The Dark Side of Following Your Passion

There’s something that’s often forgotten in the advice of “Follow Your Passion.” And that’s the reminder that, in following your passion, there are moments when you have to still do things that you absolutely dread.

To illustrate, this is a picture of what I’ve been doing the last 72 hours. It may look like my high-schooler’s research project. But it’s instead my attempt to cram for a presentation/exam that I had to take, one which required vast amounts of extremely detailed and highly technical knowledge about income tax codes, investment theories, estate planning rules, etc.

And guess what? I hated it. I hated studying for it; I hated having to memorize endless details that I knew I would soon forget; and I hated being drilled and having to act as a technical expert, instead of empathic coach.

And there was a definitely a moment (or two, or three, or a hundred), when I wanted to throw my hands up in the air and give up.  When I beat myself up for not knowing certain information inside and out and when I felt unprepared and defeated. When I said to myself, it wasn’t worth it and that I should call it off.

But I didn’t. I kept going because I knew that this step was important in “following my passion.” I kept going because I knew that following your passion sometimes means rolling up your sleeves and doing work that you hate – in order to do work you LOVE.

The same idea really applies to so much of our lives, not just work/career:

• You may drag your feet when it comes time to creating your budget, but it may be a critical step in following your passion to travel or go back to school.
• You may dread setting up a bookkeeping system but perhaps it will allow you to more quickly transition to full-time entrepreneurship and quitting your job
• You may resist calling your credit companies to negotiate lower interest rates, but could it be the one thing that makes the difference in finally turning your money situation around and becoming debt-free?

Believe me, after being holed up for the last few days in a dark library, I know that following your passion– any passion, not just as it relates to your career– does not mean things will be ‘rainbows and unicorns’ 24/7.

In fact, those not-so-blissful steps in between are a non-negotiable part of the process that you somehow have to navigate [and stay tuned for a future blog post on tips for how to do this!]

But, the good news is that even if some of the tasks along the way can feel excruciating and you question if it’s worth it, this is a gentle reminder that it is.

Follow your passion – as well as all those steps in between. I’ll be right along with you commiserating yet knowing how great it will be when we get to the other side.