Stop following your passion!
The Mid-Week Energy Boost #24 - Read Time: 4 Minutes
The allure of social media lies in the promotion of a culture where everything is possible and anything can be achieved - conveniently proven by the highly polished highlight reels, pictures of sports cars and lavish lifestyle stories of influencers.
The only thing standing between you and your dream life is ‘following your passion’ and monetising it - and the blueprint for this can be purchased for just £97.
Cruel Optimism
With this approach, cruel optimism has become the new currency creator.
Cruel optimism, a term coined by Johann Hari, describes;
‘when you take a really big problem with deep causes in our culture and you offer people, in upbeat language, a simplistic individual solution. It sounds optimistic, because you are telling them that the problem can be solved, and soon - but it is, in fact, cruel because the solution you are offering is so limited, and so blind to the deeper causes, that for most people, it will fail.’
(Johann Hari)
Worse yet, when the solution does fail, which is inevitably the case for 98%+ of users, the individual blames themselves and not the system, creating further anxiety.
The consequences of these sales tactics have been disastrous, with many leaving well paid careers to set up that yoga studio, gym or mentoring service, only to find that they are not only significantly worse off financially but also unhappier than before.
Psychologists would argue that the reason for this lies in the fact that most humans find it hard to predict what tasks will bring them a sense of fulfilment and meaning before undertaking the task.
How do we create meaning?
Ira Glass, when describing his journey to becoming a radio sensation, emphasised the importance of hard work - the adherence to the daily process of getting better every day. He highlighted the importance of moving from theory to practice and trialling many of the things we think we may enjoy.
‘I feel like your problem is that you’re trying to judge all things in the abstract before you do them. That is your tragic mistake’.
(Ira Glass)
In juxtaposition to the dreams that social media and current culture sell, the data suggest that it is hard to predict in advance what you’ll eventually grow to love.
Self-Determination Theory also suggests that for intrinsic motivation to flourish, in the workplace or elsewhere, that three basic psychological needs must be met:
Autonomy - the feeling you have control over your day, and that your actions are important
Competence - the feeling that you are good at what you do
Relatedness - the feeling of connection to other people
As a result fulfilment lies in:
- building enough career capital that you will be granted the autonomy to undertake crucial company tasks,
- putting in enough reps to reach total competency in you chosen endeavour
- spending enough time in the sector to build strong teams and a tight network
Building a meaningful and fulfilling career, is rarely a linear process. Our course, interests and trajectory adjust over time depending on the market, the influences of our team and network and the opportunities that arise from being highly competent.
These changes in trajectory are rarely ‘all in’ decisions, but tend to be conservative, considered and carefully calculated changes in direction, monitored and assessed by feedback.
In contrast to leaving employment to become a yoga instructor, a cloud tech professional may undertake a course in cyber security part time, before taking on some small projects in the sphere to assess her interest in the area, the current market opportunities and the strength of her network in this field.
Using this feedback, she will course correct creating more autonomy, competence, relatedness and ultimately more contentment.
Cal Newport (2012) reminds us that if following your passion was the recipe to health, wealth and happiness, that we’d be there already. Unsurprisingly, like most wonderful things in life:
‘Compelling careers often have complex origins that reject the simple idea that all you have to do is follow your passion’
(Cal Newport)