Why Follow Your Passion Is Stupid Advice

Passion is grown, not found

Image by the author.

Many of us feel like complete idiots looking for our passion. We spend years searching all over the place, but without ever finding it.

“Goddamnit! Where the heck is it? Mom?! Mooooooom?!”

No answer.

“Ugh… I guess I have to find it myself. But it has to be somewhere… I mean, everyone’s got one, right? So where the f*ck is mine? Did I misplace it? Maybe it’s hiding under the couch. Everything valuable seems to end up there…”

But you see, your passion is not like your nose, belly button, or penis (if you have one). You’re not born with a passion. And no matter how hard you look for it and how much you contort yourself into a pretzel looking deep into yourself, you’ll never exclaim “Look at that! There it is! It’s been sitting there all along!”

You don’t find your passion. You grow it.

Let me tell you a story.

My father was a writer. And he loved computers. So when I was about eight years old, I already had my very own computer. And he handed me some text editing software too.

Yaay! I thought while munching a cookie. Now I can do some writing too!