“Passion is over-rated”.

I used that quote as an opening, and I’m pretty sure my close friends and families are going to be very confused, since I am someone who always pushes them to find their passion, and I always tell them that we are nothing without Passion.

Before we continue, let’s start by talking about what Passion is. In a practical definition, Passion is something that will cross your mind anytime in your day, whether when you eat, work, or sleep. Passion keeps you awake at night. You would rather to think about this “Thing” you are passionate at rather than to sleep.

Passion could be anything. It could be a person, an activity, a place, or anything! In this blogpost, I will focus on Passion as an activity.

I have a passion in Creating. When I drink a cup of coffee at Starbucks, I think of how to create my own cup of coffee. When I write a very good book, I think of how to write my own. When I eat in a fancy restaurant, I think of how to create my own restaurant. Hell, this passion is painful.

Passion is a threat for your health.

As I stated earlier, Passion is something you woud rather think about than sleep. It means that when you are passionate about something, you will have less sleep. Spending the night creating a design instead of sleeping and got sick the next day because of the lack of rest? Not something new for me.

Passion is a distraction.

You need to work. You need to get things done. Your client asked for this project to be completed in two days. In the same time, you got this idea of new business that will make you the happiest person on earth if this idea is executed well. Instead of finishing the project your client asked, writing that business plan will be more atrractive, yet distractive.

If there is a list of things that distract us from what we are doing, Passion will be on top.

Passion could affect others.

This might be good, This might be not.

A very passionate person will share his passion with others. Since they are passionate about it, they will share their passion with a really strong aura, that could affect others who listen to them, either positively or negatively.

Let’s get on with a story. Jack is an entrepreneur, and he is very passionate about entrepreneurship. His best friend, Daniel, is a person who loves to work in a big company, and working abroad in a multinational company with a fancy building is his dreams.

Both of them are months away from finishing college, and Jack passionately tells Daniel on this business he is planning to start. In the end, Jack asked Daniel if he would join him and start this business together. Although Daniel is not passionate in being entrepreneur, he is affected by Jack’s passion and finally agrees to start the business together.

Time has passed, and although it has it’s ups and downs, their business grew bigger. At one point, Jack and Daniel has to be separated for some time, because they have different things to do outside the business. This causes Daniel to lose his spirit in doing the business, since it was only affected by Jack’s passion. Realizing that this is not his passion, Daniel decided to leave the growing business.

Yes, it was not 100% bad. Both Jack and Daniel have built something they could be very proud of. But the fact that Passion can causes other person to do what they don’t like might ended in a chaos. Well, Consider this a warning.

Passion costs a lot.

When you have something you are passionate about, you won’t hesitate to spend money on it.

Let’s look at our expenses in the past couple of months. How much have you spent for something that you are passionate about?

I bought my iPad because of the possibility on creating things on the go. I thought about working with Adobe Photoshop while I’m waiting in public places. I thought about creating a website in a coffee shop. Fact is.. It is not that easy to create things with iPad, and I considered it a little bit of a waste.

Conclusion : If you have a passion, Control it.

All of the danger of being passionate that I have stated above will not happen as long as you can control it. Here are a few tricks to control your passion :

• Find someone to help you control your passion. It could be your partner, your friends, or even your families. I have great friends, families, and ex, that I should be thankful of for helping me controlling my passion.
• Create a to do list. To do list can be a very good tool in controlling your passion. Just make sure you are ready to spend extra time and effort to write, organize, and check your to do list. It will be worth it.
• Reward yourself for achievements.  Everyone loves rewards. Give it to yourself for every achievements you made, for example, after you finishes a job you don’t like. The reward could be as simple as “One hour doing things I am passionate about.”

Since you already know the danger of being passionate and how to control them, go find your passion and if you already find one, do it now. Do it with control.

Having another experience of how passion affect your life in negative way? Or maybe you have some extra tips on controlling passion? Share them in the comment section below, I’d be happy to hear them.