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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE | PRODUCTIVITY | SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Why Your Passion Isn’t Enough
The Hard Truth About Following Your Dreams
Everywhere we look, we are told, “Follow your dreams.” Chase your passions.
Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life.
What a seductive picture it paints: that success is easy and only needs some burning desire.
But while passion is an undoubtable ingredient, it is dangerous to oversimplify it and think that it is all that is required.
Passion is just one piece of the puzzle that helps you pay your bills, get past hurdles, and find the path to expertise. It is the ignition, the trigger for the engine, but it doesn’t make the engine run.
This is something I learned quite painfully.
The thought of being a full-time writer, a photographer, a sustainable fashion designer — this whole list — played in and out of my mind for years.
I was passionate about it.
I read everything I could find, practicing my craft religiously and envisioning a place where I was living out my dream every single day.