You don't need passion to be good at what you do. Believing that you need to be passionate is a load of rubbish. That's old-school thinking. It may have once been a commonly held belief but it doesn't hold water anymore.
Your level of focus and engagement on the job has nothing to do with your passion for the work. And your passion for the work should not be the lone factor in determining your ability to do the work. You can be passionate about something and totally suck at doing it. Should that take away your passion? No. But you need skills and ability before you are going to be able to do the job well. Passion without ability is dangerous. Therefore, passion really is useless and means nothing when it comes to the performance of your duties.
In fact, I might be passionate about basketball, but come on, at 5' 6" I suck at the game. I might not be passionate about cooking but I could have become a chef - I'm that good at it. I like to cook but I wouldn't say I'm passionate about it. For me, cooking is more of a relaxation exercise and a creative expression. It's my right-brain release. It's not my passion. I can enjoy it just as much when someone else cooks too.
Passion has nothing to do with your ability to be the best. If you have passion, well, good for you. But it's not necessary to do the job. You don't even have to like what you do to be exceptional at it. The attitude toward your work ethic is MORE important in developing excellence than is your passion. Your attitude toward doing the job with greatness has nothing to do with passion.
Anyone who says you have to be passionate in order to be the best is probably an old-school motivational speaker whose belt and shoes still match. What was believed 20 years ago doesn't work today.
Today, your attitude toward your results is what matters. You can like the work, be exceptional at the work, be the best at your work without being passionate about it. You simply have to be focused and engaged - not passionate.
I, instead, would counsel organizations to hire someone who is passionate about their spouse and who is also exceptionally skilled at their job. Take that passion home and use it on your spouse. People in strong relationships perform better at work anyway. People in rocky relationships are more likely to be distracted. When there's balance in life, people tend to make better decisions and get better results.
Focus, engagement and attitude - for the job. Passion - for the bedroom.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE
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2 comments:
The blur between passion and skill in terms of level of engagement and productivity can be thin. But you're right, the applied skill holds more water than pure passion.
Great post, Kevin. I really enjoyed it.
Since my military days, I have always held on to the believe, ATTITUDE is what it takes. In factr, I really don't think training can help in imparting knowledge and skill without the participant having the positive attitude of curiosity and hunger for new learning. The same principle applies to teams and why I feel off-site teambuilding exercises are a waste of resources.
Yep, we should stop misusing the word passion at work and replace it with ATTITUDE - to strike a balance between the demands of work and family. Of course, there are exceptional work places with stellar leadership like google and southwest where people feel like an extension of that "family-like" feeling of caring, teamwork, esprit de corps, respect and compassion, etc.
The same holds true with how the military works. It's based on a extended family concept. But, its a totally different ball game in the business world - you just can't make people see beyond what the money does.
I really hope the new breed of generation Y and Millenials are able to turnaround the current lopsided purpose of business.
Whatever, people should do what they enjoy and derive satisfaction most. If its cooking, then go become the best cook in the world. Life is about living this moment. The planning and journey is more important than the destination. If you give your best - with full heart and commitment, then you would have, in my book, tasted success.
Cheers,
Yuva
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