Media 1 workshop response to Cal Newport’s article: The Passion Trap: How the Search for Your Life’s Work is Making Your Working Life Miserable
Confucius once said “choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”. If you want to be successful at your job, you need to have an invested interest in what you do and more importantly you must have passion for your line of work. What passion is essentially is the emotion that comes from within you; the enthusiasm you possess and the ability to concentrate all your skills and all of your energy into your work will make you advance in your line of work. Passion doesn’t go unnoticed either, employers, employees, customers, the wider community or the audience see the attitude you bring to your job, and the level of passion you possess towards your job is portrayed in the quality of your work. The article is very reminiscent of all of us at a young age as we have crazy ambitions and desires to have one dream job. As we get older the novelty wears off for our dream job and the reality is revealed to us. I wanted to be an astronaut before I understood what it entailed which was a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics and at least 1,000 hours pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. This was not me and it didn’t spell who I was and I wasn’t good at any of those but equally it was a process of elimination. But the way I could link this with the article I’ve just read is that once the realities of a ‘dream job’ become founded the passion can fade. One of the overarching ideas behind the article and the story of workplace happiness is that the key to a fulfilling career is to first figure out what you’re passionate about, and then go find a job to match; which the author calls the passion hypothesis. However according to numerous studies this isn’t the case as 45% of surveyed Americans were satisfied with their jobs; which is less than half of those who are employed; with this figure steadily decreasing since 1987. I think a considerable contributing factor to this is the fact that in the 21st century in particular in the last two decades, finding the perfect or at least most suited job for you is actually possible. In many decades gone by, someone would be more than satisfied with any form of employment they could get because they were busy and financially supporting their families at home. These days although its possible to find the accurate pathway to your ‘dream job’ it may not necessarily make you happy as the motivations behind your job (unlike the supportive role someone would play when employed) don’t exist.
The author explains ‘the passion trap’ which equates to ‘the more emphasis you place on finding work you love, the more unhappy you become when you don’t love every minute of the work you have.’ What I was able to relate to was the dilemma many final year high school students are faced having to decide what colleges they need to go and what future career path they must take. The career that you have passion for will shape our identities and before the independence entails paying bills, running a house and raising a family, the burning desire for us will be the path we take and how we become accustomed to our dream job but with this freedom also comes the anxiety of choosing the best possible career to represent you.
The reason I believe why the survey is so true about ‘the passion trap would make young workers the most unhappy’ (under the age 25) is because when young adults enter the workforce they’re overwhelmed with the job and perhaps their expectations aren’t met as far as what their dreams and desires were. With everyday in their new position they discover how much is required from the individual and potentially how much work is needed to be done to rise up the ladder to individual success.
Although I agree with the authors contention that the ‘passion hypothesis wrong, it’s also potentially dangerous,’ because it can lead to increased feelings of unhappiness and uncertainty, I think that if you have passion for something it will grow with your exposure to it.
Some of the happiest people I know have a defined purpose in life, something that gets them up in the morning and makes them happy to just that. Almost all of the time this purpose is not solely for their own satisfaction but in fact it reaches out to others too and the effects they have on others life make them feel a sense of fulfilment. The strength these people possess is they have a defined purpose. They have defined what they believe their purpose is and even if their job isn’t entirely connected that that it doesn’t dictate their happiness. For them it isn’t about finding the “perfect” job, but about living according to their personal purpose and that’s what makes them happy. I believe the happiness factor comes down to the individual and how they view their position and their worth in the world.
Therefore I think what the article fails to communicate is there’s more to life than your job, it’s important to enjoy your job and to have passion for it but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t. I think if anything we need to work towards more balanced lifestyles to ensure we avoid losing others and ourselves in the work we do. Instead so we have time to do things outside work that we find fulfilling so we don’t rely on our work as the main source of happiness. This would ultimately mean the pressure is off us to find that perfect dream job.
Cal Newport’s article: http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/10/16/the-passion-trap-how-the-search-for-your-lifes-work-is-making-your-working-life-miserable/