Why you shouldn’t have just one passion
Expression doesn’t have to be ‘one size fits all’
I have never had just one thing to call my passion.
From painting to writing, to singing and then videomaking, I have had various forms of expression for my life experiences. This always changes what I call ‘my passion’ from time to time. At some point, I became frustrated and thought something was wrong with me. I thought the moment I settle for just one passion, my life would become so much easier. So, is it a blessing or a curse to be extremely passionate about more than one thing?
I guess the internet has made it look like a curse. I once came across an image online that shows you how to find your one major passion based on what you like, what you love, what you can make money from, and what is valuable to other people (or at least something along those lines).
On one hand, this makes alot of sense. If one passion can meet all those criteria, thats amazing! But what if it doesnt? What if its your passion because it makes you feel happy? Or because it puts you in a state of deep thought that nothing else can?
The internet is so good as showing of people who followed their one passion until it led them to success. But what about some of us who have never been able to find and maintain just one passion?
From my experience, I want to give you four reasons why you shouldn’t have just one passion if you’re already multifaceted:
1. You may be deciding too early
This point is more relevant to you if you’re in the early years of your career, business, or otherwise.
Imagine you’ve been working for just two years, and you now feel the need to narrow all your efforts into your one passion or preferred hobby so that you can hone your one most important craft or skill and become successful faster.
This sounds nice, but on the flip side, you may be putting yourself in a box too early.
Before I left university, I decided to dump other hobbies that I had potential (songwriting, painting, singing, filmmaking) for writing. It seemed practical and I thought it would fetch me money faster. Though I wasn’t wrong about the second reason, I still wonder how things would be if I didn’t just abandon the others.
I’m not saying people should try to be successful at every single skill they have. I’m just saying don’t make a decision too early. Tey and blend your passions for as long as you can. For instance, people who have a love for cooking and also videography can create videos of their dishes for YouTube and Instagram. Before you completely dump something you’re passionate about, make sure it’s a solid decision and its not something you can blend with another passion.
should never neglect other passions just to follow one too early in life
2. You need other activities to fuel your creativity
What is a passion really, if not just one’s most preferred form of expression?
I love to write, but sometimes it gets so boring. On too many occasions, I have pushed myself to write on blank screens even when facing burnout or lacking ideas on how to start. This is a form of discipline I guess, but writing is supposed to be my passion. What was I supposed to do?
I realized I didn’t have to force my writing on some days I didn’t feel like it. I could just turn to something else to free my mind and allow more ideas to flow in. Another passion.
So, I took up painting.
Even as an amateur, painting is not easy. But at least it’s a different kind of difficult. This draws my mind away from the words of my writing to focus more on the mixture of colour and movement of my brush. It is a distraction, but because I do it more frequently, it has another role to play in my self-expression journey, just like writing.
3. You might get bored and need something else temporarily
From the last 3 months in 2021, I lost my zeal to write (burnout 1, me 0). I had to turn to painting to keep my creative mind alive, and to continue convincing myself that I was still capable of creating beautiful things, even though my writing at the time said otherwise. Taking a break from any form of creativity at that moment could have made it worse, and more difficult for me to have a comeback in my writing in January 2022.
Let’s face it; very few things in our lives follow a linear path. Think about the number one skill you have developed over the years. At some point you may have gotten tired and decided to give up for a while. Or maybe you just needed some downtime to spark a little bit of motivation.
Some of us are lucky enough that a little distraction every now and then can kill that burden or downtime. But for others, like me, it takes another hobby or skill I am passionate about to awake the motivation for the other. If you’re the second kind of person, it’s not advisable you only focus on feeding just one passion.
4. It may not be a source of good income, yet
Let’s face it, your passion may not be your first source of income.
Growing up, I was fond of a documentary series on CNN called ‘Passion to Portfolio’. Different business owners talked about how they created a successful business out of their passions, and how the journey was going. Then, I was too young to understand the nitty gritty of the struggle, but I loved the grand picture. I wanted to also turn my passion to portfolio.
Now, four years after graduating from University, I know how difficult it can be. Most of us do.
So how do we keep up with a passion that we know may not pay our bills until two years later?
Well, take something else up. And no, it does not have to be some terrible job that you hate, and you feel like quitting every day. Your job might eventually become a second passion that pays the bills.
Think of it this way: you need a clear mind to focus on your passion(s). But its difficult to focus on anything when you cannot sustain yourself financially. So see your second passion, or whatever your non-spiteful job is, as an extension of the first one. Of course, feed the first one more, but don’t neglect the second. To keep you on a steady path towards success of your main passion, you need the first as well.
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments section.
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