Don’t ration your passion
I was asked by someone last week whether I thought there were many people in procurement who were really passionate about the work they do. Her assessment was that there weren’t.
I’m not sure I’d be that quick to suggest procurement has no passionate people in it, but I know what she means and I’m sure it relates to the wider business community, too.
I might be biased because in the work I do, I get to see more of those who have lost their passion. They don’t want to feel stressed, a lack motivation or dread when they wake up in the morning. What they do want is to jump out of bed with enthusiasm for the day ahead and still have energy to spend time with family and friends.
There are many reasons we lose our passion. Some recent blogs reminded me one cause is trying to do too many of the wrong things and not enough of the right ones.
It might sound obvious, but passion in life is more easily achieved when we’re doing what we actually have passion for. If what we feel passionate about ends up being only 5 per cent of what we do, is it any wonder we start to feel demotivated?
When we do more of what are passionate about, it’s clear for all to see (and read), and others engage because of the passion. I’d suggest the recent blogs from Renata Towlson and David Atkinson are examples of this.
I know my own blogs are re-tweeted more often or receive more comments when it comes from the heart. I could strategically write a blog, but they’re not the ones that get a response. It’s the one’s where I’m following my passion – where I’m on my soapbox – that do. Why would that be any different for anything else we do? If we have passion, we’ll get more engagement from others and, unless we’re working alone on a remote island, then that’s bound to have a more positive outcome than when we’re demotivated and lacking in passion.
What do you get on your soapbox about? And what are you doing to ensure you do more of that every day?
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It’s fact that no one has passion but ambition despite whatever professions one is in. It is only when one can satisfy own ego that one can read passion.
Well said Sir!
We all have passion for a range of things that may or may not have anything to do with ego. I have passion for some particular political and societal issues (eg to be topical, abuses of power by media owners), plus for my football team etc. The issue here is about passion for work content, and about displaying the passion openly. It is a fact that some people are lucky to have roles which fit their passions well, and others don’t. In a perfect world we would all move around till we got into a role which fitted our passions, then stay there.
Someone has to do the boring jobs.
And if we enjoy the boring job that’s great – it’s just that often we put up with, or even moan about, the lack of passion when we could take action to change the situation.
Ambition is an interesting addition Felix. As ever it comes down to our own personal definition of the words we use – for me ‘ambition’ is something that motivates us by wanting something for ourselves. ‘Passion’ is the motivation we get when we achieve something for others.
So in my example ambition sometimes drives my blogs but the responses are always better when it’s been driven by passion and a desire to make a difference.