How Real Is the Phrase: “Passion Finds You?”
Does it find you? If yes, then When? Let’s find out.
I had never thought about the word “passion” till I resigned from my high-paying job with no real goal in sight. I won’t say I have always known what I wanted to do because it was impossible as a firstborn to a middle-class family. Yet, I have tasted success that many of my age and background were deprived of.
No one in my immediate family had been to a university. My mother has only shared her dreams of riding in one of the best university buses in my city. My father has followed only orders, and dare I say, he is comfortable with it.
Yet, I was born with a discomfort towards the feeling of comfort.
All my life, I have only known focus. When in school, I wanted to perform the best. Somehow, it always translated into ranking first in class. I was never in competition with anyone, but someone surpassing me in numbers always felt wrong.
I once said to my mother, “Why can’t there be two position holders?” because my biggest competition was with a dear friend in matriculation.
Then, after officially entering the writing field, every second individual who was working in the creative field after getting a professional degree termed their career choice as “following my passion”.
This confused me thoroughly to the extent that I decided to dig deeper behind my motivation of earning a first-class bachelor's from the top engineering university in my city and pursuing the career path for six years, only to leave it at the pinnacle of my chosen career.
The problem with the word passion is it is non-discreet.
In physics, anything discreet is separate, distinct and individual. It is, in a way, tailor-made for a particular purpose.
If passion was a discreet term, an individual could follow their specific road to reach their end goal.
The only problem is that the idea of discreetness as it applies to electrons, protons, and neutrons as particles does apply to individuals, but what they do in society to gain recognition, status, or money is determined by their usefulness.
So, passion as a career choice becomes a vague term.
You can have hobbies you are passionate about and do for the sake of enjoyment, relaxation and finding your purpose. But if those hobbies do not translate into useful products for others to benefit from, you cannot hide the non-commodity aspect behind the term passion.
To reach a point where you are doing something useful, which is also important to you, takes work. Some get to the point faster than others, while others give into the expectations of people around them, settling for something that does not spark passion in them, so you will hear them say, “Finding your passion is bullshit advice”.
I don’t agree with it.
But I also don’t agree with the notion that you find your passion. Because if you are looking for something you have no clue about, you will never find it.
The best way to set on the journey is by doing things you know with full attention and interest. Only then will you cultivate an ability to figure out what you are passionate about or, in other words, love to spend your life doing.
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