For years I struggled on the creative path. Going between bursts of creativity to droughts.
Feeling impassioned about my future work, to feeling like I will never make a living doing what I love.
I concluded; I didn’t have enough passion.
Passion is all you need, I heard people say… if your passionate enough they continued.
What I am starting to realize: Passion is a huge piece of the puzzle; but it is not the only piece.
Passion isn’t meant to be a constant state of “being” in love with (Said work). It isn’t supposed to be the answer, the fix all, the magic pill.
Passion will disappoint you with this kind of pressure.
Now I’m not saying you don’t need passion… Hell yes you need passion to follow your dreams.
Passion is what lights you up. Passion is a catalyst. Passion motivates. Its what gets you intrigued, gets you going and gets you coming back to your dreams over and over again.
Though if your like me, you have felt passion wane. You have felt boredom creep in, discouragement take over. It’s 100% normal.
Thats right… this doesn’t mean your not passionate about your dreams, which is what I used to think. You may be assuming passion will do a lot more of the work than it’s intended purpose. Somewhere in me believed “if I just had enough passion I would always enjoy what I was doing.” “If I just had enough passion I would already be successful.”
Successful people get bored. Successful people tackle mundane tasks. Sometimes with wind in their sails, sometimes without.
Either way they keep going… Day by day they put in the work, with or without passion.
I didn’t really understand… it’s too simple, I thought. They have too possess something I don’t. The veil between why they were successful and I wasn’t, tore when I began to met successful people.
I made excuses of why I couldn’t achieve my dreams. They didn’t. I gave up or settled when it got too hard. They kept going. I thought it was taking too long. They were in it for the long haul.
The answer wasn’t that they had more passion than I, it’s that they were committed to the WHOLE process. That my friends is amazing news.
You don’t have to feel euphoric about your dreams all the time. Say what?! This is so damn relieving… seriously!
Take the pressure off your passion… when it wanes, and it will, don’t take it personally… stay committed…
Passion + Commitment = Dreams Coming True! The magic answer. Okay, maybe not but it’s pretty close.