Is finding your passion bullshit?
People always say that if you "find your passion you'll never work a day in your life"
Well, it's not all realistic
They say if you're passionate about something, you won't need discipline or motivation, and that consistency will come easily.
Honestly, that's bullshit
Even when you're passionate, there will be days you don't feel like doing shit, and yes, working can still be a grind. There are days when I just don't want to do anything on my side project.
This is where discipline and consistency play a crucial role.
I've personally had a tough time staying disciplined over the years, like many people.
So many people ditch their diets, sideline their side projects, or drop their New Year’s resolutions.
While building my side project emailemu.com, here are a few strategies that have helped me stay disciplined and consistent:
1. Craft an effective morning routine.
My routine is to wake up, shower, hydrate with electrolytes, read, have coffee, then work. Maybe for you, it’s starting your day with hot lemon tea and honey to get mentally prepared, or a swift morning movement…...if ya catch my drift. Find what kick-starts your day right.
2. Seek a creatively stimulating environment.
I need to switch up my surroundings to stay inspired. Sometimes that means working from coffee shops instead of being stuck at the same desk. It’s my living hell to be chained to the same desk all day. A change of scenery helps so much.
3. Do something daily.
Keeping the momentum going can be as simple as doing one small thing every day, no matter how minor it may seem.
4. Build a habit.
Initially, consistency was a struggle for me. I began by setting small, daily goals and holding myself accountable. Sticking to this for 60 days helped me turn my efforts into a habit. Eventually, working on my projects felt as natural as any routine part of my day. Like as second nature as the kids and their vapes.
5. Get comfortable with saying no.
This was tough. I started turning down more social invites to focus on my goals. It's not that I stopped having fun; I just prioritized my time differently. I started to seek that same endorphin rush that entertainment provided through accomplishing hard things.
- Does anyone else relate to these tactics?
- What things have worked for you?
- Did I miss anything or do you disagree?
I agree with you, I understood the importance of not relying on motivation when I first read atomic habits. Motivation just sucks because humans aren't machines, our cycle of energy and motivation varies throughout the day and week, so sometimes it's necessary to just plan head, instead of relying on your fickle behavior.
Also I realized that to stop procrastination you need to stop filling your time with non-crucial activities and add a painful negative consequence to procrastination.
Very true. I think after you build a habit it actually takes so much less energy to work on something when you don't want to. It's the process of getting there that makes it the most challenging.
It's fine to rely on discipline and structure, have personally done so most of my life, but I think it's orthogonal to finding passion.
Passion is really a function of both inspiration and success. Passion, or conviction, is a result of seeing your own success and the sense of your agency as a conduit for the things you are inspired by. Of creating good things in the world.
I like that "function of both inspiration and success" I feel like that is very true. You can deff work on something so much that you start to become passionate about it, even if you hadn't before just by putting in work.
I mostly agree here and I think your five strategies are on the money. I think I wouldn’t be so quick to dunk on “finding your passion” as long as you have some guard rails up e.g. your 5 tips. I think you can learn some interesting things about yourself and hopefully your work by pursuing that to some degree. But yeah, I still mostly agree, there will be drudgery even in things you’re passionate about.
Ya I think the hardest part of it all is finding what starts to feel like fun takes a while for a lot of people. That's where finding your passion can sometimes feel unrealistic.
I don't agree with "find your passion you'll never work a day in your life". Yes it is hard sometimes finding your passion but should we seek for it to just to stop working? No, I don't think so. I believe that passion is the motivation, and as you say, discipline is the way to be successful. But at the end, I believe that I'm gonna look for another passion to work for :)
You are right, thanks for your post Wyatt.
Ya! I don't think we should stop trying to find it, but I think for many folks it takes way longer than they think.
Like for me I have found I am passionate about building things and trying to solve the problems along the way. Even if a specific problem area isn't my passion its the part of building a business that is fun.
Completely agree. The hobby part resonates strongly with me. Even I struggle to be consistent.
I had trouble with being consistent for a while and I really think that #3 helped me alot.
In addition as a bonus, I found that reading a little bit every day helped me to get in the practice of chunking away at a large task that takes a while.