Listen to me. Yes you, listen to me!
It is alright if you don’t have a passion. It is alright if you don’t have a dream. I will try and persuade you now.
(Warning – this is a slightly long post. So read only if you can make it till the end!)
First of all, how did the concept of passion come into existence? In a manner, it is a way derived from marketing strategies to sell products and services.
If you may recall, the kids of the 1960s used to do what their parents used to. So, it was about maintaining the family’s name and professional heredity. Then came the kids of ’70s and ’80s. Many of them ran after money – they chose professions that guaranteed a lot of money. Then there’s us, the kids of the ’90s and the 21st century. We were and are supposed to follow our passions. Are you able to see what I am trying to show? It was about heredity, then it was about money – and now, it’s about passion.
Secondly, if you have a passion and a dream (well, that’s great!), you could work in that one specific direction. And who knows – you might excel there. But most of us are confused about what we wanna be or what we wanna do. So we don’t spend all our energy in one direction. We explore everything we can – and then, we decide what is it that we can do for the rest of our life that will not make it a drudgery. It is us, chaotic and indecisive people, who end up being explorers and making the best out of what we can get and what we can do. We don’t run away after a passion.
Thirdly, passion will not feed you, actual skills will. I have met so many people and every second or third person is passionate about at least one of the following things-
1. Photography
2. Dance
3. Music
4. Fashion
5. Writing
Have you ever thought why our range of passion is so limited? Why is it not gardening or petting dogs or decorating homes or cooking? I will conclude this point by saying that the concept of passion has been sold to you unconsciously – and you have bought it without even knowing about it. The people whom I have met, who aspire to be one of those five things I’ve mentioned, aren’t that good at it either. And what will be the consequences of this? They will either acquire the needed skills that will feed their stomachs – or they won’t, which will make them hopeless, depressed, helpless. These are the things that lead humans towards their uglier sides. Do you see it now? Being too passionate can lead you down a wrong path, because let us face it – only one out of the 20 passionate dancers, singers, photographers, writers, travellers, etc. get a job enough to provide for them and their family.
Fourthly, have you asked yourself what passion really is? Passion, at the end of the day, is just something you are very interested in. And you can be interested in more than one thing – yes, that’s right, you can have multiple passions. And that’s okay and is actually better than having a single passion. After all, we are humans, and we love exploring.
So, if you have a passion, well and good – but if you don’t, take a chill pill and go with the flow.
PS – This ‘passion’ thing has affected my life in a lot of ways. My self-confidence and everything else was badly affected because I did not have any particular thing or field I was extremely interested in. I was mildly interested in a lot of things though. So, I thought of writing this.
Tell me what you think about passion and this write-up in the comments.
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Featured image used for representative purposes only.