We were talking about work, career, and life, when he said, "You don't find work that matches your passion. You bring your passion to your work." In other words, passion comes from the inside out, not the outside in. You are responsible for your own passion, not your circumstances, not your surroundings, not your job, not your boss, not your husband/wife. You can be a passionate CEO or a passionate DMV clerk or a passionate stay at home mom/dad or a passionate barista, because it's your choice. If you find no passion in your work, you have no one to blame but yourself. That's the terrifying part.
The strange thing is, everyone is passionate about something, but it's rarely their work. It's hard to be passionate about our work, even though it's the thing we spend the majority of our waking hours doing. When we think about the things we are passionate about, we often think about our significant other, kids, political views, or mostly our hobbies. It's easy to be passionate about hobbies, because they are choice-based activities.
If you knew me, you would know that one of my most passionate hobbies is comic book characters. It's nerdy, but I don't care (for you, just insert NFL, cars, gardening, etc). I buy comic books and movie tickets for every super hero flick. I listen to podcasts and read articles to stay up on the latest news. I am never late for a movie opening. I build communities around myself of other super hero fans. I even try to convince as many people as I can to like Super Heroes as much as I do.
Let's break this down, because I choose to bring my passion to my hobby, I regularly:
- Invest in content related materials
- Attend meetings and events without being late
- Build and lead communities of like-minded people
- Engage in professional development
- Enthusiastically sell to customers
It's pretty easy to see, if it were were my "job," I would be on the fast-track to success. Unfortunately, it's not, and it never will be. Most people's hobbies will never be their "job." However, we need to find a way to bring our passion to our work, in the same way we bring it to our hobbies.
The question you should be asking is, "how do I choose to bring my passion to my work?" I think step one is to make what you do important. In his blog, Seth Godin (you can find it here) wrote, "I'm not sure that anyone has a calling. I think, instead, our culture creates situations where passionate people find a place where they can make an impact. When what you do is something that you make important, it doesn't matter so much what you do." Find something about your work that you think is important, whether it's making a product that people want/need, helping someone, making someone's day better, or solving a problem. There is something there. I know it.
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