“To be happy we need something to solve.
Happiness is therefore a form of action;”
― Mark Manson
Have you ever came across the quote ‘Follow your passion’? Then after reading the book ‘so good that can’t ignore you’, you will understand that it might be the most stupid advice you ever got. To clearly understand this the author Cal Newport interviewed people who are experts and very passionate in their respective fields. Most of them revealed that before starting their careers, they had neither a pre-existing passion nor a fixation on the kind of work they love. Their passion mounted as they started becoming competent in their fields but not the other way. For example, Steve jobs never has pre-fixated passion about creating and selling phones from his college days. So what’s wrong in following the norm – ‘follow your passion’? Passion is a feeling of intense desire or enthusiasm for something. Like the other human feelings, passion is temporary. It is definitely important to choose your career path based upon your interest. But if you rely your work or actions on passion, then you are vulnerable to failure. For the same reasons, you will find many millennials and Gen Z failing to complete what they start, shifting their paths continually, and end up confused doing vague jobs they are mildly interested in.
The thought of passion puts you into a passive state of expectations – what the work is giving me in return? When eventually as the other motivators such as attention, progress and creative spark are lost you will lose interest in the work. Instead if you focus on what you are offering to the world such as impact you are creating, it would be a different game. You will sustain the work and eventually achieve expertise and reach greater heights. In addition, if you focus on the process rather than your feelings, you could automatically develop a sustainable passion for the work you are doing on. Our work life constitutes major part of your time. So it is crucial to make sure that we are doing what we love. The author objectively explains three important elements – creativity, control and impact – that helps a person to sustainable success in his or her field of interest.