Funny Article About Passion

The Onion is a pretty funny source of 'news'. The writers specialize in articles that are filled with satire and poke fun at obvious, but often ignored, realities.

In a recent sarcastic article, they took on the idea of tackling your passion.  In particular, they take a shot at the idea of working on your passion outside of standard work hours.

"Just find the thing you enjoy doing more than anything else, your one true passion, and do it for the rest of your life on nights and weekends when you’re exhausted and cranky and just want to go to bed."

While funny, in actuality this is what the vast majority of us do. We find that thing that makes us the most happy and let it become something that we only do when we can fit it in and find time outside of our other responsibilities.

While this works for many people, I wonder if this is the best use of our time and skills. I wonder if instead of doing this thing that we love when we have the least amount of energy and the least amount of creative juices, what would happen if we did it during peak hours. What would be the result?

My guess is something wonderful.

Now there are plenty of people who want to keep their hobbies as just that. No need to bring in business decisions and the added stress of providing for yourself to live on. I fully support that, as countless people have tried and failed to turn their hobbies into businesses not because they weren't good at it, but rather because they didn't want to make the sacrifices that businesses may require. An artist may have to change what they paint, or a bodybuilder will have to train to look a certain way for competitions, or an inventor will only be able to invent products that customers will actually pay for. And if making these changes and doing that activity isn't fun anymore, that kills the whole idea of following your passion.

This last part just makes me laugh. 

"...the bottom line is that life is short, and you owe it to yourself to spend the majority of it giving yourself wholly and completely to something you absolutely hate, and 20 minutes here and there doing what you feel you were put on this earth to do."

But really, I think this points out to me something that I have a hard time internalizing. If I really want to be working on my passion, I don't think working on it in my free time is a bad thing. However, if it really shows promise, I shouldn't be afraid to move in that direction and maybe start looking at the possible career potential.

How do you feel about working on your passion in the small amount of free time you have?  Is it a temporary situation or are you ok with it forever being a hobby?

- Ryan