nancy that may be reading this) and surround yourself with positive, focused influences as much as possible.
· Embrace passion no matter who you are or where you are. Passion is not limited to higher-level jobs or only available to well educated people. Passion is everywhere, in every role. Passion enables you to wake up energized, to be more engaged, it powers you through the long days and brings a genuine sense of optimism for the future to your everyday life.
· Don’t force it. If it is truly a passion of yours, it will feel natural, feel right. It’s natural to want to feel inspired, and it’s inspiring when your passion feels natural. So let the love flow…
What if the “One Thing” is Missing?
But how to find passion in your current role if it’s missing? Try looking! Keep in mind, Lewis and Clark were lost most of the time; yet they didn’t fold their tents and paddle back up river. It’s much easier and more exciting to keep going with the flow and discover the unknown in front of you.
Remember your first time at the ballet or opera? (Well, sooner or later there will be a first time…) After the initial uncomfortableness of acclimating to a new venue and a slightly different crowd than you might encounter at the showing of Revenge of the Nerds 11, you actually started to observe that it really isn’t that different after all; many of your previous experiences prepared you for this and gave you a baseline of expected behaviors, even if you’re not familiar with the difference between “Brava!” and “Bravo!”
So now you find yourself at Il Barbiere de Siviglia and your passion for this adventure is waning by the minute. Since running out of the theater screaming like your hair is on fire is out of the question, what do you do? Much like if your current role at work is not inspiring, it’s time to find something to be interested in. If the over-all experience is leaving you a little flat, why not focus on finding something within the confines of where you are that interests you, something that can hold your attention. Perhaps it’s the costumes, the props or scenery or even the activity you can sort-of see off to stage left where they seem to be shuffling something that looks like a giant mushroom around. There’s always something of interest to be found in every situation, every time.
If your current role at work isn’t particularly inspiring, it’s much the same. If you look closely, I bet there’s something that is interesting and is inspiring. Maybe it’s only a small part of what you do or even only tangentially related to your “real job,” but it’s enough to pique your interest and make your day a little more mentally stimulating. Finding these passion bread crumbs may lead to bigger and better morsels as you follow their lead.
Is Passion Really a Workplace Emotion?
In Crucial Conversations Patterson et al write that, “When it comes to our strongest views, passion can be our enemy. Of course, feeling strongly about something isn’t bad in and of itself. It’s okay to have strong opinions. The problem comes when we try to express them.” (4) That’s why certain passions need to be checked at the office door.
It’s important to remember that others may not share your passions exactly. In fact, they probably won’t share them at all in many cases. But that’s OK, you shouldn’t expect them to; and you shouldn’t be disappointed if they don’t. That’s the thing about having a passion for whatever you do, it’s yours. It’s no more right or wrong than anyone else’s. It’s simply what a good fit is for you.
If you’re missing that passion, you’re missing a lot. The next time you’re at the Department of Motor Vehicles, keep an eye out for people with a passion for their job. Although their position may be prone to monotony and abuse from people who figure they’ve been waiting too long, there’s always one or two agents who are passionate about customer service and pleasing people. And it’s those people that brighten up the whole office and the whole experience — as opposed to the joyless souls behind the counter who would suck the very life out of the room if left to their own devices.
Don’t be one of those.
After the Love is Gone
Don’t limit yourself when it comes to defining your passion. But if you’ve looked high and low and there’s just no passion to be found where you’re at currently, maybe it’s time to look elsewhere; this should be your third or fourth or fifth choice though. The reason is simple. Not every day is a hot air balloon ride over a meadow of happy puppies in any job. Even the most passionate and successful among us encounter ebbs and flows in their enthusiasm.
Most of the time it might be a better bet to ride it out unless your honest assessment is that there’s just no reviving the patient. Make sure you’ve exhausted all the internal resources available to you, including having some honest conversation with your current manager or other mentor with whom you feel comfortable. After all, if you change jobs you’re likely to have to spend an inordinate amount of time just learning the ropes, fitting in and finding out where the restroom is. And that’s all time that’s not invested into following your passion or, at best, deferring it. But your decision can’t linger forever. Decide how much time you’ll give it and stick to that commitment; too little time and you’re rushing into it, too much time and you’re hanging on at the expense of your mental health.
Passion vs Reality
“Everything in moderation” is a generally worthwhile mantra, and it certainly applies in the pursuit of passion in the workplace as you develop your career. But a good dose of reality should also be tucked firmly into your plan to pursue passion — picture an acorn in the cheek of a chipmunk. It’s part of what you do; you carry it around with you every day. Once in a while you take it out, wipe the slobber off of it, and assure yourself that it’s still there, and having the security of knowing it will carry you through the long winter ahead.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes passion as the key component in the state of peak performance. Csikszentmihalyi writes that passion is “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”(5) If you’re lucky enough to have, or develop, passion for your job, you wake up energized and excited to go to work. You’re more engaged at work and, both at work and at home, you’re more positive, focused and not consumed with thoughts of escape and running away to whatever’s next.
Think of passion as the “drive” setting in your car’s transmission. Sit down, buckle in, shift in to drive and accelerate forward. Otherwise you’re just sitting there in park, and going nowhere. Follow your passion, it’s not a self-driving car, but it won’t steer you wrong.
And, by the way, an important practice throughout ancient Egyptian communities involved rituals centered on cleansing. Bathing was held in high regard among the ancient Egyptians, which often took place during daily trips to the river. Sometimes, bathing occurred at home from onsite water basins. If you were a wealthy individual during these times, you would enjoy a bath within a separate room in the house. It was the job of the servants to pour water on top of their master. This could be seen as their way of having a shower without all of the necessary plumbing.(6)
And now you know.
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1.) City Slickers Quotes, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/960070-curly-do-you-know-what-the-secret-of-life-is
2.) Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, (Boston: Back Bay Books), 14
3.) Ibid.
4.) Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler, Crucial Conversations, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 139
5.) John Geirland, “Go with the Flow,” Wired 4, no. 9 (1996)
6.) Ancient Egyptian Fashion: Perfume, Bathing & Makeup, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1061/cosmetics-perfume–hygiene-in-ancient-egypt/
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This post was previously published on 100 Stories by 100 Writers.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
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