Passionate: Need for an external driving force

Passion they say is the driving force behind everything you do. Well, I won't argue with that at all. But I would also say that at times, just passion is not enough. Yes, just being passionate about something is not enough.

You could be passionate about writing, but you still find out that you don't write as often as you are supposed to. You could be passionate about singing but you end up not creating a song as good as you are supposed to. Don't get me wrong, it's not that your passion is wrong it's just that, just like I said earlier passion itself is not enough.

When I ask someone, "How am I supposed to know that you would do this very well." And the person starts with "I'm passionate about..." I wouldn't mind at all, I mean it's a good thing to do something you are passionate about. But, I would mind if by the end of your answer, you don't give me a reason that is more than passion, you don't convince me that aside from passion you have more driving force.

This is the reason. Passion is a burning desire to do something, right? Passion is an internal factor. And I would agree with scientists this time around in what they say about a body at rest. For a body at rest to be moved into motion, it needs to be acted upon by an external factor. What passion does to you is to keep you going. When you are not in action, your passion alone is not enough to push you into action and when you are in action, passion comes in to keep you in action.

What could these external factors be? It could be a teammate or teammates. Have you ever been working with some group of people and you see yourself working so hard not to hold the team back? Like, you are working with this team and you see that. These people are so good that if you don't work so hard if you don't improve yourself, if you don't upgrade to a certain standard, then you'd be a stumbling block to the rest of your team. At that moment you see yourself breaking your limits, you see yourself pushing hard, you see yourself leaving your comfort zone. If you are someone who loves watching movies a lot you see yourself cutting out some of your movie time to read, practice, work just get up to the standards of your teammates.

Another possible external factor could be a competitor. Now I'm not talking about an unhealthy competitor. Let me use this instance. You could be very good at writing, but then you join a writing club and meet this young lady who is a word wizard. Like, she's so good. Automatically she becomes the external factor you need and then your passion being the backup factor pushes you to action. Believe me, you could even skip sleep at times just to read and improve yourself. Now I'm not talking about jealousy and I'm just talking about a pure passion for growth.

There could be many other factors including your mentees, your mentor or even your friends. Yes, your friends could be the external factor you need that's why it's good to surround yourself with people who align with your goal.

Passion Is good, but passion aside you need some external factors to excel greatly.

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