The Ultimate Passion Test to Find Your True Passion
Let me ask you this. Are you passionate about photography?
You can reply with a resounding yes, but I can tell you in a minute — or even less — if you really have passion for taking pictures.
Just saying that you are passionate about photography does not mean you really are.
When you say that, you are just making a statement.
There are millions of people around the world who can make the same statement.
But the difference between what they say and what they do will tell me straight away if they truly have a passion for photography.
Why? Because it has nothing to do with their words but everything to do with their actions.
To put it in another way, doing things is the key determinant — the ultimate test — of passion.
I learned this from revered British educationist Sir Ken Robinson’s book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.
This is a fascinating book featuring the creative journeys of a wide range of people from a variety of fields, especially arts. It tells the stories of their passions, talents, and impressive accomplishments.
What is passion?
Before I tell you about the ultimate passion test from Sir Ken’s book, let us briefly discuss what passion is.
Intense enthusiasm for something — that is the simplest definition of passion.
If you are passionate about a subject or an activity, you are strongly drawn towards it. You feel a compelling desire for it — a desire that is difficult to control.
Your passion for an activity is a burning flame inside you that gives you all the reasons you need to be engrossed in it.
In this paper on the psychology of passion, Dr Robert J Vallerand, professor of psychology at the Université du Québec à Montréal in Canada, wrote:
“Passion is defined as a strong inclination toward an activity that people like, find important, and in which they invest time and energy.”
This definition aptly tells us that only being interested in an activity is not enough for it to be considered a passion; you need to invest time and energy in it.
In other words, you would be doing it on top of being interested in it.
Are you really passionate about it?
Let us go back to Sir Ken’s book.
In the book, he tells the story of a guy named Charles.
Charles was a talented keyboardist in a band in Liverpool that Sir Ken’s brother Ian was part of.
One night, after a gig, Sir Ken told Charles he had played very well.
He also said he would love to be able to play keyboard that well.
“No, you would not,” Charles said.
The words made Sir Ken utterly surprised.
He insisted that he really would.
“No,” Charles said again. “You mean you like the idea of playing keyboards. If you would love to play them, you would be doing it.”
He also told Sir Ken that he had been practicing keyboard for 3–4 hours every day since he was 7 years old.
Suddenly, playing keyboards as well as Charles did not seem as appealing, wrote Sir Ken.
Expressing interest is not enough; you must do it
Have you got the difference now?
When you are really interested in an activity, you love it.
But when you are passionate about it, you would be doing it no matter what because you love it so much.
If you are passionate about singing, you would already be covering other people’s songs even if you do not have your own song yet.
If you are passionate about football, you would already be kicking one in the local sports centre or in playground even if you are yet to play for the national team.
If you are passionate about dancing, you would already be dancing at home or the local theatre even if you are yet to have the opportunity to get on stage and steal the show.
I have met people who said writing is their passion. But when I asked for samples, it came out that they had not written even 5–10 articles in their life, let alone a whole book.
And, in light of the ultimate passion test, I instantly realised writing is not their true passion.
They love the idea of writing, but they do not have a real passion for it.
Passing the ultimate passion test
You see, understanding whether someone is truly passionate about something is not rocket science.
You just need to see their actions.
Does someone say photography is their passion? Then just observe whether they are investing time and energy in taking pictures even if their skills are not top-notch and they have not arranged an exhibition yet.
To take the ultimate passion test further, tell them to show you their portfolio. Pick several pictures from there and ask them to tell the stories behind those.
Listen to not only what they say but also how enthusiastically and profoundly they say it.
If someone has a passion for photography, they would not merely say how much they love this activity.