Indifference is as Important as Passion

Here’s my confession: I have a love-hate affair with the word “passion.”

As in “find your passion.” Or doing what you love (passion) and the money will follow. Or even great new media companies wanting to see passion in your work (I didn’t really write that, b5media…really…).

I’ve gone through iterations with passion:

• passion as an emotion that is not sustainable
• passion as compulsion: how long before you MUST take a shower?
• passion as discipline
• passion as something that can’t be systematically found nor measured

I’ve even coined an appropriate quote about passion based upon a comment from one of my readers on a different blog:

Passion less discipline equals unrealized dreams. Discipline less passion equals drudgery.

Bob Sutton hits my next iteration around passion: indifference is as important as passion.

Finally, we get to see some balance around why other abused character traits (such as indifference) can really contribute to your passionate performance.

It’s a cool article and well worth the read. And a hat tip to Ann Michael at Manage to Change for finding this gold nugget before I did.

How do you know your passion?