It's About Learning

Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion. Simon Sinek

This quote from Sinek is so timely. My oldest son Levi is working hard at becoming a professional Down Hill mountain bike racer and part of his quest is developing a net presence which includes an extensive blog, Youtube channel, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook following and much more. Until he made the connection between having this social profile and getting sponsored and other forms of recognition it was a challenge to get him to add good quality content to his blog on a regular basis.

Now that he sees the connection between his social presence and getting closer to his goal the hard work is no longer stressful for him or me. Last night we spent a solid 90+ minutes working on updating his Racing Resume. What we accomplished in that 90+ minutes of committed passion could have taken days to accomplish without this focused motivation. I don’t even think my son realized how much hard work he put into his site last night. It was just what he needed to get closer to his ultimate goal.

Cultivating you children’s passion goes so far to reduce stress in their lives and yours.

This well made video Monopoly of Dreams is a wonderful example of why we need to help our young people learn how to cultivate their passions as opposed to simply trying to follow them. To many of the young people in the video were not able to really identify what they were really passionate about and would be interested in pursuing if money were no object.

In the blog post Follow Your Passion is Crappy Advice Joshua Fields Millburn points to the work and research of Cal Newport, a 30-year-old assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University, who is exploring why some people lead successful, enjoyable, meaningful lives while so many others do not. Newport points out that while the advice of following your passions which is “regurgitated everywhere” on the internet and in the above video is appealing because it’s both simple and daring it is empty because he has found that most people don’t have preexisting passions.

In contrast Newport recommends that you “cultivate” your passions which implies that you work toward building passion for your something whether it is your job, your studies or other aspect of your life. He also points out that this is a longer process that requires you to approach your work like a craftsman.

Honing your ability, and then leveraging your value, once good, to shape your working life toward the type of lifestyle that resonates with you.

This is where a parent’s and especially a father’s role is so important. Because our children often are not even aware of what their passions are it is our responsibility to create and foster an environment in which it is not only safe but crucial for our children to explore, experiment and experience the fullness and diversity of life so that their passions can develop and grow. Helping our children, especially our teen agers, cultivate their passions is the next step in this process.

This leads me to ponder:
Are we modelling a life of cultivating our own passions?
Does our walk match our talk?
Have we created an environment where the exploration and cultivation of passions is safe and rewarding?