Today I would like to dedicate myself to passion, as I keep seeing people throw in the towel prematurely because they believe that their current job is not a „calling“. In the same way, I know people who have inwardly „resigned“ and are only „present“ in their job and only look to others for the reasons for this state of affairs.
Is passion a permanent state and do you only feel passion in a single area? I don’t think so.
When do I feel passion?
When I’m working with great intensity. When I enjoy doing something because I am highly interested in it, and ideally I am also good at it. When I see added value because the topic is important to me, because it makes sense…
When I am at one with myself, when I am in the flow.
I like to remember the example of the Pike Place fish market in Seattle: the fishmongers had decided to give their customers a unique shopping experience and every visitor can feel how much they enjoy their work. About their four maxims[i]
- Choose your attitude („… as someone who is world famous, you will act very differently“)
- Play (How can we have more fun and get energized?)
- Make others happy (Who are our customers and how can we make their day? How can we make each other’s day?) and
- Be present (the fishmongers are at work with all their heart and attention)
even wrote the management bestseller Fish!
This example shows that it doesn’t matter what job you do, you can decide for yourself how you want to do it and how you want to feel about it (the fishmongers wanted to have fun doing their job).
Similarly, the careers advice service matchrs impressively describes four stages on its website of how to move from interest to passion and that there is a long road in between and that perseverance is worthwhile. Not even the interest has to be firmly anchored in the person, as research shows.
Where are the challanges for me and how do I deal with them?
My biggest challenge is that – apart from my family – I have several interests that I would like to pursue passionately.
I’ve had a soft spot for real estate since I was a little boy visiting my uncle and aunt in Chicago with my family and I was able to look down from the Sears Tower – the tallest building in the world at the time – and see the sea of skyscrapers below me.
I also have a soft spot for successful teamwork, ever since I experienced in the Scouts what you can achieve together with teamwork that an individual can only dream of.
So there are (at least) two hearts beating in my chest, which I always try to unite in my job, including my current role as First Mayor of my home town of Weinheim. It works particularly well here, but I have also combined my social passion with my technical passion in my previous jobs.
Food for thought for children
While I loved to build and paint skyscrapers as a child, my son loves to build and paint airplanes and ships and dreams of becoming a pilot or aircraft builder. We try to encourage these interests, be it through visits to the technology museum, the airport or the water, so that they can develop into passions.
My wife and me don’t care whether our son does an apprenticeship or goes to university, the main thing is that he finds his passion(s), and we want to support him in this.
We encourage his autonomy in pursuing his interests and at the same time show him places where he can feel the enthusiasm of other people who are passionate about their interests. When the spark is ignited, new interests arise for him.
[i] Fish! Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and Hohn Christensen (2003, 15th edition) Mosaik bei Goldmann