Passion

Author: Anu Karthik / Labels: ,

March 1st 2010

I have already written about this emotion earlier. But this post is focused on a different meaning of passion. It is focused on 'a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything'. I talk about the passion that Rancho lives by in the movie '3 idiots'

After V, watching movies is a luxury and we allowed ourselves that when we watched 3 movies back to back on 3 nights a couple of weekends ago in the wee hours of the morning as he slept. The only noteworthy one was this . A totally feel good movie that made me want some more. I fell in love despite trying not to with Rancho and his passion and zeal for what he did. I could empathize with the characters of Raju and Farhan because much as we would all like to be Ranchos the reality is that we live in the shoes of Raju and Farhan with a dash of Rancho if we are lucky :P And that is where this  post is headed.

If we really think about where we are in our careers and in our lives in general, it would be a place reached with a path taken that was based on a lot of planning, analysis and practicality. The trick is in understanding how much of an ingredient 'passion' was in that mix. If it was not, then have you learnt to be passionate about what you have ended up with? If the answer to both part a) and b) is a clear NO then I am willing to bet that you are unhappy many times and are constantly searching for ways to enrich your life. Do I sound a bit like Dr. Phil, believe me I am not trying to.

At one of the workshops at work, I came across this session I took where they asked us to take the Passion Test. It involved writing down things that you are passionate about and would do in an ideal situation and things you are doing with your current life or situation. And wonder of wonders those who were happy were those who were doing what they were passionate about at least to some extent.  If you end up with 2 different lists totally and there is no mesh between what you would ideally be doing and what you are doing everyday, how can you be happy?


In another instance, in a career development workshop, there was a discussion about how trying to be in a place where your talents, passions and work match is key to a person being successful in his/her job. Same deal, there too.



And I sat there thinking..how come no one ever taught this day 1 in school or in college even for that matter. Well, if your passion is to be a snake charmer then that might need some revisiting, but even then you could try to pursue it as a hobby, right?


Anyway, in my own personal experience I have found that I work well when I do things I am passionate about.  Even if I have to do something I don't like, I try to offset it by doing other things that I care about. So end result is that one is still happy.


Life is too short to waste, so go on and discover your passions and try to make it happen.

5 comments:

MaySan said...

Anu, you nicely put it. But, I am yet to figure out, what my passions are.

Meera said...

In an ideal world, work and passion would intersect, but in our mundane lives it still is a goal to strive for...
But like you aptly put, balancing life with things you are passionate about is the key.
Another post: Things you are passionate about :):)

Anu Karthik said...

@ mayur: you are one of the happiest person I know, always cheerful. so maybe you are doing what you like without knowing it?
@ meera: doesn't that suck? my ideal life would be pursuing my hobbies full time and getting paid for that. That and a movie with Surya won't hurt :D

Santhanam said...

very nice article anu. nice venn diagram.so, we can say there are 3 types
of people. (A) people who are able to realize these three in them, they are blissful. (B) People who dont even know
these exist in them and still remain blissful. These are the ones that qualify for "Ignorance is bliss". These two are just two extremes. So, in a perfectly "normal" world,almost 95% of the "population" lie in the third category (C) where they are still striving to find talent, passion and what they do. Thats normal distribution of God and he has designed it this way for our this birth.(A) and (B) are outlier points. (C) is inside normal band.

Ms.N said...

you know - sometimes, I think you could just get bored in what ever it is you do - if you've been doing it for a while. So, may be the idea then is - to not make your passion your "work", then you ruin it! Or may be, it is just me!

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