You 2.0: The Passion Pill
In this episode of Hidden Brain, behavioral scientist Jan Jachimowicz and host Shankar Vedantam explore the complexities of pursuing professional passions. Through personal stories and case studies, they examine how turning a passion into a career can lead to unexpected challenges, including burnout and emotional distress when one's identity becomes too intertwined with their work.
The discussion delves into different approaches to maintaining sustainable passion, including the German concept of "leidenschaft"—which acknowledges that passion often involves enduring hardship. Through examples ranging from professional athletes to musicians to service workers, Jachimowicz and Vedantam investigate how redefining our relationship with passion can lead to personal growth and suggest that the key might lie in the ongoing pursuit of solutions rather than achieving specific goals.
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Personal Journeys and Experiences In Pursuing Passions
In this episode, Shankar Vedantam and behavioral scientist Jan Jachimowicz explore the evolution and challenges of pursuing professional passions. Jachimowicz shares his personal story of being inspired by Dr. Paul Farmer's work in "Mountains Beyond Mountains," which sparked his desire to create meaningful change in the world. However, his initial enthusiasm faced setbacks when his academic work failed to create the real-world impact he had hoped for, leading to a period of disillusionment.
Challenges and Pitfalls Of Turning Passions Into Careers
Vedantam and Jachimowicz discuss how pursuing passion professionally can be complex. Jachimowicz introduces the German concept of "leidenschaft," which acknowledges that passion often involves enduring hardship. They explore cases like Alexandra Wozniak, a former top Canadian tennis player who experienced burnout, and entrepreneur Brooke Boyarsky Pratt, who found that running her own company led to emotional distress when her identity became too intertwined with her career.
The Need to Redefine Passions
The discussion highlights various ways people have successfully redefined their passions. They share the story of a chef who rekindled his love for cooking by focusing on creating connections through food rather than pursuing culinary perfection. Elizabeth Rowe, the principal flutist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, demonstrates how letting go of a long-held passion can lead to personal growth, as she took a sabbatical to explore life beyond music.
The Complex Relationship Between Passion, Performance, and Obsession
Jachimowicz shares his mother's story of finding unexpected fulfillment as a retirement home cleaning staff member, where she found purpose in mentoring younger immigrants. Drawing from Paul Farmer's example, Jachimowicz suggests that maintaining passion might not be about finding resolution but rather about continuing to pursue new solutions to challenges. This ongoing pursuit, rather than achieving a final goal, may be what keeps passion alive.
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Actionables
- You can reflect on your professional journey by writing a "Passion Map" to visualize the evolution of your interests and how they align with your current work. Start by drawing a timeline of your career, marking significant events, projects, and turning points. Next to each, note how passionate you felt at the time and what factors contributed to those feelings. This can help you identify patterns and decide if you need to pivot or dive deeper into certain areas.
- Develop a "Passion-Hardship Balance Sheet" to assess whether the struggles in your job are worth the passion you feel. On one side, list the aspects of your work that ignite your passion, and on the other, the hardships you face. Assign values to each based on their impact on your well-being and satisfaction. If the hardships outweigh the passion, consider seeking changes that can tip the balance back in favor of your passion.
- Create a "Passion Project Hour" in your weekly schedule where you dedicate time to an aspect of your work that you're passionate about but isn't necessarily part of your job description. This could be learning a new skill, volunteering for a different department, or working on a side project. By carving out this time, you ensure that you're feeding your passion without the pressure of it being your primary responsibility.
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Personal Journeys and Experiences In Pursuing Passions
Shankar Vedantam and behavioral scientist Jan Jachimowicz explore the evolution and challenges of nurturing professional passions over time, drawing from Jachimowicz's personal journey of desire for meaningful work and the disparities between expectation and reality in impact achievement.
An Immigrant's Path To Finding Purpose and Passion
Jan's Background and World-Changing Desire, Inspired by "Mountains Beyond Mountains"
Jan Jachimowicz's life and aspirations were profoundly shaped by his family's history and experiences. Born and raised in Germany to Jewish parents who immigrated from post-WWII Warsaw, Poland, after facing anti-Semitic campaigns, Jan's upbringing was colored by struggles and isolation. These challenges sparked in him a deep desire to create a fairer and kinder world.
A pivotal moment occurred when Jan, fresh out of high school, read "Mountains Beyond Mountains," Tracy Kidder's biography of Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer's dedication to public health and his extraordinary efforts, such as bringing a Haitian boy to Boston for surgery, inspired Jan to pursue a passionate and meaningful career. The story narrating how Farmer would hike for hours to treat patients in remote Haitian areas instilled in Jan a belief that individual efforts could tackle global challenges.
Struggling to Maintain Passion and Enthusiasm
Publication Failures: No Real-World Impact
Yet, Jon Jachimowicz's initial zeal faced a stark reality when his published academic paper fell short of creating the anticipated real-world impact. Contrary to his expectations, the paper did not attract the attention of major decision-m ...
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Personal Journeys and Experiences In Pursuing Passions
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Actionables
- Reflect on personal experiences to identify a cause you're passionate about and start small by volunteering locally. By volunteering, you can make a tangible impact in your community, which can be more immediately rewarding and impactful than academic pursuits. For example, if you care about food security, volunteer at a local food bank or community garden.
