Passion or Money: Which One Are You Following?

I want to thank Gair Maxwell for this amazing essay:

There is research to support the significance of passion and purpose. In a U.S. study, 15-hundred people were asked about the career goals they set for themselves and then tracked for 20 years. 15-hundred people were asked to make a career choice based on either making money or following their passion. 83% picked a career they thought would be lucrative financially. 17% elected to follow their dream. When 20 years were up, there were 101 millionaires in the group and all but one came from the group of 17% who believed in the concept of passion before the paycheck. But whether they hit it rich or not, almost all of the passion-driven workers found themselves in absorbing, fulfilling careers and tended to enjoy healthier relationships. Meanwhile, most of the other 83 % spent 20 years earning more modest incomes, doing jobs they were not especially fond of with higher instances of marital trouble, stress and other health issues.

Passion is being able to enjoy the process before the prize. Love of the craft before the cash. To tackle something that really gets our creative juices flowing so much that we can’t believe we actually get paid to do this! That feeling of passion before the paycheck is something we can always feel from somebody else. Did you ever notice how we rarely warm up to someone who is doing something “just for the money”?

Are you taking the time and making the effort to follow your passion or submitting  and succumbing to the disease of cynicism?  Have you forsaken and abandoned your passion fearing someone else might snicker or ridicule your efforts? Did you just give up out of fear of being judged as too bold, too reckless or just a little too off the wall or unconventional?

Not only are you not alone, but it might help to know that skeptics and naysayers just comes as part of the package for anyone who is ready to take those first few tenetitive steps towards following their passion. In fact, more than a century ago,  Teddy was sharing his opinions on this subject with an eager audience in Paris.

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena….whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst…If he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be among those cold and timid souls that know neither victory nor defeat.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt captured the essence of what we’re talking about today. Passion and belief. In our purpose. Our goals. And in ourselves. Our belief that we have all have greatness within and that we are indeed worthy of that greatness. Dr. Wayne Dyer points out there is a difference between what we wish for and what we truly desire. Another difference between what we desire and what we intend to do. And yet another difference between what we intend to do and what we’re passionate about and committed to doing.

It is common knowledge that successful people know what they want. They have a clear vision of the future they aspire to, and they identify their passions in life. Examples abound. History’s most accomplished people, including artists, writers, composers and leaders, all tended to find their calling relatively young. Thomas Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, found that financially successful people typically identify what “lights their emotional fire” at a relatively young age, and translate that passion into a profitable business venture. Just as the three keys to real estate success are location, location, location, the three keys to wealth for most millionaires are vocation, vocation, vocation. Joseph Campbell, who studied the psychological meaning of mythology and literature throughout the world, offered three simple words of advice for those seeking to make their way in the world: “Find your bliss.” Those who devote themselves to their passion not only accomplish more, but they enjoy the process; to those who have found their bliss, the word “work” does not have negative connotations because it doesn’t “feel like work”.

A passion and a purpose do more than merely provide a direction for one’s life; some have even argued that, under extreme circumstances, having a purpose in life is essential for life itself. Perhaps the most compelling delineation of this idea comes from the work of Victor Frankl, a psychologist whose thinking was greatly shaped by his experiences in a World War II Nazi concentration camp. In this most dehumanizing of circumstances, so many of the goals and expectations that the prisoners once had for their lives were completely stripped away and rendered impossible to achieve. Some individuals found new goals and meanings in life, ranging from the very tangible - such as striving to obtain food, information, or jobs within the camp - to higher-level purposes such as easing the pain of others or remembering events in detail for future historians. But others did not find new goals to strive for, and that lack of purpose was often associated with a sense of passive resignation, a feeling of aimlessness, physical and psychological deterioration, and ultimately death.

In many ways, the opposite of passion and a clear meaning in life is ambivalence. Uncertainty about one’s future is a clearly a barrier to change and success, but it can have more far-reaching effects as well, even to the point of effecting physical and mental health. Research has shown that people who have conflicting goals, or are ambivalent about their goals, are more likely than others to...

•    Experience depression and anxiety
•    Be less happy and less satisfied with their lives
•    Have more physical illnesses & doctor’s visits
•    Be indecisive, uncertain and rebellious
•    Be easily distracted and procrastinate
•    Spend more time thinking about their goals
•    Spend less time taking action toward their goals

In fact, compared to others, people who are uncertain about whether they really want to make certain life changes are up to six times  less likely to accomplish their goals.

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

Why not spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Why not say a kind word to a stranger or a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Why not say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. Why not hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.