Career Passion - Not so needed

24 April 2017

Do you hold the same dream as millions of others – the dream to turn your passion into your profession? To do what you love doing all the time, and – woohoo - get paid for it. 

People who are passionate about something often want to identify themselves as ‘being’ what they are passionate about. Be a writer, not just write, be a florist, not just play with flowers, be a sports administrator, not just an avid fan.

The link people make is this:  “I love doing this thing so much and am happy and fulfilled when doing it so doing it more, in fact doing it every day, all day, would make me even happier and more fulfilled. “

While this sounds good in theory there are a few mitigating factors to mull over:

• Passion is healthier if it is not all consuming
• Maths is against this model working for everyone
• Succeeding in a narrow field requires extraordinary effort and skill
• There is a back door to doing work you are passionate about

Now, substantial research does support the notion that finding purpose and meaning in your career leads to greater well-being, but purpose and meaning is not the same as passion, so read on for ways you can make sense of this often confusing process.

Don’t allow your passion to become obsessive

Robert Vallerand is the world’s leading researcher on passion.  Vallerand has identified that people can experience two types of passion for an activity – harmonious passion and obsessive passion. 

No points for guessing you want to have harmonious passion.  If you have obsessive passion you struggle to enjoy other activities without thinking you could be doing what you love instead.  This leads to becoming caught in a spiral of having a diminished self worth unless you are doing your passion. 

The opposite is true for harmonious passion.  While it shapes your concept of yourself and you love doing it, it does not dominate your enjoyment of other experiences or your sense of worth.

Vallerand’s research has found people with obsessive passion experience higher levels of psychological distress and their passion does not make them happy or add to their wellbeing – in fact it diminishes it.

Doing your passion as your work can tip it from being something harmonious moving you towards a one dimensional and less healthy, obsessive model.   In fact my advice to people who move their passion into being their profession is to ensure they find another passion they can pursue outside of work.

The ‘sexy’ jobs are limited

Compared to the range of careers available the self chosen range of things people prefer to be passionate about is much more limited.  There are just not as many jobs being a paid mountaineer as there are jobs in management, or as many jobs as a wine maker as there are jobs in hospitality.

As a consequence competition for jobs in the smaller area of self chosen passion is fierce.  This does not mean you don’t go for those jobs, you just need to know the numbers stack up against you – there are more applicants for fewer jobs.

Extraordinary effort and skill is needed

The higher level of competition means your skills in your area of passion have to be in the top percentage of people who do it.  And being in the top percentage requires committing to do what K. Anders Ericsson calls deliberate and intentional practice.  Practice your skill so you are not just good at it, you are extraordinary at it.

This, though, is not enough.

On top of this you also need to be willing to develop skills and put effort into becoming really good at the ancillary skills you will also need to succeed with a career in your passion.  For example skills such as training others and business management if you decide to take your passion for flower arranging and start a business teaching others how to make amazing arrangements.  Or skills in building a following and doing promotional work if you become a writer and need to have your novel published.

The back door (really the wide open front door)

Now it is true that people do follow their passion and land jobs that have them do what they love every day. 

Passion + Job Doing Passion = Happy

Usually, and more reliably though, the model works in the opposite direction and slightly differently to what we think.

Job with values alignment + Effort = Get Really Good = Passion

This is the back door to doing work you are passionate about.  Start with a job that aligns with your values and you can care about enough to find the meaning and purpose [link] in it.  Then get really good at it – don’t be mediocre at it because it is not your passion.  You are doing it anyway so put intentional and deliberate effort in to get better at doing it.  In the words of Steve Martin, echoed by Cal Newport, in his book of the same name, be – So Good They Can’t Ignore You.

When you become extraordinarily good at something you really start to appreciate the subtleties in it, the difference doing it makes, the positive reflection it can have on your own self worth.  With these more subtle insights passion, or at least deep caring, will follow.

You might just end up turning your profession into your passion.

As always, wishing you a Flourishing Career.

Katherine