Passion — what is it?

Today, as I got in a quick workout at the Subway of physical fitness, Planet Fitness, I caught a glimpse of Pharrell Williams on one of the TV monitors. I am averse to watching TV at the gym; I consider mindless TV watching while working out cheating my way through the pain. But, I tuned in. Pharrell is a modern man of wisdom; he might be a celebrity, but I like to call him a brash and passionate swami: true and inciteful in his words, yet kind and peaceful in their delivery.

A couple of decades ago, I had mad respect — a.k.a. a crush — for Pharrell. I never gave it much thought to why I thought he was so respectable — it was just one of those young adult hunches.

I didn’t think about him until recently when my mom sucked me into watching him twice a week on The Voice. Pharrell is a judge on the voice; What defines him is his ability to stay calm, dispense wisdom, and constructively give feedback while also making it clear that a technically gifted musician does not always possess that ‘it quality’ that will make him/her a more likely success in the world. He is honest that passion is a necessary quality and an almost undefinable quality but is important.

Pharrell on Passion

I now know why I had mad respect for Pharrell. He is not only a talented musician and music producer but he has the very passion that he seeks to intuit in The Voice contestants. He possesses that ‘it’ factor that he looks for in the individuals he picks for his team. He feels genuine and is deeply ingrained in his role as judge as he has been as musician and producer. He doesn’t have to be loud, hot or create drama like some of the other judges. He is able to articulate why humans gravitate to certain experiences and people in a way that does not feel judgmental. He understands that passion is connected to something more ineffable: spirit.

Passion Can’t be Tamped

When I listened to his interview today, he talked about passion and how you cannot tamp passion. This particular point was made in relation to how he might pick a contestant over another because the first person possesses a quality that makes you feel connected to the music that a person whose voice may be technically sound but does not necessarily exude as much of that quality.

Passion is What Makes Us Human

As cliche as it might be, passion is one of the must human of traits. It has the capacity to bring us together and to tear us apart. It can be the ultimate well of energy for any human, and when channeled well creates the most beautiful art, useful technology, awesome relationships, ideologies, music, etc., Passion drives us to understand the universe around us and can also be channeled to create and disseminate evil power structures and cling desperately to outmoded ideas, attitudes, behaviors and ideologies that steer our lives astray and create bad social structures.

Passion is a kind of abstract notion — and as many say you either have it or you don’t. I believe that at some level, but I do think as someone recognizes themselves and/or the universe as marvelous and awe-inspiring place, then their mindset might lead them to doing things with passion. As Pharrell quoted Vincent Van Gogh on his Twitter feed, “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” There is some truth in that. Passion for something gives us a joie de vivre or connects us to some deeper or universal connection to things.

Passion in My Career

I understand that spirit. I exude that when I teach. I may not be the most organized person or even always have a method to my madness as so many parents want me to articulate before they hire me to teach their child; but I have been told repeatedly that the reason why I have success is not just that I know my stuff, but it’s how I deliver that ‘stuff’. I focus on using my passion as fuel for benevolence, positive change, wondrous experiences, learning difficult things and creating and innovating.

Passion is Separate from Expertise

We like to talk about expertise and how anyone can be anything with enough practice. That’s a super popular way of looking at things in our contemporary society; while I wholeheartedly agree that expertise is borne of dedication, hours spent and sacrifice, I would also say that passion is the ingredient that differentiates an expert from a game-changer.