The Beauty of Passion

Passion is a strong emotion, and a driving force which embodies the human spirit. It being an emotion, it resides in the heart, and serves as the fire that runs the rational and emotional machine we call the human.

Passion, like a flame, can grow and grow, and be used for a variety of different reasons; it could shield us from the dark (get us through our lowest points), heat our food and get rid of the bacteria (nurture our growth), and serve as a way to deter what may harm us (guide us through tough obstacles).

The flames of Passion also need to be tended to, for two reasons: One, so that fire can continue burning strong, and two, making sure it doesn’t grow beyond one’s control. If not watched carefully, or if we put too much fuel in the fire, it can grow out of our control, hurting other people and ourselves.

What we are passionate about is not something we can control, but how we act on that passion is what matters the most.

What Can Passion Do?

Passion is one of the stronger emotions, being able to suppress fear, anxiety, exhaustion, and pain, for the sole goal of accomplishing your passion. It is tremendously inspiring to see other people push through the most debilitating obstacles, toughing it out in order to pursue their passion. Seeing people chase their passion inspires others to pursue their own. The inner voice that commands us not to quit in difficult circumstances, is Passion, since the indomitable human spirit is known to push forward through the most towering of mountains, for that purpose of fulfilling their passion. It reminds us that there is something worth fighting for, something that exceeds in value and worth, giving meaning to our struggles, allowing us to travel through the bed of thorns and shattered glass, with a determined smile on our face.

Passion manifests itself in different forms, primarily through the need to prove oneself, the need to express oneself, and the need to help others. These, among other needs, are usually unquenchable desires that persists for the entirety of our lives, or until our flame is extinguished.

Ultimately, with Passion, it is the fuel for the motivation, and that motivation is directed toward a particular goal that we have in mind. The goal can be precise, like achieving the Gold Medal in Gymnastics at the Olympics, or general, like wanting to make art. However, the catch with passion is that one must have a goal, for if one does not have a goal, one does not have passion.

If one doesn’t have a goal, but that fire/motivation still lingers, then what would’ve been passion can corrupt into Frustration. Frustration can also occur when you have a goal in mind, but are not progressing to the goal, or have given up on it entirely.

What Is Frustration?

Frustration can lead to different roads, one of releasing energy inward, which can be called the Depressive route, or one of releasing energy outward, that being of the Anger/Aggressive route. In both cases, the extinguished passion ends up with the person welling up with unused energy, rather than using it as fuel to work towards their goals.

By releasing energy inward, one overloads oneself with so many bottled up regrets and desires that it ends up tiring out the body and mind, keeping the person in a downed state, which can be described as a Depressive state. It would be like running a machine with no exhaust or coolant; all that heat that builds up in the machine starts to overheat it from within, and ends up with the engine running slow or faulty.

By releasing energy outward, the person does not control the flow of energy, which ends up coming out as a reckless cascade of uncontrolled motions, existing in a dangerous state to oneself and others, which can be described as an Aggressive state. This would be like a machine that has an exhaust with no coolant, with steam covering the machine all around, the hot steam being dangerous for the machine and anything around it.

Frustration does not occur all the time, since there are people that don’t seem to have a noticeable passion to do something, usually described as someone who just “goes with the flow”. These types of people shouldn’t be described as having no passion, for their passion lies in just living and experiencing life, seeing what it has to offer.

Is Too Much Passion a Bad Thing?

Just like all things, too much is just as bad as too little; aiming for the virtuous middle is what should be done in all cases. This is especially true with Passion, as on the low end, it can deeply affect oneself and other people around, on the extreme end, it can also profoundly impact oneself and other people around, both negatively and positively.

Passion is strong and is fuel to usually do a particular good, however it is still an emotion, and with it being an emotion, that means that it is separate from the rational portion of the human. Not to say that emotion and reason don’t mix (they are both necessary for all things human), but if we rely on passion too much, and don’t give ourselves room for thought, one can find oneself in a precarious situation.

For example, a young entrepreneur who is eager to take the world in their hands, and make it a better place, might want to start a business, selling a service that helps people sort their savings better. In the process, however, he finds that to grow his business, and help more people, he needs more money. He finds that with his older clients, they only remember an estimate of their total savings, and not their exact total. He wants to gain more money, and figures that they wouldn’t really care about an extra fee, which wouldn’t take that much money. Over time, that hidden fee grows larger and larger, taking a bigger chunk out of people’s savings, to the point where people start to notice, and condemn him for stealing money.

Another example would be of an upcoming writer, who really wants to get her book published. She has tremendous talent, and deeply loves writing to its core, but doesn’t really know how to get her stories out there. A publishing company she’s never heard of before reaches out to her, and promises to take care of marketing, being put in bookstores, and to answer any questions for her for one of her novels. The one thing they ask is to have copyrights to the book. She rushes on signing off the contract, thinking about how her work is finally going to be out there. Over a few weeks following publication, she doesn’t see any buzz relating to the book, and worryingly tries to contact the company. She gets no response, and realizes that she signed off on the company having the entire copyrights to the books, and not just the publishing rights. She could get a lawyer and hopefully get rights to her book back, but that is both money, time, and passion wasted.

In both of these situations, the person let passion take the wheel, which led them crashing into an iceberg that could’ve been avoided, only if they would’ve given it more thought.

To Wrap It All Up…

Passion is an amazing thing, and at its best, is a driving force that lends strength to the weak, motivates people into achieving their goals, and shapes people into the best form of themselves. At its worst, it can ruin people, and make them blind to the dangers in front of them. The beauty of Passion truly shows itself when the person knows how to use passion, and knows that it is fuel to achieve one’s dreams, and not something one should follow blindly, or without thought.

It is the human with Passion that achieves a dream, not just Passion alone, but a human without Passion leaves that dream to rot.

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