Passion Is…
When I was in college, I changed my major five times, all because I couldn’t make up my dang mind. It had nothing to do with the kind of career that I wanted to have or the degree I wanted to graduate with. It wasn’t even because I was weighing my options, trying to figure out what would make me the most money. No. It was because of one single question: what am I passionate about.
It’s a question we’ve all asked or will ask at one point in our life. And for a good reason. We’ve grown up in a world that tells us that if we find what we’re most passionate about, we will never have to work a day. Find what you love and let it kill you. We get sold this idea of passion like it’s this incredible drug, and if we can just find that one thing:
that one thing that fulfills us
that satisfies us
that we were made to do
that makes us happy
If we find it, we are gonna live the good life.
We believe it because we were told it from teachers, parents, from people who said things like, “passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” that’s Oprah, by the way. If you don’t know who Oprah is, Google her later. Or, “passion is something within us that provides continual enthusiasm, focus, and energy you need to succeed.” Doesn’t that make for a great motivational poster?
I was having a conversation with one of my professors in college, talking to him about this very thing. He knew that I had changed my major so many times and justifiably had some concerns. He was asking the simple question, “why?”
I looked at him and told him, plain and simple, “I don’t know what I’m passionate about.”
He was a funny guy with some fabulous quirky mannerisms. He put a finger to his lips and said, “hmmm… passion. What do you think of when you say that?”
In return, he got the cookie-cutter answer, “I just want to find something that fulfills me. Something that makes me excited.”
Then he asked me, “have you ever heard of The Passion of the Christ?”
Now I’m kind of old, 33. I had just started college shortly after Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, came out. So, of course, I’m like, “yeah, I’ve heard of it. I went and saw it in theaters.”
“Do you know why it’s called the Passion?” He asked. I blanked. I had nothing.
Then came the roundhouse kick to the face. “Because passion isn’t just something that you are excited about. It’s something you love so much that you are willing to suffer for it.”
You see, the root word of passion is the same Latin word for something that none of us want: patience. The word is poti, and it means to suffer. Passion is not an energy drink. It’s not a Red Bull. It doesn’t look like that at all. Instead, passion looks like the cross. It’s something that we love enough to wake up every day and go to work. At times it’s going to feel like work, and at times it’s going to feel like drudgery. But, it’s the legacy worth leaving and the story worth telling. It’s about writing a better story and believing in it enough to suffer.