Passion Fatigue

Following your passion is just one part. Guarding your passion is another.

It's easy to put too much pressure on your passion if you're not careful. I call this "passion fatigue."

The IKIGAI framework can contribute to this fatigue in some ways. The "AND" equation of being good at something + getting paid for it + the world needing it + loving it is hard to find. It's even harder to maintain it joyfully.

You may experience passion fatigue when there's enormous pressure to make your passion work in all dimensions.

- I experienced this when I made teaching almost a full-time job. That is my first mistake. Fatigue set in.
- My second mistake was to cut all other sources of income and put pressure on Xperian (design school) which put pleasure in the backseat.
- My third mistake was continuing to teach even after the fatigue set in, instead of taking a break.

Fortunately, I picked up a role at Microsoft and couldn't allocate as much time to teaching. Now that I do it more sparingly, my passion is back in full form. I would have never understood passion fatigue if not for this experience.

I recently met a bunch of passionate builders, and my first advice is to not extract everything out of your passion. Allow it to breathe and grow. Savor it. Guarding your passion becomes especially important when you make a profession out of it.

I'm glad I found my passion for teaching back in its original form. I've started categorizing it as "heartful" and "soulful." When you guard your passion, I'd put it under the "soulful" category. You do it so little because it's so precious, and you don't want to put pressure on it anymore.

It's important to be mindful and not do anything that is neither heartful nor soulful. It is a delicate balance to not overdo either of it.

🥂 to soulfulness!