The Purpose of Passion

I want you to think about the individuals you admire. What have they done to deserve your admiration? They have often achieved something difficult. Perhaps deemed impossible or unheard of. They have managed to pick themselves up after each fall to then raise the ladder, just a bit higher, and in turn, inspire you to do the same. What you are admiring at a deep subconscious level, is not their World Guinness Record of XYZ. You’re admiring their persistence to keep going towards a goal, in the face of pain. A lot of pain.

Pain is the most real human experience. We can pretend many things. We can deny many facts. But we cannot deny pain, be it physical or psychological. If you wish to challenge this statement, please take a pin, and push it through your finger, as deep as you can, without a reaction. Ouch!

Regardless of who you are and what you have, you will, at some point, experience pain. That's life. Baking cakes is fun, as long as they don't come out of the oven as smoking black stones while your guests are waiting. Baking a really good cake may not be fun at all. It requires hours of study, moments of frustration, doubts, and boredom—checkpoints of pain.

Understand: if you are not deeply interested in baking a really good cake, you will never persist through those pain points. If you are not deeply committed to prove yourself strong and capable, you will never persist through those pain points. The purpose of your passion is to serve as the energy that pushes you through those moments of pain. Passion = Desire x Interest

The condition of our life depends on how we react to its difficulties. For many, the primary source of stability is money. Money to eat, money to heal and money to take care of someone else. Most people earn money in exchange for their time and labour. Hopefully, they do this in a manner that builds them the necessary reputation that increases their opportunities in life. However, if you have no passion or deep interest in what you’re doing, you will not have the motivation to successfully persist through all the painpoints of life. The result of this will be frequent job changes, risk aversion, and eventually a mediocre reputation that does not draw great opportunities to it. And even if it does, you will not be ready to handle it. Therefore:

Life = pain - (persistence x passion)

In other words, the more passion you have for something, the more you'll persist through its pain points. This strengthens you, brings bigger rewards, increases your pain tolerance, and consequently, makes the pain itself less significant in relation to what you can handle.