Finding Your Level of Passion

I recently saw a speaker on TV talking about finding your passion. She had spoken many times all over the country about how important it is, and of course, there are countless articles and entire books written on the subject. Someone contacted this speaker and explained her lecture made her feel terrible because she didn’t have any particular passion. So often, having a passion for something is described as not being able to live without it; not able to breathe without it; not able to focus without it; it’s all-consuming. This person did not have that type of feeling for anything.  There were things she enjoyed in her life, things she liked, but there wasn’t  any one passion for her because she had many interests.

I didn’t watch to the end of the show, but the speaker did come to the realization that it’s not necessary to have an all-consuming passion. Obviously some people do find it and pursue it if they are able. I started thinking about it, because I wondered if I fit that mold of having a true all-consuming passion.  There’s no question that I do have a love of writing. If you have read my blog from the beginning, then you know I have done a lot of writing for a very long time. Up until a few years ago, that writing was only related to my former profession as a medical transcriptionist. Now I write novels, and I also write in several different journals, all of which I have documented in this blog, so I won’t repeat any of that again. 

Looking back on all the writing I have done over the years, I would venture to say that writing is my passion.  But if you follow the defining rule of passion, that it’s all-consuming, then I would have to say writing is not my passion. Yes, I do thoroughly love what I do, but I don’t think about it night and day. There are many days I don’t write at all. I have a journal I started back in 1994 when my husband left our home in Ohio to a new job in Idaho. I still write in that journal, but I have literally gone years without writing a thing in it.  So which is it? Passion or no?

You may not agree with me, but I think there can be levels of passion. It doesn’t have to be all-consuming to be something you are passionate about. I love to bake, but if I had a full-blown passion about it, I would open up a bakery. Instead, I bake when the mood strikes, which might be often, but not enough to create a business out of it.  I am a writer, but I don’t write every day. I’m a baker, but I don’t bake every day.

I used to be a little concerned that I wasn’t  writing every single day, because that is what many well-established authors will say you must do.  If I should follow that edict, then writing would become a chore, not a passion. I don’t ever want that to happen. My passions are mine and mine alone, and how I handle them is my choice.  If you think you don’t have enough passion for whatever it is you love and enjoy, think again.  There are different levels for different people, and as far as I’m concerned, no one person’s description of having a passion for something is better, or more right, than another. Thanks for hanging out with me, and remember to enjoy your day.