Money Doesn't Always Follow Your Passion

Focus on your fashion, and the money will follow. That's a common piece of advice given to anyway searching for a new career or moneymaking opportunity. As a general rule, it may be true. But, as with any rule concerning human nature, there are many exceptions. You cannot always count on your passion becoming something from which you can earn a living.

Let's examine a few examples.

The Eclectic Mind

If you have an eclectic mind, you have a variety of passions. In the summer time, you may be passionate about gardening. You spend your spare moments tending to your plants, growing your own herbs and vegetables and reading botanical books and magazines. When autumn comes and the leaves begin to fall, your interest in gardening wanes and your attention focuses on another passion.

In a more extreme cases, your passions may be less seasonal and more frequently swapped out. You may be passionate about woodworking for a few weeks, then move on to restoring an antique, then onto the next thing, only to return to woodworking many months later.

Since your focus changes so often, it can be difficult to generate a reliable income if you pursue your passions.

The Hobbyist Mind

If you have a hobbyist mind, you are passionate about your hobby. But, the moment you start trying to make money with it, it turns into work and is no longer enjoyable. Something done for relaxation can easily turn into something dreadfully boring and unenjoyable if the stresses of trying to earn an income are tied into it. The reason some people have hobbies is, in part, to take their minds off the stresses of work. Turning it into an occupation, while it may seem like a good idea in theory, can quickly ruin the experience.

The Apathetic Mind

If you have an apathetic mind, you don't have any strong passions, at least not anything that could be a potential income earner. You may be content with whatever you're told to do for eight hours at the office, but on your own time you just want to sit back and relax. Your passion may be nothing more than sitting at home enjoying a cold drink on the deck or going out for dinner at a fine restaurant.

The Narcissist Mind

If you have a narcissist mind, your passion is you. You may not have any other passions. You may have things that appear to be passions to other people, but, really, they are nothing more than an attempt to make yourself feel good. You may want the best things in life, not because you particularly enjoy them, not because they strike your fancy and not because you're in some way passionate about those things, but for no other reason than that they are the best things.

When you talk, your conversation is primarily about yourself and how things affect you. And, people are generally more impressed by the things that you have than by any character traits you may possess.

In any of these cases, following your passion to try to earn an income will either not be feasible or will end up killing that passion for you. However, while you must accept the reality of the situation, you shouldn't let it discourage you either.

The reason that you're so frequently advised to follow your passions is because, again as a general rule, it is easier to do and keep doing something you enjoy doing than something you don't.

But, the real key here is motivation. Just because you're not passionate about something doesn't mean that you cannot find the motivation to keep working at it!

If you let your passion be your motivation, you can be motivated to do something other than your passion. For example, if you enjoy setting up model trains, you realize you need money to buy new things for them, you need money to pay the electrical bill to keep them running, and you need money to pay the mortgage to keep the roof over your and your train set! So, even if you have to sit at work doing something you don't enjoy, you can be motivated by the fact that doing so enables you to bring home the money necessary to support your true passion!

Even if your passion cannot directly earn you an income, it can still serve the purpose of providing motivation for you to do so. With that in mind, it is not necessary to pursue your passion in order to secure a living. While it is, of course, preferable to make money doing something you love, it is not possible in all cases. But, don't ever let that stand in the way of you pursuing your passions and achieving your dreams!