Is finding one's passion overrated?

[Quantum]

"And in the current cultural moment, the word has become ever more fraught—it’s tinged with a value judgment, that there’s something wrong if you haven’t discovered your passion and found the way to make it into your career. The capitalist pursuit of passion is the new horrible form of enlightenment we’re told to chase."

(The Advice to Pursue Your Passion: What Does “Passion” Even Mean?
https://janefriedman.com/advice-to-pu...)

TBH, I also find "find your passion" overused; sometimes, you just gotta do what you must to make ends meet.

Thoughts?

[Scout]

Overrated? I'd say unrealistic, even for the maybe 50% of the earth's population who have a choice of what they can do with their lives. The people I know work for a living doing whatever they can to make the most money. Their income is spent on supporting themselves and their family, if they have one.

Let's face it. It takes time to find that perfect job. And time is money. If you're a recent graduate with parental support, you have that time. This is when you're most likely to find a job that suits your passion.

If you're a working person with financial responsibilities, you need money to buy time to find your passion. And if you don't have the money, then you're stuck where you are. And most of us are stuck. Which is why it pisses me off when there's an insinuation that everyone should follow his/her passion.

Oprah started this "follow your passion" thing. She doesn't have a clue about being hemmed in by your responsibilities and financial constraints.

[Graeme]

What if your passion is murder, or torture, what do you do, become an assassin?

The whole statement of "follow your passion" is premised on the idea that your passion is benign.

What if it isn't?

I have thought for decades that the whole concept was just so much effing garbage precisely because it was so effing naive.

[J.N.]

Remove the absolutism that religion provides, and "good" and "bad" become simple shades of gray, at best separated by minor tonal variations.

Nonetheless... to Oprah's comment... best to read between the lines. You can take a statement like, "follow your passion," and transform it into something like the following statement, accounting for financial status, herd morality, etc: "follow the passions you can afford and that your community deems uplifting and good." But Oprah would never say that since she's a 1-percenter. The backlash might give her a Paula Dean-esque plunge.

Coincidence that studies show that most 1-percenters are borderline psychopaths, often behaving like crooks or robber-barons? Suddenly murder seems like a mundane everyday task to thin the ranks of the seething barbarians rushing toward the gates of your posh, isolated manor.

(Not that I live in a manor, have a gate of any kind, or a shiny penny to bury in the flower garden to keep The Man from stealing it...)

Paranoia can be so fun sometimes.

[Nik]

'Passion' is for dudes with sanguine temperament and where can reserved types like me find one? -:)
However, isn't writing a passion for many here, which they do follow despite any setbacks?

[Graeme]

I have several passions, writing is one of them. I control some passions with cages of adamantine will to avoid bloodshed and incarceration. ...

[Nik]

-:)

[Scout]

Well said, Graeme.

[Daniel J.]

Graeme wrote: "I have several passions..."

This is an excellent point that the "follow your passion" mentality ignores, though perhaps not intentionally. Most people have several things they are passionate about.

While it's (probably) important to distinguish between passion and hobby, I can imagine that people have given up some genuine passions under the misguided belief that life only allows for one passion.

[Nat]

I feel like it's the Golden Ticket that some people aim for and when they don't achieve it, always feel like they've failed. I see plenty of people give up good jobs to 'find their passion' because the job was boring to them. But hey, good paycheck, benefits and a retirement plan are good enough for me! Then I can do my passion as a hobby and not let it feel like a job.

[Nik]

Hope you break through, Tim

[Graeme]

Daniel J. wrote: "Graeme wrote: "I have several passions..."

This is an excellent point that the "follow your passion" mentality ignores, though perhaps not intentionally. Most people have several things they are p..."

Hi Daniel, I definently believe anyone can follow multiple passions - (as long as they are not mutually exclusive - that would be a bit problematic...)