Passion: A Gift or a Curse? It Depends.

The word passion gets thrown around all the time. We praise passionate lovers, passionate students, passionate employees, and passionate athletes. It is a perquisite to excellence in almost any endeavor. But if not carefully handled, passion can come with great costs. After all, the word passion comes from the Latin word “passio,” which means to suffer.

We can’t be certain what causes passion. It is likely part biological, part psychological, and part spiritual. (For more on the factors underlying passion, check out this article appearing in Outside Magazine.)

What we do know is that there are two types of passion. Harmonious passion is when an individual becomes completely absorbed in an activity because they love how the activity itself makes them feel. Obsessive passion is when an individual gets hooked on something because of external rewards; read: fame, fortune, or in this day and age, Twitter followers. Research shows that individuals with harmonious passion are happier, healthier, and less prone to burnout. Individuals with obsessive passion, on the other hand, are not only more likely to burnout and experience dissatisfaction, but they are also more likely to cheat, be it using steroids on the playing field or illicit stimulants in the workplace.

The implications of this ought to be clear. Do what you can to cultivate harmonious passion in yourself and those you care about. This requires developing a relationship with activities based on how doing an activity makes you feel, not based on how the rewards of doing an activity make you feel. Celebrate effort, process, and the intrinsic joy of doing the work more than you celebrate results – for this is the key to long-term success and vitality.

And finally, beware of a common trap: Harmonious passion can all too easily turn into obsessive passion as one’s work begins to gain recognition and external praise.