The word "passion" actually comes from the Latin pati, meaning 'to suffer'. It's ironic, considering that we now view passion as a source of joy or fulfilment.
Passion's etymology reveals a deeper truth—that passion isn't something you find effortlessly. It's something you endure.
Passion is the trial that tests your commitment. Passion is what you sacrifice for. It's what makes you forge forward in the dark, through the cold, down the road full of thorns.
When storms of life come and waves of weariness overwhelm you, passion is what remains. Passion is that which survives hardship.
We commonly imagine passion as a lightning bolt of love that strikes from the heavens and sets our heart aflame. But passion isn't the lightning bolt, it's the bedrock. Passion is what keeps you standing when the earth seems to give way.
You won't discover what you're truly passionate about until you're tested. It's not passion if you only love it when it's easy. But hard things can feel easy when you chip away at them through competence. The better you become at something, the more you understand it. The more you understand it, the more rewarding it becomes. Competence builds confidence, and confidence comes from control of your craft. That sense of control, that feeling of mastery, often solidifies into passion.
Commitment to a craft, a field, or a discipline will expose a depth of meaning you will never see if you only apply yourself at a surface level. If you coast, you will only ever skim the surface. Your work will feel empty and meaningless because the way you work is vapid and lethargic. You will hate what seems hard, what seems difficult, and never know what value lies beneath.
You don't have to love something to start it; you have to start something to love it.
You have to commit, to persevere through the challenges, and see where the process takes you.
Passion is a choice. Stop waiting for it to strike you.
Choose something worth doing and give yourself the chance to fall in love with it by digging below the surface to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
If passion comes from suffering, apply yourself until you find something worth suffering for.
