Be Passionate!

When this post goes live I’m already going sailing to the seaside. It may sound very nice, but considering it is the Baltic Sea and it is already fall and a weather forecast is kind of harsh, it probably means the adventure will include being wet, cold and seasick. Sounds oh, so nice, indeed. Especially the part about throwing up.

Why do I go there then? Well, I do because sailing is one of my passions. I know these few intensive days will recharge my batteries even though I will cut significant part of my sleeping time out. It is pretty simple – do something you love and no matter how exhausting it is at the end of the day you’ll be on the cloud nine.

“That’s nice, Pawel. Actually you didn’t tell us that you switched the profile of this blog and now you’re going to share your ramblings on your private life. In this case I’m unsubscribing the feed. Good bye.”

Um, wait, please. Actually there’s a purpose of this story. Exchange sailing through Baltic Sea with whatever you do at work and seasick with your pet peeves from workplace. Now, ask yourself whether you still are happy to go there even if the forecast is harsh. In other words: are you passionate about your job?

For those of you who are managers there is following question as well. Are your people passionate about their jobs?

These questions are super-important. Passion is a differentiator between mediocre folks and those who genuinely shine and everyone wants them in their team. Passion is a differentiator between people who learn new things because it is included in yearly performance appraisals from those who just want to excel at what they do, no matter how far from perfection they are at the moment. Passion is a differentiator between these team members who you have to regularly check from those who you trust and you know they’ll do their best under all circumstances.

“OK, I may reconsider unsubscribing the blog after all. But the passion is something people have or don’t have. What’s the point, then?”

Well, sort of. It is likely that most of us work with at least a couple of people who could have become more involved. But for some reason they don’t. If I had to bet why it is so I would say it is lack of passion. So maybe we should look for a way to ignite this passion.

Yes, I know. If someone works in the same role for a few years already and you’ve never seen passion, expecting it will suddenly blossom is very optimistic version of optimism. So maybe, just maybe, looking for a new role for such person can be a game-changer? I mean we aren’t born as sailors. In some point of time someone takes us to a lake or a sea and then we discover our passion.

It isn’t that different with our jobs.

And I bet you’d prefer to work with passionate folks than with soulless specialists, even if the former were less skilled on the day one. It seems it is worth to run an extra mile to find everyone in your team a role which they’re passionate about. After all, even if you don’t succeed in each and every case at least you know you’ve tried.

Passion makes a difference.