Why Are We So Against Following Our Passions?

Welcome to Creatives Anonymous, a weekly newsletter that explores what it means to be a modern-day creative. It inspires, encourages, and empowers readers to take back their creative power.

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“Don’t follow your passion” is the worst advice I’ve ever heard.

Passion is what gets us out of bed in the morning. It keeps us motivated to pursue our projects and perfect our craft. 

So why don’t we follow it?

The answer: because it’s scary. It’s scary to take a risk and go against the status quo. 

More often than not, we’re encouraged against following our passion because we’ve been told it’s not the “safe” and “sensible” thing to do. We opt for stability and security instead of passion and curiosity. The result is being stuck in jobs or activities we dislike because we chase practicality more than anything else. 

My take on passion is this: If you’re not doing something that you’re at least remotely excited about, why even bother doing it in the first place? Life is too short, and we shouldn’t waste it on things we don’t like. 

I understand we can’t all be passionate about our day jobs or turn our passions into full-time work. I get that. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s fair to discourage people from pursuing their passions because it’s not practical or feasible.  

And yet, there is plenty of advice from business leaders and creatives not to follow your passion. 

Here’s one excerpt from Company of One by Paul Jarvis: 

“While no one should ever tell us to not pursue our passions, we can’t feel simply entitled to make money from them. If you’re engaged by your work—for the independence it allows, for the sense of completion when you’re done, for its contribution to making the world a better place—passion is likely to follow. Passion isn’t the catalyst that creates success, but more often what develops after success is achieved. The gist is this: you can pursue any passion you want, but you shouldn’t feel entitled to make money off it. Passion in work comes from first crafting a valuable skill set and mastering your work.” 

Jarvis suggests that you only achieve the feeling passion gives you when you master your skillset and succeed. I respectfully disagree with this view; I think you need to have passion to motivate and encourage you to master the skill. Sure, it gives you momentum to keep going, but you must be interested in the subject matter in the first place to master the skill. 

Passion leads to skill mastery, which results in success.  

And here’s what Elizabeth Gilbert says about passion in Big Magic: 

“‘All you need to do is follow your passion and everything will be fine.’ I think this can be an unhelpful and even cruel suggestion at times…if someone has a clear passion, odds are they’re already following it and they don’t need anyone to tell them to pursue it. But a lot of people don’t know exactly what their passion is, or they have multiple passions, or they may be going through a midlife change of passion—all of which can leave them feeling confused and blocked and insecure.” 

Gilbert makes a fair point in that telling people to follow their passions can make them feel bad if they don’t have any. But it’s also fair to say that people might not know their passions because they were never encouraged to seek them. They were always encouraged to go the safe route and never got the chance to follow their curiosity and pursue what they were truly passionate about.

We’ve built this narrative as a society that if you follow your passions, you’ll become a “starving artist.” But I don’t think that narrative holds anymore.

We are fortunate enough to live in a time when we can monetize practically anything if we want to. If you want to run a basket-weaving business or goat farm, you can create a business from it; all you need is someone willing to pay for your products or services. And in a consumption-oriented society, it’s now easier than ever.

We all find ourselves at a crossroads at some point in our lives (call it a quarter-life or mid-life crisis) where we no longer feel passionate about our work and want to switch to something more aligned with our passions. 

Instead of waiting until we’re on the brink of burnout and frustration, why not find a way to pursue your passions now? I believe we aren’t meant to spend our entire lives doing one thing. We can change careers, pivot, and build a more passion-filled life than past generations. We just need to have the courage to do it. 

As creatives, we need passion to survive. We have to be encouraged to follow our interests, regardless of where they lead. We have to know that making a living from our passions is an option if we’re brave enough to try.

In the words of Irene Cara, “Take your passion and make it happen.”

CREATIVE CORNER

• 🎞️ What I’m Consuming: I rewatched season 2 of The Bear in anticipation of season 3 dropping this week. “Forks” is still the best episode, and Richie still has the best character arc.

• 💡 What I’m Loving: I watched this video from Alex Hormozi, where he talks about this idea of “manager” versus “maker” time. It's worth watching if you want to make more space in your schedule to work on creative work.

• 🎨 What I’m Working On: I’m working through You Can Draw in 30 Days to improve my drawing skills—it’s a great way to disassociate and take a break from the screens.

• 💭 Weekly Musing:

Thank you 💕

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I’m so grateful for all of your support!

Alexa Phillips is a writer, brand strategist, and multi-passionate creative. She is the founder and Chief Brand Architect at Bright Eyes Creative, a creative studio that helps coaches, creators, and consultants monetize their zone of genius and creativity through courses, content, and productized offers.

P.S. — I’m getting ready to launch a new business offer. Check it out and join the waitlist here.