Your passion runs deep

During a recent conversation with an acquaintance on the topic of passion, she shared with me her belief that “passion can be redirected.”

I politely disagree. And here’s why:

While we can re-focus our attention, I believe that our actual passion runs too deep to be redirected. You can dedicate your energy and your work ethic to almost anything, but the ultimate passion itself – that ingrained energy that defines who we are – is not disposable like that.

You can identify the root of your passion and find another path on which you can pursue it – one that complements your original objectives – but the passion itself cannot be redirected.

So if you grow up wanting to be a pianist, your passion may fundamentally be in performance. So when you redirect your focus to competing on the high school debate team instead, you have actually preserved your basic passion and simply been effective in identifying a different way in which to pursue it.

Identify and maintain the root of your passion, and discover a way to direct only your route in pursuing it. True passions cannot be lost.