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Why True Passion Leads to Suffering
Sent Monday, December 26, 2011
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| Newsletter Issue # 1 | Life Manifestos | |||||||||||||||||||
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The True Meaning of "Passion"
he word "passion" has been hijacked.
Misused and abused.
Emasculated by a feel-good culture of moral relativism.
What's right? What standard should dictate your actions?
Today's youth report that it's what makes them happy or how
they personally feel.
And as Sheryl Crow sings, "If it makes
you happy, it can't be that bad."
No surprise, then, that the word "passion" is routinely
prostituted by personal development gurus.
Passion today is understood as what excites you. What puts
the sparkle in your eyes, the twinkle in your toes.
Internet definitions include:
The word has become candy for frivolous children when, at
its roots, it is meat for dedicated adults.
Coined by 12th
century religious scholars, "passion" means to suffer. In fact, the word was
created to describe the "willing suffering of Christ."
In his excellent book, Aspire,
Kevin Hall describes a meeting he had with Arthur, a retired 40-year Stanford
linguistics professor, who taught him the meaning of passion.
Kevin writes:
Kevin concludes that,
If passion is simply what makes you
happy, you'll quit doing it when it gets
tough, when it becomes too risky, when you're ignored and mocked.
Your true passion is what you're willing to do if it kills
you.
What you stick with even when it's excruciating. When
it's risky.
The things you do because you know they're right. Because
you know they'll make a profound difference.
The things that simmer in the deepest parts of your soul -- far
beyond what's fun or what feels good.
As Thomas Paine wrote:
Christ's passion wasn't the surface-level,
pop-culture, cotton-candy bliss of what made him feel good in the moment.
It was the cross-carrying,
torture-enduring suffering of a Man who understood how and why to sacrifice immediate
pleasure for long-term joy.
How about your passion?
When asked what you're passionate
about, don't tell me what makes you feel good or what excites you.
Tell me what you're willing to suffer
for.
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Please enjoy our first installment on the true meaning of the word "passion." 
| www.LifeManifestos.com |
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