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“Find and Follow” Your Passion and Debunking Other Self-Help Myths

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jmyrlefuller:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-the-advice-to-find-and-follow-your-passion-is-misguided

by Brad Stulberg
July 6, 2019

A few years ago, when I began to focus more on entrepreneurial pursuits, my mom, a former writer herself, gifted me a little book titled Passion: Every Day. It was filled with inspiring quotes like “I dare you, while there is still time, to have a magnificent obsession” and “follow your desire as long as you live.” This book is not unique. It’s part of a larger canon that portrays passion in an uber-positive light. The key to a good life, these books argue, is finding your passion and then following it wherever it leads. This is an especially prevalent narrative in technology, where passion is considered a prerequisite for lots of jobs. There’s only one problem: all these books and the narrative they spawned are wrong.

Passion is far more nuanced than most people think, and a superficial understanding of passion all to often leads people to suffer unnecessarily.

(excerpt)

This article is based upon Stulberg's book The Passion Paradox.

DCPatriot:
Hmmmm? Thanks for posting this @jmyrlefuller   

DCPatriot:

--- Quote ---
People with fit mind-sets for passion are also more likely to give up on new pursuits at the first sign of challenge or disappointment, shrugging their shoulders and thinking, I guess this isn’t for me.

Furthermore, studies show that individuals with fit mind-sets actually expect their passions to dwindle over time, setting themselves up for midlife crises once their initial enthusiasm for an activity has diminished, and also, burnout — something especially widespread amongst millennials, who were sent off into the workplace with “find your passion” commencement speeches.


--- End quote ---

LOL!  What a steaming pile of horse manure.

Unless my reading comprehension is severely lacking, this (bold) is a complete contradiction of "fit mind-set".

The second paragraph is simply an excuse for any middling millennial reader.

roamer_1:
A pretty good article, but I will differ a little.

Foremost, one's passion may not be worthy of making money.

I have no doubt I would probably qualify for a professorship in ancient history and occultism, and I could likely pass a challenge to any seminary wrt Biblical matters...

But my passions, I learned early on, were not something I could make money doing. They remain my focus, but my side hustle has always been my money-maker.

Guitar is another example. Before my illness, I could three-finger pick, chicken pick, could run a guitar, electric guitar, bass, and banjo... And I was good as a front man in a band. But for all of that, by my mid 20s I had to come to grips wit the idea that I was never gong to be any better than a crappy band member playing covers in crappy bars. Being a Country music star was just not going to happen.

More to the point, one must learn to find passion in what you do DO for money.
I loved the craft of timber framing, and timber and rock retaining walls... I poured my soul into it because of its craft. I loved the precision and beauty of machining and computer sciences... The elegance of computer languages, the thrill of hacking viruses. I loved the camaraderie working on construction crews, and the magic that happens building a house with crews and contractors that have learned how to dance... I loved the efficiencies of a production shop floor, the challenges of landing on your marks juggling project schedules, heck, even putting out the endless fires that are the process of management.

Following your passion is overrated. Finding passion in anything you do.... that's where it's at.

An old indian taught me to sit still anywhere I am, and be quiet until I could see the beauty of the place. Easy to do in the majesty of these mountains I live in... but do the same inside of a ramshackle house, long abandoned... Or inside of a box car, or in a parking lot.

It will surprise you where you will find beauty.

Passion is much the same thing. You should be able to find passion for anything you do.

DCPatriot:
@roamer_1   Good stuff!

Regarding careers:  "Find something you can love doing, and you'll never work a day in your life".

That's the beginning and end of it.  Simple.

I thought immediately of Rush Limbaugh.

He never graduated college or university, and was fired from his job a half dozen or more times before EIB.

His father, a successful attorney, never lived to see Rush's success.  What I mean here is that Rush never had his father's rabid enthusiastic support for radio disc-jockeying.

He's the epitome of "fixed mind-set".  And he gave stirring monologues regarding this employment history about having/finding "passion" for something.

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