We see them, we love them, we admire them, whilst we often describe passionate people as those who have an unquenchable drive and determination. Its almost like an emotional supercharge that somehow inspires endless persistence and energy to achieve in their careers and business goals. Though can following your passion be bad for your career development?
However, after listening to two hugely passionate business leaders recently wrestling through a disagreement, it got me wondering if too much passion for your work, a project or proving that you are right about your ideas is always beneficial to you and your career?
We can all be passionate about certain issues. Although are there times the energy, values, belief, and overzealous vigour can be our downfall? Certainly can be in my case with a subject close to my heart. So the question is, are we all so hung up on finding and pursuing our passion that we can’t see when it’s getting in our own way? Can too much passion end up hurting us and our careers?
Cal Newport makes a compelling case in this YouTube video as to why just following your career passion can be challenging if taken literally and without an objective career strategy behind the emotional connection with your work.
Following your Career Passions
Passion is not all bad of course and can be the kickstart to push you in a different direction in life. However, there are a few pitfalls to avoid when balancing out your career strategy that is rational and objective with a more emotional connection with a passion. A rational career strategy will be the chance to learn those all-important rare and valuable skills that make us too good to avoid as Cal Newport suggests. Thus defining great work (creativity, control, wealth and impact) are by their very nature, rare and valuable. If you want this in your career, you must first build up rare and valuable skills to offer in return. As a result, the passion or love for a job will be a side effect of mastery and invested time and effort in building skills and career capital.
Hopefully, the checklist below will help you see the benefits of your passion in your career pathway, whilst maintaining your focus on what is important in your work and career development.
Too much emphasis on career passion can………
Derail your career strategy
Clearly having a passion drives people to accomplish great things and of course, suggests you have a passion already established. A passion in our lives can a key component of understanding our purpose. It’s that thing you feel you must do.
We have all seen people, leaders and entrepreneurs who are so passionate that they often overlook a strategy. It’s akin to believing their extreme passion will somehow overcompensate for the fact that they don’t have a plan, or they don’t have the knowledge. A sort of madness that suggest being overly emotional about a subject will carry us through with the skill to actually do the job.
So in principle, your purpose, passion, and strategy need to align if you want to achieve great results.
Cloud your career choices
The LinkedIn and business world is always talking about the value of being passionate about your business or career. However, it could be argued that there is a time and a place for passion. A kind of angry or powerful logic? Perhaps we ought to be more open to the benefits of being dispassionate more rational and objective? All of this clear thinking can be more beneficial to our career prospects.
Moreover, removing the heated emotion from conversations is often harder than becoming passionate at the moment. After all, the emotion of a post or conversation is the way to connect with like-minded people and to get their attention. In all organisations, we can find ourselves in conversations with people, clients, and bosses that could lead to conflict. We all have emotions, of course, however, that doesn’t mean we should act or react emotionally. We don’t need to take offence, we just need to solve the problem at hand for a win-win outcome.
Limit career choices
If you believe you need to be passionate about everything you do in life, then there may be unfortunate consequences. If we just focus on the fact what we are all passionate about every hour of every day it can become severely limiting and exhausting. We have all heard of people job-hopping because they discover something they don’t like in the role. Or perhaps doesn’t meet their beliefs and values about what they should be, must be, ought to be doing. All self-limiting beliefs about ourselves and our careers
In many ways, our beliefs are ridiculous when considering a career to follow. However, if you are passionate about one or two aspects of your job and are willing to do all the other stuff in order to do what you love, then you are in a great position to move forward doing more of what you enjoy.
Steal your identity
We all get the concept of being passionate about something. We all love to get carried away by passionate people. However, we witnessed people become so wrapped up in the pursuit of their passion that they lose the truth of who they are. Perhaps becoming a contracture or stereotype of who they think they should be for other people or groups?
Goals, accomplishments, and achievements do change us. They will help us grow and succeed. Although we should not try to change ourselves into the person we think we need to become to make our goals a reality. In the end, try to learn new skills and become the best version of yourself and your career. Don’t let a passion strip you of your core authentic self to become something you are not.
Make you unaware of the present and the people that support you
Clearly, we have all been in the presence of passionate people first-hand, both professionally and personally as mentioned before. These people will bowl you over with boundless enthusiasm and drive. Make us believe that this is what they were put on the earth to do – a legacy of being here. Though is always the issue of how passion can make us blind to both the opportunities that exist before us and the people who can support our career development.
We have witnessed too many highly-passionate people risk their relationships, risk their homes, risk their reputations. Whilst failing to appreciate the people around them in order to pursue a dream and a belief of why they do what they do. We have seen too many derail because their focus on the future makes them oblivious to the present.
One leader I worked with may have said it best “I was so focused on achieving the goal that I took for granted all the wonderful people who were helping me get there. By the time I realised it, they were already gone.” The sad consequence of being so wrapped up in the self-obsessed drive to follow a passion, that careers and people you need most become forgotten.
Lastly………………….
In the end, just setting out to follow your passion is probably a waste of time. That emotional upwelling that manifests as a passion can be too specialised and probably cannot offer a stable career path alone. However, a passion for a job or career path can be the trigger and call to action for something you had not otherwise considered in your working life. Whether you follow your passion is ultimately up to you as long as you carefully consider the opportunities you could be giving up. Narrowing your work & career choices to a passion that is the flavour of the month on social media will not generate the rare and valuable skills you may be looking for.
Some will argue that “follow your passion” is harmless advice. If you believe that we all have a pre-existing passion and that matching this to a job will lead to instant workplace bliss, then reality will always pale in comparison. Work is hard and of course not every day is fun, fun, fun. Building the skills that ultimately lead to a compelling career pathway can take years of effort. If you are just seeking a dream job, you’ll end up disappointed, again and again. Don’t just set out to discover passion. Instead, set out to develop and discover it. This path might be longer and more complicated than what most upbeat career gurus might preach, but it’s a path much more likely to lead you somewhere worth going.
