Dancing Buddha

Is finding your passion over-rated? Perhaps not. But what if you don’t find it? Let me tell you a story.

When I was growing up, I had this dream of becoming a scientist. I loved the way scientists would be portrayed on television and in books and thought to myself that I should join the club.

Years passed and even though my love for science is intact, my work life isn’t dependent on science. In fact it is as far away from science as possible – writing.

When I passed high school I wanted to be a guitarist. I practiced for hours on end, as much as eight hours on a few days, and dreamt of playing live concerts in front of packed stadiums like my gods Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Years passed and even though my love for guitar is intact, I sometimes play the guitar in my bed room and have recorded only one track, that too for a friend.

When I went to college, I read about businessmen and entrepreneurs who have changed the world, made millions and live on golf courses and private jets.  I read about Richard Branson and Steve Jobs and thought of becoming them. I devoured books on the subject and knew a hell lot of business plans and how to steer the ship.

Years passed and today my business is a small and tiny one. All I have to do is manage myself and sometimes a few others.

Today I spend my time teaching and the rest of the time writing.

If you are wondering if this is a sad blog post, it is not. It is about passion; the holy grail of life.

You must have had lots of dreams and you must have tried your hand at many things. So did I. I would start learning something and then switch to something else within a few months or sometimes even days.

I wanted to find my passion, I kept telling myself. I read a lot of books which told me if you find your passion, you will be the happiest person alive.

Find that one thing that you love doing and you do not have to worry about anything else ever again. Life will become a breeze and it will be all sunshine and daffodils.

Well, I didn’t find my passion and I have been searching for a long time.

So, I started thinking that if I didn’t find my passion, could I still live a happy, fulfilling life? Could I still manage to do what I love, even though I know that love might not last forever?

During my readings, I stumbled across a man called Leonardo DaVinci. Yeah, that man who painted The Virgin of the Rocks. (Fine… Monalisa as well.)

He is the ultimate example of the renaissance man. Indeed, he created some of the most beautiful paintings and machines ever seen by man. He knew everything. And yet, he left behind him a hell lot of unfinished projects. His close friends wrote that on his deathbed, his greatest regret was not planning and organising his projects better.

I was told by a teacher of mine that I must learn this great lesson of life. He said. “See, even the great DaVinci regretted not being organised and not following through.”

I thought differently. I asked myself, would Leonardo achieve all that he achieved if he had worked with more focus and organisation?

The question was can someone do the things he/she had done, if they were different?

I think it is a fallacy to assume that they could have done even better if they were different.

You know, when I first went to college, I would dress up like a renegade entrepreneur and my professors would tell me to be more disciplined. My retort was, “Hey! Steve went to office without shoes!”

And then they would reply back with a statement which they thought was their trump card: “Once you become Steve Jobs you can dress like him.”

I could never accept that answer. For me, Steve Jobs was Steve Jobs because he didn’t wear shoes. I thought the way of being came first and the success followed second. After spending many years trying to decipher what made people great, I know that to be true.

And if you have the habit of a DaVinci – not finishing all projects you started, I think you shouldn’t hedge your bets on finding that one big passion which will make your life happy.

How not to find your passion

If you are already passionate about something then great. It doesn’t mean that you have to spend your time doing anything else.

But, if you have not found your passion yet, you shouldn’t do whatever you are doing now, half heartedly.

In fact, whatever you are doing now, think that to be a mini passion of yours.

I have come to understand (and I am still in that process) that there are two kinds of people in the world.

One with short passions and the other with long passions.

One group, the long passions, are the people who are cricketers and actors and all those who have found what they love in life and they would do nothing else.

The other group are the ones with a short passion. Which means they are more suitable for working on projects. If you fall into that category, then consider yourself to be extremely lucky. It means you can write a book in the next three months, edit a film project for the next two and spend the next four months as a travel writer.

Of course, you can be an actor as well, and spend your off days training people to ride horses.

The important thing to understand is not to equate success with fame and glory, instead to equate it with happiness.

Aah, but what happened to the whole 10,000 hours to expertise, I hear you ask. And here comes my magic solution.

Not all activities require 10,000 hours to be an expert. In fact, if you read the astonishing fact that doctors get worse the more experienced they get, you have your answer.

I agree that many activities such as playing the violin require years of intense training, but here is the catch: if you already know that you fall into the category of short passions, then all of the activities you will be interested in, will by virtue require less than 10,000 hours of expertise! That’s right.

Understand, by no means are these groups unchangeable. You can shift from long to short passions or be in both the groups at the same time.

What matters is not spending your time looking for one big passion when all of these small passions, which taken together can give you a life filled with as much happiness and joy, are passing you by.

How to live a life filled with small passions

The first thing you need to understand is your cycles. Make a list of the last five things or projects you worked on. If you didn’t do any, then simply write down five things you like doing. Then write how long you worked on each project. It doesn’t have to be an exact number, but simply an estimation.

Let’s say your previous five activities were:

1. Playing the guitar (12 hours last week)

2. Sketching cartoons (5 hours last week)

3. Working out at the gym ( 7 hours last week)

4. Speaking in front of an audience (2 hours last week)

5. Writing (10 hours last week)

Now once you have this list, think about how can you transform these activities into projects.

Let’s take the first one. If I play guitar for 12 hours a week on average, in one month, I can give about 48 hours to this activity. Ample amount of time to make a song and record it. Right?

Similarly, in one month I can spend 20 hours on sketching. Why not use that chunk to create a storyline and then make cartoons based on that? A la The Oatmeal?

You get the idea? Your job is to take your individual activities and see what is the minimum time frame in which you can finish a meaningful project. Remember, what is meaningful to someone else, doesn’t necessary have to be meaningful to you. If you love speaking in front of an audience but do not want to make it into a project, so be it.

Once you get into the habit of thinking of your life in terms of projects, you will be well on your way to becoming a modern DaVinci.

And you know the best part?

The things that we do, even for a short while, change us forever.

My love of science translates to my understand of web analytics today; my love of playing the guitar, makes me want to create things which a rock star will use and my love of being a corporate honcho is the reason I have my own blog and am writing this today…