the world doesn't wait
I’m not a fan of the advice, “follow your passion.” For a lot of people, myself included, I don’t know if I have a passion. There are things I enjoy, but am I passionate about them? Isn’t it a big deal to call something your passion?
In my mind, the word “passion” conjures up an image of a slightly deranged and probably starving artist, someone who’s given up everything else except their art. According to Google, passion is a “strong and barely controllable emotion—an intense enthusiasm for something.” Whether it’s common or not, it doesn’t seem like a very practical thing.
Perhaps because of this, I’m very receptive to the idea of taking some time away from “your passion” to make some money, travel, take care of family, go back to school—anything really. If something important to you comes up, go for it. Whatever it is that you’ve left behind will still be there when you come back. People move around in their career all the time now. It’s hardly a problem.
At least, that’s what I believed. And, by and large, it’s still mostly true. There’s an important caveat though that I’d never really thought about until I spoke with Kelly Heaton, an artist and alumna of the Media Lab.
I invited her to the Lab to talk about what life was like as an actual artist—not the artist of my imagination. The whole concept of being an artist as a career was so intriguing to me. How is it possible? The answer, of course, is that it’s mostly not. You need a bonkers amount of success to be able to make a living solely off of art.
I figured her next point would be that everyone who wants to make art needs a side gig that pays the bills. And yes, she did say that paying the bills was obviously high on the list of things a person needs to do, but she also said something that really surprised me.
She said to be careful. To keep making art and putting it out into the world. That it could be hard to create and hustle at the same time. That the world doesn’t wait.
Huh.
She’s right. If there’s something you want to do, something that you want to be part of your life or career, you have to just do it and keep doing it over and over and over again.
It could be something like running. To be a runner, you have to lace up and head out the door over and over. Or for me, maybe it’s writing. If I want it in my career, I can’t just stop and point at all the things I’ve written before. I thought writers were people who had written things. No, they’re people who are still writing.
For Kelly, she found a lot of success early in her career, but she took a break to make some money with her technical skills. (Something I would have thought was a very good idea.) A few years later though, she felt like she was starting from scratch again in the art world.
The world doesn’t wait.
Maybe this is what people mean by “follow your passion.” (Or at least what they should mean.) It’s not about giving everything else up, setting aside practicalities, and diving in head first. In other words, it’s not about how much you do it, it’s just about consistency. Stay connected. Stay relevant. Take a break if you must, but come back. Soon.
You don’t have to be obsessed with something. Your passion can just be something that you want to keep doing. Over and over again. I would not say that I’m completely enamored with writing, or even career counseling. But they’re both things I want to keep doing. In fact, with writing in particular, there is so much I don’t like. (Ugh, revising, you monster.) But here I am, because the world doesn’t wait.
So, keep going.
interesting reads
Another take on why “find your passion” is terrible advice. Here you go.
An older piece that I love on how to make big decisions. Almost all of it applies to career decision making, too! Read here.
cool jobs
There’s a new job working with MIT student leadership on career fairs. And you’d get to work with my old coworkers, who are amazing. Apply here.
The newsletter that started my obsession with newsletters, theSkimm, is hiring a writer. *swoon* Apply here.