For us humans, it is easier to articulate the negative, because they’re more concrete, pragmatic [Lex Fridman] - “it takes up more time, costs more, I’ll miss out on a lot, it seems tough and this and that…”
To articulate the positives, and most importantly of the things we are so passionate about is a big ask. With words we can do so little to persuade an audience of the worth of that which we are passionately allied to & desperately want to share. You have to experience it. Otherwise, you end up selling it short.
Fear and Passion would be defined as opposites if I held the pen to the great English dictionary. Or better put, Fear vs Passion.
Fear is a deterrent to many great things; seeing as the subject today is that of passion, I believe fear to be the biggest killer of passion.
First, it creeps in, gently peeling off the loudness of your passion, and as soon as it is allowed access to the core, bam! it disseminates the joy and meaning out of the passion. What is passion? Is it not meaning?
I say this with great conviction and purpose for the subject at hand.
As easy as it is to articulate the downsides and shortcomings of pathways we are offered or dreams that gnaw at us, so is it apparent and almost natural to express the negatives that fear births in relation to passion.
My field of focus with passion here is that of career and professional opportunities. However, fear is a parasite that actively seeks to destroy prospects in ideas, friendships, relationships, families, hobbies, faith, aspirations and all that we, humans hold dear.
I happen to have experienced loss in the hands of fear, I still do; I understand it just as well as I understand my limits in skill and the inadequacies of my character (negatives are so easy to articulate, remember?).
These are also very easy to point out, to recognize:
- The hands I did not raise, to ask or to answer
- The times I bit my tongue so as not to express a contrarian opinion, even though I felt so strongly about it
- The chances I have begrudgingly “gifted” someone else despite me being the person of choice
- The job descriptions I have used as an excuse to escape taking a chance
- The conversations I have held out on
- The people I have pleased that I had no business pleasing and for what?; “Thank you, you’re the best???”
All in all, the negatives have stood tall, staring down at me with oppressive intimidation. They have been so easy to spot, good justifiers of no pursuit at all; they have been too easy, too obvious.
To look at this now, I am deeply unsettled and disappointed by my indifference to the foe. The allowance I afforded fear.
The silver lining? There isn’t one!
Well, there actually is one. Probably not the mood for a joke. “Knowledge is power”, an common phrase. Fortunately, none of it’s value has been lost as it has echoed so often on the walls of Kenyan classrooms.
This is it! Despite wielding fear instead of courage, optimism and faith in my career battles, contemplating and writing on the matter has allowed me to re-evaluate what matters most and to allow myself to go for it. Boldly, giving no audience to the naysayers or the inevitable negatives. Truly, to write is to be free.
Yes you can experience fear and still be passionate. Can you? Yes. The concept is that of courage - action despite fear.
Chase it afraid!