In the never-ending debate about whether we should discover our passion and then work on it, or work and discover our passion in what we are doing, another piece of the puzzle is brought by the Quartz post ‘“Find your passion” is bad advice, say Yale and Stanford psychologists‘.
The gist of the thesis of this post is that “Your passion isn’t out there, waiting to be discovered. It’s not a mysterious force that will—when found—remove all obstacles from your path. In fact, psychologists argue in a new study that the pithy mantra “find your passion” may be a dangerous distraction.” “The directive to “find your passion” suggests a passive process. Telling people to develop their passion, however, suggests an active one that depends on us—and allows that it can be challenging to pursue. This, the psychologist says, “is a realistic way of thinking.””
The advice is thus to demonstrate a growth mindset and not wait passively for passion to uncover itself and develop by itself. I am very much in tune with this approach – although being passionate makes it easier to spend the hours, getting the best at it still requires enormous work and commitment. Having a growth mindset, taking advantage of the opportunities that surround us to develop our passion, experiment and discover more in detail what it is all about, is the way.
Discovering your passion in detail is certainly a way of active search and development, and of demonstrating a growth mindset. Passion is a process.
