Three Reasons It’s So Hard to “Follow Your Passion”

How many times have you been told to “follow your passion?” It’s a message that appears in everything from graduation speeches to job ads. But according to a  Deloitte survey of 3,000 full-time U.S. workers, across job levels and industries, only 20% say they are truly passionate about their work.

Research on passion suggests that we need to understand three key things: (1) passion is not something one finds, but rather, it is something to be developed; (2) it is challenging to pursue your passion, especially as it wanes over time; and (3) passion can also lead us astray, and it is therefore important to recognize its limits.

Don’t Wait to Find Your Passion

One common misperception people have about passion is that it is fixed: you either have passion for something or you don’t. The problem with this belief is that it’s limiting, leading us to think of passion as something we discover or happen upon.

Indeed, research has shown that believing passion is fixed can make people less likely to explore new topics—potential new sources of passion. It also leads people to give up on new pursuits more quickly if they seem difficult.

To better pursue your passion, challenge your assumption that passion is something to be discovered. Focus on actively developing a passion instead.

Focus on What You Care About, Not on What Is Fun

In one study, my coauthors and I analyzed every graduation speech given in the last 10 years at the top 100 U.S. universities and plucked out instances where speakers gave students advice on how to pursue their passion. Much of the advice centered on “focusing on what you love” as the way to follow your passion. But some speakers described the pursuit of passion as “focusing on what you care about.” The distinction is subtle but meaningful: focusing on what you love associates passion with what you enjoy and what makes you happy, whereas focusing on what you care about aligns passion with your values and the impact you want to have.

In a subsequent study of several hundred of employees, we found that those who believed pursuing passion meant following what brings one joy were less likely to be successful in their pursuit of passion, and were more likely to quit their job 9 months down the line, than those who believed following passion was focusing on what one cares about.

The reality is that passion wanes over time, so if you just focus on following happiness, you might not stick with an endeavor like you would if you focused on how it helps you achieve what you care most about.

Overcome the Limits of Passion

It’s also important to understand when passion won’t help you.

What does this mean? Imagine you’re presenting a project at work that you are passionate about. We find that expressing your passion may only help you if your audience already agrees with what you are presenting. If they are not already on board, your passion for the subject may not be effective in bringing them along.

Many of us want to pursue our passions, and organizations commonly encourage this. But the fact is we often don’t know how to do this. Viewing passion as able to be developed, as a challenging ongoing process, and as something that may lead you astray may help us better achieve our goals.

Excerpted from “3 Reasons It’s So Hard to “Follow Your Passion” by assistant professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School, Jon M. Jachimowicz. Read the full article online in Harvard Business Review.

Source: Harvard Business Review | 3 Reasons It’s So Hard to “Follow Your Passion, https://hbr.org/2019/10/3-reasons-its-so-hard-to-follow-your-passion | Copyright © 2023  Harvard Business School Publishing

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