Hi!
For the last few days I’ve been reading the book “Grit” by Angela Duckworth, the book explores the idea that passion and perseverance, rather than talent or intelligence alone, are the key factors in achieving long-term success, supporting this argument with compelling research from neuroscience and psychology.
When I was reading there was one chapter that caught my eye, it was on the topic of interests and their relation to passion.
So, in the following post, I’ll be sharing some insights about the importance of interests and passion, how they relate to one another, and how to develop your interests.
Is passion overrated?
These days one doesn’t have to look hard to find someone saying “follow your passion” as a word of advice to the people around them or on the internet.
But is this advice any good? Should people follow their passions or would it be better to fall in line with what others think you should do?
The book argues that yes, this is some good advice, but not as good as we might think so.
If we look at the research, we’ll find that when people can match their occupation with their interests, there are two definitive results
They are enormously more satisfied with their jobs and overall life
Their performance is much better.
These sound incredible, but there are some downsides to this, like the fact that we can’t always make a living doing only the things we like, or even if you want to follow your passion, where do you even start, how can you discover it?
So, I think that ”following your passion” is a good thing to strive towards in life, but we must be careful not to put this on a pedestal and think it might be a panacea
The relation between passion and interests
By now, I hope to have encouraged you to try to lean towards following your passion when making decisions, but this isn’t enough in my opinion, most of us tend to feel lost when it comes to even finding a passion, let alone pursuing it.
The author argues that our expectations might have something to do with this, because when we think of discovering a passion, most imagine it to be a single moment,
an epiphany that changes our lives forever; one moment we feel clueless as to what to do with our lives, and the next we have it all figured out.
Turns out it doesn’t work like that, even the most passionate people had a time in their life when they were oblivious to their passion,
the process of discovering it involved a lot of trial and error, and it all starts with an interest.
That is all you need in the beginning, to find something you’re interested in and try them, overtime you get a sense of what are the ones that feel better and stick with them while discarding the others.
Like finding a clue, then pulling on its thread to see how deep they go; once you’ve spent lots of time on a thread you could consider that a potential passion.
What I mean is that passions are not discovered, they are fostered.
Insights for developing your interests
Thankfully, in the book there are plenty of ideas that can help us find our way between all the confusion that comes along with trying to develop an interest into a passion, here are some of them
It takes time: The development of interests in people starts to show up by the time we are teenagers, but doesn’t just stop, it keeps going way past adulthood, and often the things that fascinate people most emerge after they’ve already spent a lot of time on a subject.
It requires action: The development doesn’t happen through introspection alone, you need to try through interactions with the outside world.
It needs repetition: After the initial discovery of something interesting, you need to take a more proactive role and follow this discovery with encounters that retrigger your interest over and over again.
It's better with others: Finding a group or community of people to share your interest with will give you an easier way to get stimulation and information on the topic, and will give you support and positive feedback that makes the process more enjoyable.
In short, passion and interests are closely related, developing a passion starts with exploring and fostering an interest. Following a passion can do wonders in someone’s life, but it's important not to overemphasize it as a cure-all solution. Time, action, repetition, and community can be key to this process. So, take the time to explore your interests, try new things, and don't be afraid to seek out others who share your passions.
-Alan