Passion Vs. Profession: What Sets the Difference?

The Prologue

You might have attended a seminar or event wherein you were asked “How do you live your life?” like a sudden burst of fire from a methane hole. You could be participating in a religious matter in which your pastor or leader asked you about your profession, and how much you can give to the church. Or, you might have been asked by your partner about the things you are passionate about. Well, friends, everyone is on the same page if you are to ask the next 100 persons nearest to you.

God is the most omniscient being, that He rained us with all the talents and skills that a man can have. Moreover, He made sure that we all have the freewill to choose, to learn and to develop all that we want to do, whether good or bad. We might suck at Language, but we do fairly well in Mathematics, while we are exemplary in Music but for some reason, we do not put much energy into it. You may ask then, “Why?”, right? We might be good in interpersonal relations, but we choose not to speak, hmmm?

The Issue

We might have studied a certain discipline or course back in the tertiary level, but are we sure that it really is what you want? You can flip a coin and let it decide whether a person likes what s/he is doing or not. A lot of assessment tools were done to help students decide, but the fact remains that a lot of us have tons of problems in these areas in life. Some base it on analytical skills and some are into the practical skills. Some do it for external motivators like money and luxuries, others do it for fame and contentment. Some love it and some actually hate it. The main point is – how far can we go with all these?

If we take a step back, we can strip the main issue to just two opposing forces: Passion and Profession. Simply put – passion is the enthusiasm for something while Profession is the occupation a person has. A lot have problems with choosing what s/he is passionate for, some do not know what profession to take. Others may find it disturbing since they might have intertwined the two words!

So, let me reiterate my first question: “How do you live your life?”  Are you making money, but you just count the hours of your work to end? Are you earning less than your friend in a month, but you are happy? Is your gross income high and is so happy about your work? Or, you are not getting a lot of money and you are plotting dangerous plans against anyone you hate in your company? Let us try to answer these problems in five usual phenomena:

1) Money is the number one motivator of all time.

This is the reality in the past and is still a reality at present. We act mainly because we are dictated by money and not by our own emotions. We try to choose something which we think can rake up more money and we say bye to the things we loved to do. We can be lucky if what we are doing is what we love, and will allow us to receive more money but, will this go on as we grow more intelligent every day?

2) The decision did not come from your cognition, but from someone else’s.

As humans, we let a few important people in our lives decide for us. We wholeheartedly listen to what they must tell us. Maybe one of your parents or a close friend will tell you “Take up Medicine, so that you would not go poor, and you can treat all of us for free!” but, you want your hands to be stained by the acrylic and pastel. You might be rubbing isopropyl alcohol, but you smell spray paints somewhere.

3) Joining the bandwagon is the easiest way.

The literary master Robert Frost might be the first person that you can think of about conformity and unconventional approaches. His “The Road Not Taken” is about a person deciding which life route he will take – the route where everyone has used or the route where it was never or rarely used. If everyone is taking up Engineering, then might as well go and be an engineer. While it is not a bad choice, but it may not be the best for you, or maybe it is?

4) The cheaper and nearer, the better.

There might have been times before when you argued with your parents about where to study, what course is cheapest to take, how far is your school and how much time will commuting consume and if you can stay in a boarding house. While you want for your favorites to win the deal, you simply cannot defy everything. This hampers the idea of you pursuing what you really loved since the beginning. “Maybe playing the violin is not for me anyway. Music is too costly, and I may just end up as an instructor.”

5) I fear that this may not go this way, or that way or in the way I imagine it.

Fear is one of the most important instincts in humans, but it only becomes important if you decide to go against the current and choose the risky ticket. The greatest fear is – “Will I gain money from what I am doing? What will be the results of these? What will I reap on my tomorrow?” We are afraid of not having a partner in life, a family, a car, a house and everything because you feel like what you are doing will not monetize at all. Maybe it is true at times, but in the end, it will all depend on you – doing all the efforts in studying, polishing and showcasing it.

The Epilogue

A lot of us may deny what we are passionate about. Some may see their profession as their passion too. A few may not know what their real passion is. But only a handful are fearsome enough to pursue an unrevealed terrain. No one is sure if what he is devoting his time will work for him or against him. Life is too mysterious that we are the scientists of our own experiments – we try and try until we succeed.

Remember, as we study, we are already investing money, time, efforts and thinking capacity! It is just that we all take the fall from all the failures, but the good thing is it is the main ingredient to success! Just how an individual sees it will determine the depth of his vision and mission in life. If I may quote Robert Frost again: “…and that has made all the difference.”