I’ve always struggled a bit with the saying “Follow Your Passion.” When I hear it, I’ve noticed that I get a somewhat agitated feeling. This, in part, is why the homepage of this site does not have the word “passion” on it. I’ve found that I have used the phrase from time to time in my writing – but more out of default or laziness than any other reason. I realize that I’m uncomfortable with the concept because I am not entirely sure I could answer the question, “what is your passion?” I can list a handful of things that I am passionate about, but if I had to identify ONE sole passion – I don’t have an answer.
People will ask me, “Is Chapter Be your passion?” And, honestly, I am never quite sure how to answer that question. I know that the expected answer is, “Yes!” but the truth is that I like it a lot. There are things about it that I love and some aspects that I’m not so crazy about. Learning this has made me acutely aware that following a passion doesn’t mean that everything is always going to be sunshine and roses. I think that some people that I interview are following their passion – but not all of them would identify it as the sole and only passion in their life. It is just the one that they decided to pursue more thoroughly than any other. So, I try to be clear that they made the choice to follow something that they love. It was a choice that they made and one that comes with a lot of twists and turns.
This weekend I felt like my struggle with the “follow your passion” tagline was not one that I felt alone when I heard the following quote from Elizabeth Gilbert:
| We keep telling people to follow their passion, and I feel like that can be an intimidating and almost cruel thing to say to people at times. Because, first of all, if somebody has one central, powerful, burning passion, they are probably already following it because that is kind of the definition of passion is that you don’t have a choice. If you don’t have one central burning passion, which is a lot of people, and somebody tells you to follow your passion, I think you have the right to give them the finger, because it just makes you feel worse. So, I always say to people, “If you don’t have an obvious passion, forget about it. Follow your curiosity.” Because passion is sort of a tower of flame that is not always accessible and curiosity is something that anybody can access any day. Your curiosity may lead you to your passion or it may not – it may have been for “nothing.” In which case, all you’ve done your entire life is spend your existence in pursuit of the things that made you feel curious and inspired – and that should be good enough. If you get to do that, that’s a wonderful way to have spent your time here. – Elizabeth Gilbert |
The idea that one should follow their curiosity resonates with me so much more. In the same way that I feel agitated at the “follow your passion” statement, I felt excited and motivated by the “follow your curiosity” one. How do we allow ourselves/each other/our employees/our children to follow what we are most curious about? How do we let curiosity be what drives us more than anything else? How do we restructure our day/society/being so that we allow for the time and place for curiosity?
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