Following Passion or Dream: what is reality?

“A strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything.”

  “indulge in daydreams or fantasies about something greatly desired.”

Above mentioned sentence are meaning of passion and dream according to the dictionary. Which part makes these two words common? Answer is ‘STRONGLY DESIRED’. Meaning of passion or dream might be differing from person to person but this word ‘STRONGLY DESIRED’ will remain common. Passion is something you dream or desired and you make your effort to chase them, passion is what you like to do, passion may be job or getting something or making change in society or even chasing a girl (yes now most of the boys have many passion and same implies to girls – no gender discrimination), passion may be temporary or permanent, there may be more than one passion. In short passion can be anything that you strongly desire.

But always questions arise ‘Are we following our passion?

Are we doing stuff what we desired or what we like?

Are we happy of what currently we are doing?

There would be lots of question arises when we talk about passion. Let’s see what study and research says.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE FOLLOWING THEIR PASSION?

84 percent of young people not pursuing their passions according to Pitman Train-ing and Census wide’s research.

With 84% of 16-24 year olds revealing that they don’t know how to turn the interests they’re passionate about into a career, and 49% of these respondents considering that their lack of qualifications halts them exploring aspiration career opportunities, the next generation of employees are at risk of career dissatisfaction after entering the job market, according to Pitman Train-ing and Censuswide’s research.

Young people are also against more ‘traditional’ jobs such as admin or accounts, that could be a door opener to their dream career. Nearly 3 in 5 (58%) young Brits (aged 16-24) are in agreement with the stereotype that working in admin or accounts is ‘boring’ and ‘old fashioned’. Retail is considered an easy way of entering employment, with almost 4 in 5 (79%) of young Brits (aged 16-24) agreeing on this.

The top interests respondents aged 16-24 are passionate about include music, fashion, and technology, yet they believed that they wouldn’t be able to pursue a career in these sectors.

84% of 16-24 year olds with interests they’re passionate about did not feel able to pursue a career in these interests, broken down as follows:-

• Music: Nearly half (49%) of 16-24 year olds identified music, with Yorkshire being the most musical region across all ages
• Fashion: Over a third (35%) of 16-24 year olds identified fashion with Cardiff being the most Fashion focused city across all ages
• Tech: A quarter (25%) of 16-24 year olds and over a quarter (27%) of 25-24 year olds had a passion for tech, with the North East being the most passionate about Tech (27%) across all ages
• Drama: A quarter (25%) of 16-24 year olds identified Drama, with Cardiff being the most passionate rating above average at 30% across all ages
• Sport: A fifth (21%) of 16-24 year olds identified Sport
• Celebrities: 14% of 16-24 year olds identified working with celebrities

Stanford researchers: ‘Follow your passion’ advice could make you less successful

According to an upcoming paper in Psychological Science written by three Stanford researchers, that advice may actually make people less successful, since it unrealistically implies an easy path to success and narrows your focus too much. 

Stanford psychologists Carol Dweck and Gregory Walton, with the help of former Stanford postdoctoral fellow Paul O’Keefe, conducted a series of laboratory studies that examined the belief systems that lead people to succeed or fail.

The researchers recruited participants from two categories: those who were passionate about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and those who were passionate about humanities and the arts.

Over five experiments, the researchers observed a total of 470 participants as they read articles and watched videos on subjects that interested them and on subjects that did not interest them. Participants who were deeply interested in only one topic were less likely to finish and understand the materials.

The researchers concluded that popular mantras like “follow your passion” make people think that pursuing a passion will be easy. Believers are then more likely to give up when they face challenges or roadblocks.

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and star on ABC’s hit reality television show, “Shark Tank,” takes this line of thinking one step further.

“One of the great lies of life is ‘follow your passions,’” said Cuban as part of the Amazon Insights for Entrepreneurs series. “Everybody tells you, ‘Follow your passion, and follow your passion.”

 

He argues that people should focus on their strengths rather than their passions, because we are not always good at the things that interest us the most and because perfecting strength can become a passion. 

“I used to be passionate to be a baseball player. Then I realized I had a 70-mile-per-hour fastball,” jokes Cuban. Competitive major league pitchers throw fastballs in the range of 90-plus miles per hour.

“When you look at where you put in your time, where you put in your effort that tends to be the things that you are good at. And if you put in enough time, you tend to get really good at it,” he says. “If you put in enough time, and you get really good, I will give you a little secret: Nobody quits anything they are good at because it is fun to be good. It is fun to be one of the best.”

MY RESEARCH

I also tried to find something related to this topic through a small research. It was done through online questionnaire and questions like

 ‘Are you following your passion or dream?’

‘If you have ever change your passion than how many time?’

‘Are you Happy or satisfied about what you are currently doing?’ ,

And few more questions were asked and I got  around 100 responses which is less and this research was bias as 90% of the responses was age group between 18 to 26  year.

76% of people said they didn’t follow their passion and from that 75% were happy about what currently they are doing

24% people said they are following their passion from that nearly 85% were happy about what they were doing

One thing common between this two groups were 80 % of the people changed their passion more than once.

CONCLUSION

As we see above study we couldn’t arise at one definite conclusion. Every person will have different opinion about this topic. Let’s see some real life example

1) Sharukh Khan:

Sharukh khan’s passion was to study and he was very clever but in order to survive and to earn money he did serials and then movies and rest is history.

2) Yuvraj Singh :

Initially Yuvraj didn’t like cricket he wants to be a skater or actor or tennis player but no to cricket. But his father was determined to make him cricketer. When first time his father took Yuvi to Navjot Singh Sidhu for training after seeing some shots played by Yuvraj he told ‘ Le java apke bacche ko aur isko ladkiyo vaala khel khelao e cricket nahi khel paayega’ and from that point his father never look back and rest is history.

 

3) My story:

I will keep it short, initially I want to be a cricketer as most of Indian kid dreamt of but I couldn’t stick to that and then I want to be an 100 meter sprinter and for that I also worked hard and won 2-3 tournaments but I couldn’t grab the opportunity due to education even after getting offer to compete at state level. And if I talk about present I had come long way and I am Happy about currently were I am.

So guys above 3 story might cover most of things what you might have gone through i.e. Need to survive thing , parents pressure , Education pressure , etc. but still remember passion is never a one they might be many and when you get more experienced and older you discover that. So never lose hope and do whatever you feel.

Guys you can share your opinion or story of yourself in comments as this topic has different opinion.

And I also want to share some selected comments made by people about this topic in my questionnaire:

• Wants keep changing with time and age, our passion drives our wants in life.
• It's never too late to change your passion and start all over again. Just do what you Love.
• All time passion does not fulfill every wish as for that you have to choose one more path as secured one in future.
• Passion is equivalent to chasing or achieving the dreams!
• Just fuel up your passion
• We must act out passion before we can feel it. Passion should be your energy

Guys don’t forget to share your opinion