Why Passion is Important Despite the Bad Rap

There is an audio version below.

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I’ve heard more than my fair share of people who say, “follow your passion” is stupid advice. While I think following your passion alone is not enough, it’s NOT stupid advice. Having and following your passion is an important part of making your dream a reality.

Before I confirmed that writing was my first love and passion, I tried a few other things out. I thought my dream was to be an event planner. I had the chance to put this to the test because my sister asked me to plan her wedding. It WAS a disaster. Next, I thought my dream was to be a salesperson. I joined several MLM companies. That wasn’t it.

It took trying out a bunch of stuff before realizing the missing piece was passion. I was not passionate about any of those things, and once the initial excitement wore off, I didn’t have the fuel to keep going. The lack of passion forced me to get honest.

If you don’t have passion, you’ll eventually experience overwhelming frustration.  

I’ve had the pleasure of coaching over 200 people since 2012. The one thing I’ve seen over and again is that if you don’t have a passion for something, you’ll eventually get sick of it. I have had clients that started out in a strategy, but fizzled because they weren’t passionate. Writing is a perfect example of this. 

One of the best ways to build a lifestyle business is to get exposure through guest post and to write for large publications. Most of the clients that hire me want to build a lifestyle business. I teach them how to write and get exposure. There have been some that wanted this and started writing articles even though writing wasn’t their passion.

Every single time, it doesn’t last long. If writing is not your passion, you won’t have the fortitude to sit down for hours and write articles. It will take you hours just to write one, and that will frustrate you. It will feel like pulling teeth. For those clients, we’ve been able to adjust with podcasting or recording videos, but it took that experience of trying to write for them to see that without a passion for it, they couldn’t maintain. If you don’t have that passion, it will be hard to do what feels like pulling teeth. 

Passion is what gets you through the stuff that makes you want to quit.

There are many challenges and struggles on the journey to create a life of freedom. You will need a lot of strength to overcome them, and passion is one major component of that strength. Passion is the main part of your why and helps you focus on more than the moment.

It’s too easy to let frustration sidetrack you. Your passion for what you’re doing will be the fuel to get you through. The question then is to ask yourself what you’re passionate about. If you want to build a lifestyle business just because of the perks, you can make some progress, but probably won’t make it all the way.

If you don’t have a passion for a certain part of building a lifestyle business—then pivot. You don’t simply have to write—you can podcast or make videos and still get them featured in large publications. You have many options today and it would go smoother if you were passionate about what you’re doing.

Don’t let all the voices saying stuff keep you from pursuing something you’re passionate about. You need a passion for what you are or will do. After you’ve gotten honest about your passion, research and take consistent action. You can make your dream your reality.

What is a passion you’re pursuing in the next year?

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Photo: Flickr/ edgeplot