Curiosity + Consistency > Passion
Let passion find you through your work
"Follow your passion."
It's perhaps the most common piece of career and life advice we receive. We're told to find that one intense, all-consuming feeling and build our lives around it.
Passion is a powerful emotion, but it's also a fleeting one. It comes and goes. Relying on it as our primary fuel source means we can only move forward when we feel a certain way. On the days we don't feel passionate, we stall.
What if there's a more sustainable, more reliable way to build a meaningful life and do impactful work?
Instead of waiting to find our passion, when we focus on following practices that are available to us every single day, here's what that looks like:
- Starting with Curiosity: Instead of searching for one big passion, we can simply follow our small curiosities. Curiosity is a gentle, accessible starting point. It invites us to ask questions and take the first small step of exploration.
- Committing to a Process: Passion is about a feeling; a process is about the doing. By focusing on our process and engaging with it consistently, we create value and build skills regardless of our emotional state.
- Trusting in our Work Ethic: A strong work ethic is what carries us through the days when passion is absent. The discipline of showing up consistently is a far more reliable engine for progress than waiting for an intense feeling to strike.
Passion is not something we find and then follow. More often, it's a feeling that arises as a result of our actions. It's the byproduct of deep engagement, of building skills through consistent effort, and of seeing the impact of our work over time.
Instead of asking, "What is my passion?" a more practical question is:
"What am I curious enough about to take a small, consistent action on this week?"
Always with curiosity,
/rajesh