Passion & Pain
{For every Rose, there’s more than one thorn to deal with}
Today I am going to demystify 5 myths that you might hold on following your passion.
I have gone through so much content talking about finding your passion. I remember an interview on YouTube where Will Smith advised people to pick passion instead of money.
“It’s so difficult to be successful such that if you don’t love what you’re doing, you are likely to quit mid-way.” A Billionaire.
You should do what you enjoy doing. You only get one life; it’d be a shame for you to not spend it on what you find meaningful and gainful. My purpose today is to demystify the notions people have on working within your passion.
Most people usually think that:
1. Finding your passion is the hardest part.
They believe that the journey to success is supposed to be easy once one has found their passion. This is not true.
Identifying your passion is merely the first part of the journey. The toughest part is creating discipline by working on your passion daily without seeing results.
Sylvester Stallone went broke while trying to sell his rocky script. He had already figured out what his passion was. In fact, he already had a complete movie script written but was still sleeping hungry. He even sold his dog to get money for food. But there’s a reason you know of him today: He persisted.
So, identifying your passion isn’t the hardest part. Getting disciplined enough to work on it day in day out is the toughest and the most rewarding bit.
2. You are supposed to enjoy every part of it.
This is also not true.
No matter how passionate you are about something, there will always be an aspect of it that you don’t like. For instance, not all NBA players enjoy spending an average of six hours in the gym five days a week. Some authors hate editing their own stories. You’ll have to take the good with the bad, but I assure you, if it is your passion, dealing with the bad will be worth it.
3. Success is finding your passion.
Most people mistake identifying their passion for achieving success. This is just the beginning, a very minute part of the success journey. Albeit a very important part, but not the whole journey nor is it the major part.
4. You can have it all.
You’ll have to sacrifice something for your passion. It’s a trade. To be successful, there are things you’ll have to give up. You must take time off from some things and invest it in your passion. Did you know a standard NBA contract prohibits certain specific activities for the players such as skydiving, boxing or missing a post-game interview? Sacrifices must be made.
5. Finding your passion is the end of your problems.
Problems are a part of life, there’s no escaping that. Just because you have found your passion, doesn’t mean that problems no longer have your address. They’ll only cease to bother you once you’re interred. Steve Harvey got conned by his accountant who pretended to sort his taxes for him for seven years but was instead stealing from him. This left him owing 22 million dollars in unpaid taxes and penalties to the IRS. He had to agree on a 4-year payment plan that saw him work almost every weekend of those four years to pay the arreas and still pay his current taxes. Not his fault, definitely not fair but he still sorted it out, it was his responsibility. So, brace yourself, problems will still come your way.
“The beauty of life lies in solving problems and overcoming challenges.”
So how do you make it work?
1. Decide what you are willing to sacrifice.
Evaluate your life and decide on the things you can cut off from your life. For instance, going to the club, you can sacrifice three weekends in a month to work on your passion and go out only on the last weekend of each month.
2. Set rules and commit to them.
When I began writing, I realized that I had a myriad of ideas that sounded exceptionally good in my head but disappeared once I started writing them down. I came to find out this was a problem that many writers have faced before. I got advice from a successful author who said, ‘make sure you finish every article you start before you can move to another.’ This is a rule that has helped me a lot especially to build my discipline and consistency. No matter the fluency of the ideas, or lack thereof, I make sure to finish every piece of writing before embarking on another. You should also set rules like these to help you grow in your chosen passion.
3. Create habits around your passion.
We are habitual creatures. Our workload lightens when we develop habits that push us to seamlessly do what we are supposed to do. So, start consciously creating habits that will build discipline in your passion such as writing for thirty minutes every morning and editing your work every evening. Use the habit loop i.e. trigger — action — reward, to create healthy, sustainable habits.
4. Figure out what you can’t do and delegate.
Find out what falls out of your scope of expertise and interest and get someone to take care of it. As an entrepreneur, get someone to do your taxes. I like how the YouTuber, ‘Hoovies Garage’ does it. He knows that mechanics is not his cup of tea. So, he teams up with other YouTubers such as the ‘Car Wizard’ & ‘Car Ninja,’ who are good mechanics to sort him out. He gets time to focus on what he loves doing which is collecting and flipping cars while they get mechanical content to post on their respective channels: Win — Win.
In this life there no easy way out. Working within your passion makes the journey worthwhile and bearable but not easy. It gives you a sense of direction, a purpose to go on.
I hope you find your passion and when you do, try these tips, and let me know how that goes.
Yours truly,
GP.
