Passionless & Scattered?

"Don't let the search for one searing passion force you to miss out on the 20 things you can love." - James Altucher

If you follow me at all on Facebook you may have seen me post some of James Altucher's blog posts. I love his brutal and vulnerable honesty. I just read another of his posts and since he mentions a bit about passion, and I have a whole interview series (The Inspire-view Series™) around living a passionate life, I thought I expand on this a tad.

Here is an excerpt from James's newsletter dated June 30, 2015 titled "You Just Suck, Admit It."

I HAVE NO PASSION FOR ANYTHING

Every few months I seem to have a new thing I am passionate about.

I don't know anybody in history who has been passionate about the same thing for their entire careers.

Often the key to success is to build upon multiple passions to create something nobody has ever seen before.

I get interested in one thing and I will obsess on it and read, watch, study everything about it for two weeks, three months, maybe a year or so.

Sometimes it's another person. Sometimes it's a game. Sometimes it's work.

And then it's over. Then I get bored and move on.

People say, "I still haven't found the ONE thing I have been put on this Earth to do."

Who put you on this Earth? Why did they pick you to do that ONE thing?

"I'm special," people say. One person out of seven billion. One organism out of ten trillion. Blah!

We live in a great time where we can explore many passions.

There's a story about an ad agency that got a new big client. The boss said, "I want everyone to come up with ONE great idea."

The boss left and came back an hour later. Nobody had any ideas.

He said, "ok, I want everyone to come up with 20 ideas!" Within an hour everyone had 20 ideas.

Don't let the search for one searing passion force you to miss out on the 20 things you can love.

How true is that?! I think too many people may believe you have to find ONE thing that you are passionate about. Personally, as I mentioned in a previous post, I find that I can go full steam ahead at something for awhile and then it fizzles out. Much like James mentions in the excerpt above.

I feel that all the things we are passionate about, even if just for a short time, can be blended into something new at some point in our life. A new hobby, a new adventure, a new business, who knows where it can lead?! So I totally agree. Explore the things that interest you. Get PASSIONATE about some of them! Explore all the ins and outs and see where it leads. You many be inherently good at something like organizing, editing, web building, cleaning, or entertaining for example. Once you explore "20 other things you can love" you may just find that what you are brilliant at can be woven into one or more of the things you love and then you can create something NEW to be passionate about! It may even lead to a new business!

Have fun and explore! Take advantage of opportunities that come up. You never know where that road will take you.