Where Does Passion Come From?
by Muhammad on March 31, 2009
in Uncategorized
“Every decision you make – every decision – is not a decision about what to do. It’s a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do.”
- Neale Donald Walsch
I was just wondering… What makes people move and act towards their goals and aspirations?what drives their motivation to do the things they love? What makes them love what they’re doing? And by that I don’t mean their jobs, I mean the things which make them smile and where they lose track of time and place and just… be.
I’m still trying to figure out what really drives me. I know I like a whole lot of things, but essentially I think I love knowledge and particularly useful knowledge, not trivia or useless knowledge which won’t benefit anyone. That’s one thing that keeps me going, striving for more and better things.
My question is… where does that come from? Is it genetic? Do we learn it from our parents, relatives and friends as we’re growing up? Is it inherent or learned? Do we just try everythign we can when we’re little in order to stumble across that one thing which makes our hearts sing and suddenly we’re wondering what we were doing with our lives when we could’ve been doing… THIS.
Technorati Tags: Passion, Motivation, Where
Hi, I came across your blog by accident, but I find this piece very interesting, I doubt I will add anything of value, but I thought I would comment anyway as there is a lot of relevance to me.
I own a branding consultancy based in London and Dubai and my life seems to be based around exploration, I’m obsessed with it. From my day job as a designer/CD to my evenings playing guitar. In fact I have never learned to read music as I have no intention of learning what other people have produced, only what I can find myself. I have no interest in TV or mundane facts, I like nature programs and things like that but dislike soaps, although the misses forces me to watch them far too often.
As a result I score highly in general IQ tests but am abysmal at general knowledge quizzes. I seem to make friends with people who have passion, but find it harder to socialize with people who don’t seem to have a passion for anything.
Regarding your question, I think it is about many things, my farther is passionate and as a result very creative, he plays many musical instruments, loves to draw and has natural talent etc, yet never learnt to read music or went to art school. My uncle was an amazing artist too, so I think it is definitely partly genetic. But then again most of my life I have had some very big influences, and as a person I tend to look for the depth of things. I’m not sure if it is some kind of spirituality (sorry if that sounds naff), but I there seems to be so many people who are happy to go about there lives blindly, never contributing, just drawing from it.
I am also often looking for answers, not obsessively, but I do read the occasional book, hence recognising the paragraph above by Neale Walsch, an interesting book, and although I’m not ‘convinced’ by his ideas, it did have an effect on my life.
Anyway, I suppose what I am saying here, in a very ‘self aware’ way, is that some people seem to have something burning inside, and believe that it starts from genetics and is nurtured throughout life to become something bigger. Depending how that person is influenced will depend on their individual success.
An finally, I often use two or three examples of people in life that demonstrate the difference. Steve Jobs and Richard Branson seem to me to have passion, they have an ideal, maybe an ego too, but ultimatly they wont settle for just good, they want ‘great’. Where there are people in the world who just want money, the likes of Alan Sugar. The later famous for money, the former famous for creating something more tangible.
Passion goes further and gets more respect.
I know who I would prefer to be.
Wow Joseph, what you’ve commented really resonates with me. The reason behind why I asked the question is because I’ve found where my passion lies. Being a marketer myself, I love what I do and I love working with people who have a passion for marketing but also in the end for people. Without a passion for people I believe any exercise in branding and marketing will in the long term be shallow, duplicitous pursuits to sell stuff.
I’d prefer to be on your side, any day.
Peace,
M.
Interesting. I just got your email and forgot that I had commented on the architectural blog last time, was actually not expecting a response.
But yes I must say I have a passion for so many things that it causes alot of fear in other people when I talk about it all to them. Which is the truth. It has become an eternal and obsessive endeavour. I know it sounds corny but its finding both sides to each story, wanting to learn more and more, reading as much as I can, and I feel like I am being driven to find out about as much stuff as possible. Always this ‘ok what do I need to learn now’. Funny cos I hated school, and thought it was a wasting my time. Having to learn things that suited other people not me, and finding half of it was just annoying watered down truths. I didn’t do really well at school , and the usual report was ‘ is not applying herself ‘ , so was deemed stupid. I was just bored and played up. But however I did past and did exceptionally well in Art, music and athletics and love science. University was interesting as I did psychology and design which I loved but hated the beaurcracy. The architecture gave me a spark but I didn’t follow through cos I hated the sexist attitude. I then became a fashion designer , which is cliche, but it was the problem solving thing. I love solving problems and inventing things, which I guess I inherited from my Dad. I guess the passion thing has been unleashed more in society due to more liberal perpestives on life now. It is accepted now rather than something weird or psychotic anymore. The 50′s formula for life has eased up on the expected grip, of go to school, follow the rules, get a good job in the public sector or anyother repectable job , or get married , have kids, put all your interests into your kids , retired , then died without to much fuss. There is a back lash from that utopian formality and people are wanting to be alive, and look around and take notice of what is going on and realise the propaganda they have been feed for so long which has been damaging their lives and the earth. It also is a little different recently in passionate endeavours of philosophical thinking, compared to the drug indused 70′s , to wake up to the truth of the enviromental stated humans have got the earth into. They did forsee this in the 60 and 70′s but were shot down by the captialists. My intensive passions I have been driven to find out things about have been subconsiously leading me to finding solutions and designs and health truths, which could be part of the next epoche of the earths evolutions, as we are at tipping point and things are going to change drastically, and the ones with the knowlegde will be the ones to survive and helps find solutions. I too love watching all the animal and enviromental programs on the TV, as I grew up on a farm I had an intricate relationship with all my animal buddies, which catorgorised me as strange by my family. But it is very useful and I always feel more comfortable around animals than humans and they see that too. I have trouble socialise with people who don’t have something they are passionate about or understand a greater perspective on the world. I always get to the nitty gritty of things which really annoys people as they just want to have ignorant wonder about things and randomly speculate. Hey I am all for humour , I love a quick witted joking, I feel alive when with people who have that, as few, as they are. So I have been on a journey of being driven to learn so many different things , I always taught myself things too, like the piano when I was 5, painting, making clothes, later photography, I too need to learn my own way as I found it quicker, I went to learn Yoga and realise I had been doing it subcounciously since I was 12. Then meditating, zen zazen, reiki, crystralopathy, pattern cutting, gardening,biodynamic farming, training horses, pschology, medicine, quantum physics, herbal medicine, nutition, enviromental building, animals always animals everything to do with that I am obsessed with, silversmithing, It really is ridiculous how many things I have got so passionate about, but I realise it is learning survival skills.
I understand it is an inherited gene, and epigenetics but it is also cos there is a shift in the universe about 12 years ago and the people with the frequency wired to that, are coming into their own now, feeling driven, so passionate people are brimming with energy and are searching even more for things to learns and truth to unfold. Branson is great, Attenbourgh and James lovelock too, just finished his book.
So I guess I love the chase for knowledge and learning mind bending info which wakes you up.
Great to hear others like that too.
P.