“Follow your passion” isn’t necessarily bad career advice
I’m writing a book around career change - specifically, how to use the skill set you already possess to make a career transition. And I’m not planning on including anything about the idea of following your passion.
However, I bring it up here because it’s a common (and I mean common) question asked by my job seekers - “How do I find my passion?”
I believe there’s nothing wrong with asking this question or thinking about your career from this concept. I also believe that we can have a productive conversation about career change using this as a starting point.
The “follow your bliss” concept (from the PBS series The Power of Myth) is believed to be the reference point for the “follow your passion” movement of the late 2000s. It’s also believed that Joseph Campbell’s interpretation of dharma from the Bhagavad Gita is based on an incomplete translation.
I’m fascinated by all of this - so much so that I’m seeking out commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita and digging into career advice from the 1950s to the 1990s. I’m exploring generational thinking and language patterns across each decade. I’m asking the question, “Were we slowly building our way to the ‘follow your passion’ movement all along?”
I’m becoming convinced that “follow your bliss” was the convenient, easy-to-repeat catchphrase that helped summarize the desires of a lost and despondent generation. I watch interviews with 20-somethings and 30-somethings that were filmed in the 70s and 80s. It’s almost painful to watch them talk about their jobs and careers - as if they’re somehow doomed to misery. (Thank you, David Hoffman, for filming these incredible interviews.)
It’s no wonder to me that the movement emerged as it did - and why we still cling to it, using it as a solution to escape an unhappy career.
As I learn more about the roots of these movements - and as I dig more into the original meaning of dharma - I might unearth something that could actually help my job seekers as they work their way to a successful career transition.
But until I do, my notes on following your passion will just hang out on my desktop. ;)
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