Passion
Everywhere you go, you hear people talking about passion. We are surrounded by the idea of passion, from romance novels to self-help book and inspirational movies, dreams, social ideals and public figures, but what is it? Where does it come from and, most importantly, is it more than just a fruit?
In grade 6 I turned to my best friend Sarah and asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and, without a millisecond of hesitation, she said ‘a lawyer’. I’m fairly certain that when she then asked me the same question I responded with ‘a Spice Girl’.
Fast forward some 14 years and one of us has stuck to our passion, the other has not.
Sarah worked incredibly hard through school, attended the best University possible to study law and moved interstate and overseas after graduating to secure jobs in law that would boost her career. It is safe to say that from grade 6 onwards she dedicated her life to following her passion while I was left sitting in her dust wondering why the Spice Girl’s broke up in the first place.
It is amazing to me how, at such a young age, Sarah knew what her passion was and was then able to dedicate every move she made from that point on, to following it. But she isn’t alone here, oh no, there are hundreds of thousands of people out there who know from day dot what their passion is.
My question is “where are they getting this from?” Did I watch too many episodes of Play School as a child? Should I have been listening to Mozart and reading Chicken Soup for the Soul at a younger age?
Another prime example of this passion bug that they all seem to have been bitten by is our friend, Laker. Not only is he the most talented artist I’ve ever seen, and is creating drawings for companies to use in their advertising campaigns, but he’s an amazing musician and has followed his passion since he first started drawing dirty pictures in school books and joined a band. Friendship aside, I don’t think it fair that one person be that cool, it just makes the rest of us look bad “Oh hi, I’m an amazing artist and I shred at guitar, what do you do?”…. “Umm I’m pretty good at PowerPoint”.
What’s even worse, he’s so humble and such a nice guy that you can’t even hate him for his passion and talent. Thankfully though he does have a penchant for weird hats and snoods which knocks him down a few pegs in my books.
It is only once the fog of high school and joining the workforce lifted that I began thinking about my passion and it is only in the last four years that I started making moves to follow it.
My passion is writing and travel. Luckily for me I have a supportive partner who encourages me to do both of these things because, I am a procrastinator. If it were up to me I’d be sat on the couch drinking Pepsi-max, watching Man vs. Food (even that guy’s following his passion).
Okay, so maybe I’m not quite that bad but finding your passion early on isn’t easy. Some people are just blessed with this inner-voice or inner-knowledge, they have this thought early on and they follow it because they know, it’s the only thing that is ever going to fulfil them.
If you’re struggling to find your passion, don’t be so hard on yourself. Think about it, what if Sarah committed her life to becoming a surgeon then realised it wasn’t what she wanted? Or what if Laker committed his life to becoming a truck driver and realised it wasn’t what he wanted? All those years they had spent working toward it would be wasted, so when you commit to a passion, you need to be sure.
Listen to your head and listen to your heart, think about the small things in your life that make you truly happy when you do them. Nothing is too small and nothing is too silly, just be honest with yourself about what you enjoy and in the meantime, if you are lacking passion, pop down to the supermarket and buy yourself some passion fruit, that way you’re surrounded by a big old bowl of passion!
littlegreybox.
14 Comments on “Passion”
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What is littlegreybox?
littlegreybox is a meeting point of humorous perspective, food and travel experiences and my life journey. It's my outlet, a source of inspiration and a way to share and connect with people around the world.
Great inspiration to go for any “loves” in our lives =)
Thanks Frances!
I really relate to you on this topic. I’ve recently fallen into a bit of a career crisis mode, realising that I want to change career direction completely when I move overseas, and use up some of my creative passion rather than just crunch numbers all day long! So this article hits a soft spot with me. I’m so jealous of those people like your friend who knew from early on what they wanted, but I think that’s a very rare quality to have. Thank you for the little slice of inspiration for the day.
PS I once dressed up as Baby Spice for a Spice Girls karaoke competition at the local shopping mall … I completely understand your dream! ;)
hahaha I was baby spice too! Something about blonde hair always sees you pigeon-holed as B.S. Don’t be jealous… your passion will come, just trust yourself :)
I’m still waiting for my passion to show up!! Awesome post Phoebes!
Familiar problem! Although problem, I have a nice life, move around… The only issue is that I spend my working days blogging while avoiding my actual work ;)
hahaha I know! me too.
My passion is writing. Poetry mostly. Up until about 2 weeks ago only about 30 people had ever read any of it. Now here I am open to the world and have been invited to speak for a writer’s club. I am ecstatic!
Odd though that the word “passion” is actually about suffering. Maybe it makes sense as we often suffer to follow our dreams, but as for me, I’d rather have ardor…though that links back to burning…ah well, keep it coming! ~Regards, Dan
Love your post! I’m graduating from college next week, kinda freaking out (in secret of course) about my future. You’re words put me at ease though since I take comfort in the fact that I’m not the only one out there struggling to pursue my passion. Oh and I take even greater comfort in the fact that someone else out there is still as distraught about the Spice Girls as I am!
Reblogged this on i want great things and commented:
i love this. there are so many trapped people, panicking because they haven’t worked out what to do yet. passion is inbuilt and exists in different ways. find yours…
My passion is addiction…need to stop having this passion.. addiction for love, sex, drugs,gambling and so on..
When ever somebody asks what my passion is, I scream and throw battery acid in their face. It works very well.
Nice post! I’m pretty much searching for my passion right now. Nothing really seems to “click” or something. Or maybe I don’t know what it means to feel happy doing something, and so nothing appeals to me.
That is so true. It took me some years to figure out my passion, although I knew as a kid I wanted to be an artist. I was never confident in myself, just some people have that positive voice in their head telling them to go for it and others have to work at it because otherwise I would be sitting on my couch all day long watching reruns of Friends. I am getting quite tired of the television so I thought I’d try listening to my positive voice for once and paint to my heart’s content. Great post.