Don't Fake Passion. Do This Instead..

I'm one of those guys who reads multiple books at a time. Right now I've got two on my plate:

"Thinking In Bets" by Annie Duke and "I Hate Everyone But You" by Bucky Haighte.

The books are about two profoundly different topics, but both are born from a common theme: doing what you love and achieving a high degree of success in it. At the very least, achieving enough success to where you have gained unique insights and perspectives about your discipline and can apply them to other areas.

The final part of that last sentence is key.

I believe that a sign of true understanding is when you're able to extract specific ideas from your specialty and teach generally to outsiders. You can still perform at a high level without the ability to creative relevant analogies and metaphors, but if that's the case, it's almost a guarantee that you're not reaching your highest potentials.

Miyamoto Musashi said "If you know the way broadly, you will see it in everything". The only way to get this good at something is to have a passion for it.

Fuck The Internet. Passion Is The Way

The big thing now on the self-improvement side of the internet is to recommend that you don't follow your passions. Instead, develop skills.

The advice started with computer scientist and learning expert Cal Newport. I get the idea: your passion for art won't pay the bills, but if you become skilled at something with a better pay day, your performance may lead you to fall in love with it one day.

When I was first introduced to this idea, I completely agreed. Not only did it make intuitive sense, it was a sexy new idea. It was like Scott Adams' idea of "Systems over goals". It was a new way of looking at an all problem from a successful person's point of view. As a result, many of us start repeating it like gospel.

Then I started tutoring.

One student, in particular, was on the verge of failing a required physics class. Once we fixed her fundamentals, she took off and really became a stand out talent. However, she still hated physics. She was set on going to beauty school to become an esthetician. She'd probably have a decent career in something in a quantitative discipline and would likely earn more with the litany of skills that studying physics develops, but she was passionate about doing hair.

This was an eye-opener.

Bucky Haighte expresses this idea nicely: "You can fake an orgasm, but you can't fake passion. Try faking passion and you will look like a complete numb-nut. You either love what you do, or you don't. You either like who you are, or you don't. There's no middle ground."

My student, at 18, intuitively understood this idea.

There is A Balanced Way

I think pursuing skills to the point where you're only chasing a check is just as ridiculous as chasing a passion regardless of how little money there is in it. If you hate programming but you do it because it's a guaranteed job, you'll be just as miserable as someone who's passion is slam poetry and they have work overtime to make rent.

The beautiful truth about living in the 21st century is that you have a lot of ways to pursue your passions. My passion is writing. However, to pursue that, I've had to learn a slew of supporting skills that I am NOT passionate about. However, they support my passion.

Don't find a skill to learn and fake passion about it. Instead, pursue your passion but figure out how to make money from it.

This will almost certainly require you to learn some things you'd rather avoid. However, you'll able to stomach them because it's to support further enjoyment of your passions. The nice thing about this approach is that you'll also learn skills that you can earn a living from in pursuit of your passion without compromising too much time.

This time to focus on your passion is the most important. Bucky also hits this nail on the head perfectly: "Focus on what you are good at. Do that. Only do that and do it better than anyone else. Always remember that riches are made from niches."

You want to focus as much as you can, but when you can't, make sure that what consumes your time contributes as much to your passion as possible. If you can do this, you'll be unstoppable in the pursuit of your dreams.

The rest is up to you.

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