Passion might not be the why of things.
I asked her why she did all of those things. Why she played basketball and why she was so hyped about that author or that creator. She sat back silently for a bit and then returned the question, she couldn’t find an answer. And it dawned on me, passion might not be the why. And we explored that for a bit.
I haven’t given the concept of passion that much thought. I don’t really know why, as I’ve been thinking a lot about the why of things lately. In hindsight, I think at some point the concept should’ve popped up for me along that way. At least, I got to explore it a bit in a conversation, and I think we reached an insight.
The passion you exercise might not be the why of what you do, but rather how you execute.
We talked about our respective sports practices, she used to play basketball and I football. We were both going at it for quite some time, playing for 10 and 12 years. We both put a lot of time and energy in to these activities, ranging from 10 to 30 hours a week. At one point, we both left our sports. When talking, I brought up a quote from a podcast that I listened to the other day saying something like:
“What you do is just a means to a need or a basic human emotion.”
As I presented that to her, I also asked her if she thought there being any possibility of the reason for her playing basketball was that she was trying to fulfil a basic human need rather than pursuing a passion. That the reason rather than being a feeling of excitement could be a wish to achieve other feelings like belonging and feeling part of the group. I also stated that the reason for me playing soccer most definitely could be just that rather than anything else. And so, I asked her why she played basketball rather than anything else.
They’d had a chance to practice basketball in PE, there was an instructor invited to the school to show them hot to do it. After that, the sport kind of stuck with her. I asked again, why basketball? She leant back in the chair, and realised after some thinking that she had no answer to why. What she thought of being passion might be something else.
This was intriguing to me, as I couldn’t find any particular passion for soccer as to why I was playing that sport. I’m passionate about every sport or game that I play. And so it struck me. Passion might rather than the reason be the method. Maybe we don’t do things because we’re passionate, maybe we do things passionately. Maybe passion is a tool that we can choose to use in any activity that we take on.
This thought is so exciting to me, mostly because it has so many implications and effects. It turns many of our previous preconceptions of the concept upside down. So I’ll try to keep some kind of calm.
When talking about passion, I think most of us thinks about excitement and inspiration. When you’re doing something because you’re passionate about it, you do it because it creates excitement. You automatically get inspiration to pursue the activity, as it is a passion of yours, and we all know that inspiration comes more easily to us in excited moments.
But just as Stephen King says about inspiration, passion isn’t active if it’s your why. It’s a passive default that you can wait for to come to you. If you’re doing something out of passion for the activity itself, the activity has the upper hand on you, and if you’re having a bad day, it’ll be because of your why. But just as King suggests that inspiration isn’t necessary for a professional writer, any other professional can’t wait for their passion to be with them. They rather have to act passionately if they want to get anything done.
I told the story of me taking my bike down to the football practice on the horribly snowy days, and how passion can’t possibly be the driving force for that. Rather, I decided that I wanted to do football and my mom eliminated all other options when the decision was locked in, and I decided that I was going to do football passionately.
Passion as an excuse for not digging in to your why.
When passion is your why, you have a very convenient excuse not to pursue the activity that you have in front of you. You can simply say “I’m not feeling that passion today.” and that’s the end of it. We can’t question you not feeling your why, and we all know that there are bad days in terms of motivation.
So when you place passion as the top why of doing something, it’s going to have an impact on how you pursue that activity. You won’t have to explore yourself or the context you’re in. That’s hurtful in terms of the long term, as you’re not going to be able to stick to it. What if your passion for the activity dies out? Are you going to be a human being not doing anything passionately?
Digging deeper, the passion might be for a bigger picture, or for fulfilling a need. We all need meaning in our lives and I’m a strong believer in that meaning is created by ourselves. Passion for that mening is probably healthy in terms of why, as you’re going to be ready to do things that are uncomfortable or new in order to achieve that passion.
If you want to use passion, I urge you to see it as a tool. You can actively choose to be passionate about the task at hand. It’s a skill that you’ll have to practice and you’ll need willpower. When passion a tool, you at least have the option to do so.
