Why You Should Probably Stop Follow Your Passion

Kind of strange title for a blog which aims at motivating people to learn, isn't it?

But I really think that passion is not moving people forward much. Passion is unstable and inconsistent. It can be helpful on first steps but after that, it leaves you with yourself.

What Is Passion

To avoid any misunderstanding I want to define what I mean when I say "passion".

I personally, see passion as an imaginary friend that I think will do much of the work with me. When you just starting out, it's really great to have that one friend because you think that you can move heaven and earth. But with time passion leaves and you don't feel like doing anything you started with it.

Look at this as walking with someone arm-in-arm. You two maybe want to move with different speed, but often this speed defined by the slowest one. And it's sad to admit, but passion is slowing down every day, and one day it just stops.

But how to overcome this? How to keep you doing what you was so passionate about? I think there is an answer.

Stop Follow Your Passion

I think that by just blindly following your passion you will not get valuable results and will be disappointed in what you were passionate about.

I'm talking about it because I know it firsthand. I have plenty unfinished projects that I was passionate about. All of them now just are gathering dust and I think I'll never go back to them.

Yes, you should just stop it. But it doesn't mean that you should stop doing what you were doing. No, but you should stop relying on that imaginary friend. 

I think that habit of relying on someone else comes from our childhood when parents supply us with all the necessary things, such as food, clothes, a roof over your head etc. And despite that we are grown up, independent people that habit remains. 

And as every habit, it's possible to give it up. Let's consider how.

Giving Passion Up

Subconsciously we want work to do it itself (or the passion imaginary friend will do it). We concentrating on the result but always ignore the process. 

The process is the main part of success!

It's important to realise where you want to come, but you can't get anything done without doing it.

In this terms, Shia LaBeouf is absolutely right. Just DO IT!

Many people experiencing "lack of motivation" because this motivation is all they had. They went all in with this motivation and lost.

You should have something else besides motivation/passion. 

I think that the best thing you can have is routine that you keep up no matter what. With routine things become easier.

And the most suitable time to build your routine around something is when you most passionate about it. 

You (probably) brush your teeth every morning and every evening. Do you need to be motivated to brush your teeth? I think no. It's just your routine and you do it no matter what.

You should extrapolate this approach to other things you doing. Especially ones you want to succeed in. 

Define hours when you code, hours when you learn new things, hours when you eat and even hours when you sleep.

After that even if your motivation is gone you left with your schedule that will help you to reach your goal.

For Example

This is my personal schedule. Seems little bit scary. But it's flexible can change depending on what I want to achieve and my university schedule. (Kanbanflow is the software that helps me to track my tasks)

Now, consider this blog when I was just starting out (actually, I am just starting out), I defined that I will write a post every week on and publish it by 2 p.m. on Sundays. It's my 9th post (not counting Hello World post). In march 2017 I'll have 48 posts and the year after that I'll have 96 posts, 192 posts in 4 years etc. 

No matter how motivated to write I was on Sundays. With time, I will have a big blog with much content to read. And I will get all the benefits of blogging.

These benefits (especially for a software developer) and ways to get them you can find in free email course How To Create Blog That Boosts Your Career made by John Sonmez author of Simple Programmer blog. Many ideas I've got from his book Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual and encourage you to read it too.

Summary

Passion is a great kick starter, but it can't be used as a fuel. 

Great fuel is the discipline. 

Discipline is the thing that will push you forward from milestone to milestone. And moving from milestone to milestone you will acquire new passion for starting something new.

Discipline is the basement for growth. And in our constantly changing world growth is crucial even if you want to stay put.

So go ahead, build your schedule and make your success closer every day. No one will do it for you.

See you next week, peace!