The advice to “follow your passion” has long persisted over the years. While usually well-intentioned, it is more often than not counter-productive counsel. Such a claim undoubtedly raises some eyebrows, for what could be wrong with seeking to do that which you love?
Indeed, the topic begs deeper exploration, particularly at a period such as college where students are inundated with choices—choices that each individual believes to be of such gravity as to be future-defining. From decisions such as which university to apply to, to the course that one should take (should one read a subject in which feels he already has some talent, or that which he has a relative weakness but a profound interest?), none seems any less weighty to the frazzled student.
The problem I have with the advice to pursue what you are passionate about is twofold. Firstly, contrary to what we might expect, the vast majority of people have yet to discover something that they can say they feel that strongly for. It could be that it is too early a stage in their life to tell. Perhaps they have yet to collect sufficient experience to draw upon or it may be due to reasons more personal and particular.
Secondly, the advice contains within it an innocuous little claim with big implications, and the claim goes something like this: all you need to do is find what you are passionate about, and all will be well—job satisfaction necessarily follows if you do what you harbor a deep interest in. The trouble with this claim is that it conjures an illusion by inflating the importance of inherent affinity.
The idea of finding that “perfect job” or “perfect course” is misguided at best. It is almost as if there exists some predetermined destiny that you should be following, and suggests that if you should deviate from that singular path, you would be living a substandard life. This cultivates a response motivated by fear of disappointment and almost guarantees that you will be dissatisfied with your life situation, as you would always be left wondering if you were “meant” to do something else.
Cal Newport argues in his recently-published book, “So Good They Can’t Ignore You—Why Skills Trump Passion In The Quest For Work You Love”, for something he calls the passion trap. He describes it most elegantly: “The more emphasis you place on finding work you love, the more unhappy you become when you don’t love every minute of the work you have.” Here, Newport does not mean that we should abandon the search for finding enjoyable work, but rather that an overemphasis on the romanticized notion of the “perfect job” renders it an ultimately unattainable ideal. Instead, Newport forwards the concept of the Career Craftsman, based on the underlying premise that compelling careers are not to be serendipitously discovered, but deliberately crafted.
As Newport explains, “basic economic theory tells us that if you want something that’s both rare and valuable, you need something rare and valuable to offer in return—this is Supply and Demand 101. It follows that if you want a great job, you need something of great value to offer in return.” Newport therefore argues that we should endeavour to improve our skills to a point of competence and even expertise; satisfaction then follows as a result of the autonomy, impact and recognition gained from contributing the valuable skills that one has.
It is critical to our understanding of Newport’s contribution to discussions of passion and practicality that we do not view the situation as an exercise in binary selection. I do not believe that we need to choose between what we are passionate about and what we deem to be practical. The two are not mutually exclusive. I personally know a number of individuals who have chosen to change to a diametrically different course in their second year of university, and who are both enjoying themselves more and doing significantly better as a result.
Some individuals are blessed with both the fortune of knowing with great certainty where their passions lie and the associated ability in that field. The majority of us however, lie somewhere along the spectrum of passion and ability. Perhaps you don’t yet know what you might be passionate about. Perhaps what you now enjoy may not be what you are good at. The bottom line, however, is this: satisfaction and meaning are yours to create.
Much of the beauty of man’s existence resides in human agency and the individual’s ability to influence his or her situation for the better. The means by which you achieve this can vary—hard work at developing a skill could be one route, yet pursuing pre-existing inclinations is another that should neither be totally discounted.
Most importantly however, is the adoption of a mindset that embraces each person’s ability to craft desirable outcomes, for this frees one from the paralyzing worry of finding that one dream job/passion/pursuit that would ostensibly bring fulfillment.