A Message to Those Confused About Career Direction (Part Trois)
— Forget “passion,” settle for excitement —
The saucer rattled as David put down his cup, as if to underscore a jarring point about to be made.
“I’m not passionate about anything,” said David, looking away from the table. “I like the law, but I’m not passionate about it.”
His words seem to match the soft murmur of the Sound Grounds coffee shop: comfortable, rather than passionate. A successful attorney, David would perform legal work until he retired. Then … well, what?
Yet somehow, I found troubling use of the word “passion” in connection with careers.
Over the past month we’ve explored career confusion in a two-part series. First, we considered the heartening truth that it’s normal not to know what we want.
Next, we looked at “slash careers” — the notion that some people will be happier simultaneously pursuing more than one occupation.
Today, let’s look at a common idea about careers: that if one pursues one’s passion, the money will follow.
This seems logical. When we’re passionate about something, we usually excel at it, and excellence increases earnings.
But there are two problems with the “passion” idea. First, typical objects of career passion — music, the arts, journalism, and so forth — pay poorly. Many genius-level artists, musicians, and writers live in near-poverty, or worse.
Second, like David, many of us (probably most) simply are not “passionate” about professional activities that happen to pay well. As to this point, we may as well admit the truth of what Timothy Ferris wrote in The 4-Hour Workweek: That the vast majority of people will never find a job that can be an unending source of fulfillment.
The problem, I think, is word choice. Many of those privileged enough to agonize over career options somehow believe that only careers provoking “passion” or “bliss” warrant our commitment. This is unrealistic. “Passion” and “bliss” are semantic holdovers from the religious notion of “calling,” a term long misapplied to careers. My attorney friend David got it right: liking the law is enough.
My favorite takeaway from The 4-Hour Workweek is that, rather than pursuing our “passion,” we should pursue what we find exciting:
When people suggest you follow your “passion” or your “bliss,” I propose that they are, in fact, referring to the same singular concept: excitement.
As our new president has said, “words matter.” So when it comes to careers, let’s forget “passion” and settle for excitement (or at least something we like reasonably well). And let’s hope that, by the time he retires, David discovers something that excites him
You may also enjoy:
A Message to Those Confused About Career Direction
For a Fulfilling Life, Beware of “Wisdom”
A Message to Those Confused About Career Direction (Part Deux)
4 Comments to A Message to Those Confused About Career Direction (Part Trois)
A very meaningful post. Books exhorting people to settle for nothing less than perfection neglect to mention something important: it’s simply impossible for everyone to have that fantastic dream career, all non-stop challenge and reward and never a dull moment. Society just won’t work without someone picking the vegetables, hauling the trash, cleaning the industrial equipment – a zillion other tasks that are meaningful and vital and even rewarding, but that just don’t mesh with the idea of “passion”.
It’s great for people to pursue passion in work, but they need to be able to accept “good enough” along the way. That doesn’t stop them from continuing to chase on-the-job passion. And if those who (as you put it excellently) are “not ‘passionate’ about professional activities that happen to pay well” can recognize that situation, they may find happiness by intentionally selecting “good enough” for a job and pursuing passion elsewhere in life.
My only reservation is the suggestion that “excitement” is a more realistic goal than “passion”; a lot of vital work doesn’t really lend itself to that, either. Hence my use of the vaguer “good enough”, which might include “excitement”, or might mean different rewards from work such as “sense of contribution”, “inner fulfillment”, “respect from others”, etc. But the point and post overall are very well take; great cap to the series (unless there’s more coming!).
I agree that we can’t be passionate about our work. If I were passionate about something, I’ll do it for free which can’t be defined as work anymore. I like what my wife says about my salary; it’s a “gaman” (endurance) fee, money I get for putting up with work, people, and the general unpleasantness of going to work.
Well said, Traveler. I think the trick is to gravitate toward work that excites you in a general way. I’m excited about teaching, even though the excitement level drops like a stone when it’s time for administration or grading.
Great, blunt sum-up, Tomato Farmer. For almost everyone other than religious evangelists, fine artists, and a lucky few sprinkled throughout the other arts and sciences, the word “passion” simply doesn’t apply to work.
[...] het is dus prima om niet voor passie maar voor excitement te gaan (ik heb lang nagedacht over een goede nederlandse vertaling voor excitement, maar niets [...]