We hear people telling us all the time to ‘follow your passion’. We think of passion as some work that you are dying to to do, something that consumes you, something that you are willing to dedicate yourself to for the entire foreseeable future.
What if you don’t have a passion like that? There are many people in this world who discover their passion early in life and dedicate themselves to it. People passionate about music, dance, a sport or any other discipline. They have an unwavering commitment to that field and are willing to spend any amount of time working in that field. Works well for them.
But what if we are interested in many things but don’t really have an all-consuming passion? Some of us may dabble in many things for a short time and move on without being consumed by the field. We may pursue writing for a while, music for a while, some other hobby for a while. But we are not attached to a particular field but enjoy all of it.
There are very few people in this world with that all-engulfing passion in their life. For most people, it is not so. We are interested in many things and have varied interests in our life. This does not mean our commitment to the work we take up is lacking in any way. We will do whatever work we take up with complete dedication and sincerity but we don’t have a narrow focus for a field that some people have. It is also possible to say that we are passionate about each field for a short length of time instead of a life-time. Another possibility is that some of us may discover our life-passion late in life as we get greater exposure and experience in life.
Some people think you will achieve success only if you are passionate about one field. Real-life does not validate this notion. In fields like sports, singing, dancing, writing, acting etc the number of slots at the top is very few. For every passionate singer who is successful, there are million other equally talented and passionate singers who are struggling to make a living. Success in any endeavour has too many inputs to it. Passion is just one of them.
The world is a big place. There is space for people who are passionate and committed to one field their entire life and there is also a space for people who are not like that but have changing interest with changing time. Not having an all-consuming, lifetime passion is not a crime.