This afternoon, I stumbled across a very interesting video by Ali Abdaal: Follow Your Passion is Terrible Advice. Here’s Why.
Inspired by the book So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport, Abdaal educates viewers on the advantages of building valuable skillsets to land desirable jobs. He discusses the Craftsman’s Mindset, which suggests that we tend to become passionate about the jobs we’re skilled at.
I couldn’t agree more. As a senior applying to colleges, I am surrounded by this idea that I need to be passionate about the field that I enter. The colleges want to know: am I committed to this field? Will I do what I say that I will in my essays and graduate successfully?
(On a side note, this does of course make sense. Colleges have to make wise investments in their students, and they have to ensure that we will follow through on our end.)
But as it pertains to my own life, I can’t help but notice that my passions are all products of my own time and energy. I’m passionate about dance. I’m passionate about teaching. I’m passionate about autism: everything about it, really. And it’s because I’ve spent so much time with these activities that they’ve become a part of my identity.
In A Different Key: The Story of Autism, the book I’m currently reading, details stories of doctors and medical specialists, political advocates, mothers and fathers, and educators all working to find a place for these young, peculiar minds. Little is understood at the time, but all of these people are trying to enact change. These people are coming together from all walks of life, and from completely different experiences. But they share one thing in common. They know somebody or have heard a story of someone with autism, and they want to do what they can to help.
Of course, there are many who are exposed to autism. But who is it that takes action? It is the people who begin to make an effort. Those who reach out to parents, who enact school policy, and who spend time with the children themselves. It’s not the people who hear about autism in the news.
Passion is a direct product of the time and energy one dedicates in pursual, whether it be of a skill, a cause, or hobby.
My own brother has autism. But I wasn’t passionate about spreading awareness until I started to actually do it. I made this blog a couple of months ago, but it wasn’t until I began the writing process that I felt the pull to keep writing every day. Passion is like determination; it is a propeller that slowly pushes you towards your goal. It isn’t like an engine that can be kickstarted.
This post is quite a bit less coherent than I intended it to be, but I do hope that my message comes across through it all. If there is anything that you are ever so slightly interested in it, I urge to pursue that interest. Even if only for a few weeks. The kickstart is to just do it. Passion will keep you going.
Signing off,
Akshara