Passion helps us rise past many hurdles and shortcomings in life. But why is passion a counterintuitive approach to hard work? What do you think about it? Let’s find out.s
“Do you work hard?”
“Are you a diligent worker utilizing everything you have to complete the task on time?”
It turns out, that very few of us are. I remember being a little jealous of people who were very hardworking and sincere since my childhood. I was so amazed by their consistency that I tried to be hardworking myself.
However, to my dismay, I couldn’t focus on things that didn’t stimulate my mind. I craved excitement, enthusiasm, and novel things to learn out of nowhere, whether I found them in books or not.
My search eventually led me to a blogging and writing platform where I could share my new and exciting ideas with the world. I felt something drove me to this side of life, where I could see everything through my own eyes.
It was the passion of writing and making people understand things about different facets of life. My interest in the field of psychology and neuroscience has helped me survive the toughest times as a writer and blogger.
But, passion is not like hard work, right? There are differences in the ways both approach circumstances.
So, “Why is passion a counterintuitive approach to hard work?”
Let’s find out.
Why is passion so addictive to humankind?
If you think people are obsessed with hard work, then you are not thinking right. Hard work is a priority in everything. Whether you want to be a roadside painter or a billionaire, everything depends on hard work.
However, passion is what people crave when they want to achieve something. Now we all dream about something in life. It can be to have lots of money, fame, and power, or even as simple as having a decent and loving family.
Our deepest well of emotions stimulates our desires and dreams. When these get stronger, they assume the form of passion that can stroke the inner flames of ambition to impart us with will and energy, so we can work towards a well-defined path.
So, here are 3 reasons why is passion so addictive to humankind.
1. Passion is the beginning of all that matters:
“What is it like when you feel a constant need for something?”
You feel kind of hungry, right?
That is what happens when we need something or when we have to protect something of ours. It is a passion that makes us an achiever and a protector of things we seek in our life.
Now, everyone has different needs. We seek to love, respect, prosperity, luck, etc. But we seek these things because they matter to us, and without them, our life would be shallow or empty.
Passion is the beginning of all that is important to us and helps us seek them out and protect them at all costs.
2. Passion is far too intense to ignore:
“Is it possible to ignore depression and anxiety?”
No, it isn’t. Every time you try to ignore it, it becomes even more intense and overwhelming. Likewise, ignoring our passionate feelings towards things in life is impossible.
At some point, these feelings will force us to deal with them. The thing is whether we choose to suffer by suppressing them, or we utilize them to achieve what we dream of achieving.
In other words, if you think you can ignore passion, then you might end up in trouble with your emotions.
3. Passion influences our satisfaction with the situations:
We are not always satisfied with the things we possess. Our degree of satisfaction is heavily influenced by emotions, which at some point, affect our passion for things we have.
For instance, a common man might not feel satisfied with his mundane life. He wants adventure and thrill which he tries to seek every time but isn’t enough for him. So, he ultimately decides to do something about it and focus on things he wants to do or is passionate about.
Situations impact our dreams. Dreams influence our ambitions and ambitions trigger our inner passion.
So, here are 3 reasons why is passion so addictive to us.
Now, let us find out why is passion a counterintuitive approach to hard work.
Why is passion a counterintuitive approach to hard work?
Now then, let’s discuss whether passion has anything to do with hard work or not. For a long time, I was thinking about my interests and hobbies and concluded that I am not hardworking.
For instance, I like to work hard enough for what I love to do, but that doesn’t mean I am willing to work towards everything with the same dedication. In other words, I am too selective to be hardworking.
What we think is that passion is the source of hard work. Well, not that it is impossible, but most of the time, will power and determination are the sources of hard work and sincerity.
So, “why is passion a counterintuitive approach to hard work?”
Well, I guess it is. However, it is up to individual interpretation. Still, here are 6 reasons why I think it is:
1. Passion has a lot to do with how one carries himself, hard work does not:
Let’s recall what we previously said about desires and ambitions. Passion is the ultimate result of heightened desires and ambitions that motivate us to achieve things seemingly beyond our potential.
But that is not all. Passion has a lot to do with how one carries himself around the world. It is the capacity to be true to our aims and goals no matter what. For this reason, authenticity is related to passion to a certain degree.
Passion also makes a person quite individualistic and stoic as compared to a hard-working person who, at times, can come off as too agreeable.
2. Passion influences our self-reflective and developmental nature, and hard work influences our attitude and personality:
It might not seem obvious, but passion has a lot to do with one’s ability to self-reflect in a particular situation. When we are in touch with ourselves, our passionate feelings grow to a great extent.
It’s more of a belief than purposelessly doing something. Hard work, on the other hand, isn’t a belief but a tendency that depends on an individual’s attitude and personality than subjective feelings.
Nevertheless, both passion and hard work help us to reach the same goal in different ways.
3. Passion makes us selective of things, and hard work makes us considerate:
Being selective is a trait of a passionate person. No one has ever done something irrelevant out of passion. A passionate person is like a compass to a perfectly valued system of thoughts. In other words, he filters out the things that are not important to him.
But the hard-working person is far too considerate to be selective of things in life. More than anything, he accumulates things that can help him achieve his goal with willpower and determination.
That doesn’t mean being selective is a weakness or something. It is a clever approach to dealing with time-consuming aspects.
4. Passion makes us resourceful and efficient, and hard work makes us accurate and precise:
Resourcefulness and efficiency are some of the traits passion provides us with. In other words, a passionate person knows how he has to reach a goal with minimum resources and time.
On the other hand, a hard-working person is generous with his time as well as resources. He is most likely to spend his time utilizing things that would increase his accuracy and precision in the long run.
Being passionate has nothing to do with becoming a better individual. Both passionate and hard-working people are good enough to achieve great things in life.
5. Passion is spontaneous and intense, and hard work is consistent and perseverant:
Passion is largely spontaneous as well as intense. It has nothing to do with steadiness. Hard work is the one where a person is more likely to be consistent and perseverant.
Sometimes, when a person is quite unhealthy, passion acts as a spontaneous burst of energy that immediately energizes the person but also exhausts him quickly. While a hard-working person under unhealthy conditions is too slow and one-dimensional to achieve anything.
Now, that doesn’t mean passion is flawed and hard work is boring. Just that both can be detrimental if used under unhealthy conditions.
6. Lastly, passion is driven by purpose, and hard work is driven by results:
Purpose is the ultimate driving force behind the passion. Some of the passionate people around the planet value the presence of a purpose and its significance to motivate us toward a goal.
However, objective results are the ultimate driving force behind hard work. Some of the most hard-working people have stressed the importance of results in motivating towards a goal.
A passionate person is in search of inner harmony, which manifests as purpose, while a hard-working person is in search of communal acceptance, which manifests as results.
Final Words:
To sum up, passion is a counterintuitive approach to hard work. But lately, we confuse passion with hard work and vice versa. Even though passion and hard work both end up at the same destination, their paths are completely different.
The above reasons shed a good light on the differences between passion and hard work and how both influence people and their lives.