Screw finding your passion:

Hey you - back to the main discussion forum.

I know this is an old conversation. But I wasn't allowed to reply earlier, and now I actually have a point I can bring to the table.

I read your points, slowly and carefully, and I still disagree with a lot of what you say.

I don't believe there is anything accidental about the author making a living doing what he's passionate about.

I don't believe nobody can tell you what your passion is, or that someone can't help you find it, or give it to you.

And I don't believe that if you don't know what your passion is, you should screw trying to find it.

I do believe passion can be created.

My reasons for believing these things make very good sense to me. But they're just my beliefs. They mean nothing unless they're acted upon, and it's pointless to debate what's true or not true.

And if all I had were my beliefs, I would have kept them to myself and let the subject drop.

But I have something I'd like to share, because it's significant to me and I think it's pertinent to this discussion.

Back in the other thread I started, "Can passion be created?", somewhere early on in the discussion I decided I got my answer. I decided that if you want to achieve something big, you need both will power and passion.

I originally posted my question when I was in a place of frustraion and anger and sadness.

I want to achieve big things. I know to some of you this makes me sound very young, but that's probably because I've wanted to achieve the same big things since I was very young, so they are the big dreams of a young man.

But I'm not so young anymore, and the dreams are still there, and I want them as much as I ever did. More so.

About fourteen months ago, I made a decision to build the business I've wanted to for a long time, and achieve the goals I know I'm capable of.

I've tried this before and failed, so this time I decided to proceed with help. I reached out to someone on this forum who I knew could help me, and I asked for his guidance.

I've had to convince him to take me on, because I've already failed him once in the past. I joined a program of his, he gave me an assignment and I didn't do it. I wasted my time and his, and he let me know it.

But I assured him this time was different. This time, I have the time, the financial resources, and the dedication to make my project a success.

He gave me his offer, his terms, his fee and I accepted, and he accepted.

He asked me how long I thought it would take for me to accomplish my goal. I said six months.

He gave me full access to his services for a full year.

We started in August 2014.

By October 2014, I was done.

I got off to a decent start, I put out a good report pretty quickly, got good feedback and started a list... and then when it came to creating a follow-up product... dead.

I knew what I needed to do. I had a plan and knew the next step. I just refused to do it.

Some days I sat with fingers on the keyboard for two hours straight, without putting a single usable line on the screen.

Some days, I refused to even try.

Sometimes I feel I'm just too lazy, sometimes I believe overall I really did try, sometimes I think I tried too hard, and sometimes I think I just set myself up with a task too hard for me to complete.

My task is to create a wireframe for an app I want to develop. Once I complete the wireframe, I can get feedback and then hand it off to a programmer. Creating the wireframe is the task I won't finish.

My teacher continued to check in with me for several months. I assured him I was working on it, which I was, but I never had anything useful to show.

I never quit. I worked on it on and off for the past 14 months. But I never came remotely close to completing this next phase of my project.

My desire for my big goals was still with me every day. And I knew that if I would just move my project forward, I'd be on my way to where I want to be.

But I just would not do the work at the level I needed to.

I was consiously forcing myself to fail.

It was frustrating and depressing.

I wanted to know why I had to force myself to work. Why I had to even remind myself to think about my project.

The article that's the topic of this thread... While I disagree with most of it, the author presented one question which I feel leads to the best definition of passion I've heard...

"Seriously, you're awake 16 hours a day, what the f*ck do you do with your time?"

I hope he realizes that some of us have jobs that aren't necessarily our passion, and families and obligations to others.

But for all the hours we have left over (I have lots), where we can focus on, and think about and work on or do whatever we want... if that time is spent on a singular focus, that to me is passion.

I saw that movie Whiplash, and I thought to myself, "If I had just a fraction of the level of passion for my project that this kid has for playing drums, it'd be literally impossible to fail."

So I came here and asked you guys, "Can passion be created?"

I'm glad I asked.

Because as I said earlier, somewhere around post #59 I think, I came to my conclusion that passion can be created and to do so you need iron will.

My belief is that if you want to become passionate about something, you need to have the will power to fill as many of your 16 hours a day with it as possible.

My belief is that the less passion you have, the more will power you need.

As you make progress and grow and get closer to whatever your goals are, your passion will grow.

The more passion grows, the less will power you need.

If will power burns out, passion won't take hold.

If passion doesn't take hold, will power will burn out.

You need both. I believe.

Back on Oct. 19, I realized it's easy enough to find out for myself if this is true or not.

I committed to thinking about my project as many of my 16 hours a day as possible. I committed to working on my project at least an hour a day, 7 days a week, until my wireframe is done. (I wasn't looking to break any speed records, I

just wanted to make sure I would keep at it every day - and committing to only an hour a day sounded doable enough.)

I slipped a few times - I took 3 1/2 days off, and some days the work I did I consider pretty useless...

But in just over three weeks, I did finish. I finished what I wouldn't finish for the past 14 months.

A year ago, I had at my disposal the full assistance of one of the most knowledgeable and experienced marketers on this forum, whenever I wanted, and I let that opportunity die.

I wasted my time and his, again, and made an embarassment of myself to a person I admire and respect.

I threw away considerable sum of money.

I caused myself frustration and doubt and anger and sadness for over a year.

But then, I slap the label "will power" onto what I think I'm missing, and I'm able to make progress far faster than I ever would have expected.

This gives me encouragement. And reason to believe I may be right about my belief that passion can be created.

I can't say I'm passionate about my project yet. I still have to remind myself to think about it, and I still need to force myself to get to work most times. But it's getting easier.

I have every reason to believe that if I keep this going at my current pace, the project will become real and passion will definitely grow.

I believe.

We shall see.