- Create a personal impact journal to document your efforts and their outcomes. This can help you stay motivated and track progress, especially during times of disillusionment. For instance, if you mentor a student, keep a record of their academic improvements or milestones, which can serve as a reminder of the value of your work.
- Engage in regular discussions with p ...
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Challenges and Pitfalls Of Turning Passions Into Careers
Turning passions into careers can be a double-edged sword, and individuals often face various challenges and risks when they decide to pursue their passions professionally.
The Tension Between Passion and Performance
Passion can lead to anxiety and reduced performance at work
Vedantam and Jachimowicz discuss the darker side of pursuing one's passion as a career, debunking the myth that it is always joyful and fulfilling. Passion can indeed lead to anxiety and reduced performance at work, especially when personal interests are turned into full-time jobs. The change in the nature of a passionate activity, when it becomes a source of income and status, can lead to increased stress and ultimately a compromised job performance. Maintaining passion is difficult when tasks don't evoke the initial joy that was once attached to them.
For instance, Jachimowicz contrasts with the American view of passion, exploring the German conception of "leidenschaft," which includes the notion of enduring hardship as part of being passionate. He suggests that passion often involves tackling daily challenges and sometimes even suffering because of a belief in the importance of the work.
Alexandra Wozniak, once a top Canadian tennis player, experienced burnout when tennis transformed from being a source of joy to being about maintaining success and managing external pressures. The challenges of keeping the passion alive are particularly evident when the tasks at hand do not inherently evoke passion, as is often the case in rigorous fields like research or athletics. The belief in one's ability to pursue a passion can falter without immediate successful outcomes, which in turn can result in anxiety and less than optimal performance.
Similarly, entrepreneur Brooke Boyarsky Pratt found that starting her own company led her to work twice as many hours as she did in her previous secure job, causing emotional distress. When her identity began to intertwine with her career, the emotional toll of fluctuating success and failure posed a significant ...
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Challenges and Pitfalls Of Turning Passions Into Careers
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Clarifications
- Alexandra Wozniak is a former professional tennis player from Canada who achieved success in the sport. She faced challenges and burnout as the competitive nature of tennis shifted her focus from enjoyment to managing external pressures and maintaining success. This transition from passion to pressure is a common experience for athletes when their love for the game becomes intertwined with the demands of professional competition.
- Merging one's identity with professional endeavors means that a person's sense of self becomes closely intertwined with their work or career. This can lead to defining oneself primarily through their job, deriving a significant portion of their self-worth and identity from their professional achievements. When this happens, success or failure in the professional realm can directly impact one's self-esteem and overall well-being. It can blur the boundaries between personal life and work, making it challenging to separate one's identity from their professional role.
- The delicate balance between perseverance and self-care invo ...
Counterarguments
- Passion as a source of resilience and innovation, not just anxiety and reduced performance.
- The potential for passion to enhance performance by increasing engagement and job satisfaction.
- The possibility that stress from pursuing passions can be mitigated with proper support systems and time management.
- The idea that passion can evolve and adapt, maintaining its joy even in a professional context.
- The argument that hardship and suffering are not inherent to passion but can be a result of external pressures or misaligned expectations.
- The success stories of individuals who thrive under pressure and use their passion to fuel their performance.
- The notion that identity and work can be integrated in a healthy way, leading to a fulfilling career.
- The perspective that obsession ...
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The Need to Redefine Passions
The article examines the experiences of individuals who have faced the challenge of redefining success and passion, exploring how it's possible to find new meaning in one's life and career by reevaluating what truly matters.
Chef Rekindles Passion By Shifting Focus
Connecting People Through Food, Not Perfection
Highlighted is a chef deeply passionate about food, yet at a point in his high-end culinary career, he felt a wane in his passion. Behavioral scientist Jan Jachimowicz posits that to remain passionate, it may be necessary to reinvent oneself and one's approach. The chef, after feeling the loss of passion, took a break from New York to travel through Central and Latin America, where he indulged in photography, capturing connections between people.
These experiences led him to an epiphany. He realized that his love for cooking stemmed from creating meals that brought people together to share and connect. Returning from his travels, he shifted to working in a restaurant where the focus was not on culinary excellence or perfection, but on fostering an environment where the food served as a medium for human connection.
Letting Go Of Passion to Embrace a New Path
Elizabeth Rowe's Transition From Flutist to Coach
The journey of Elizabeth Rowe, the principal flutist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, illustrates the difficulty of letting go of a deep-seated passion. Despite achieving a pinnacle of success, she eventually felt an urge to contemplate a broader scope for her life beyond music. Vacating such a prestigious position is rare, and thus her deliberation was unconventional.
Jachimowicz speaks of Rowe, who experienced doubts while considering a transition away from her celebrated role as a flutist. She took a sabbatical year, during which she abstained from playing to determine if she would miss it. After this period of exploration, Rowe acknowledged her intrinsic value beyond her musical talent.
Overcoming Sunk Cost Fallacy and Identity Fear
Rowe's decision was daunting; her identity was intertwined with her career as a flutist. Shankar Vedantam notes that walking away from a 4 ...
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The Need to Redefine Passions
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Clarifications
- Jan Jachimowicz is a behavioral scientist known for his research on topics related to motivation, decision-making, and behavior change. He often explores how individuals can redefine their goals and passions to lead more fulfilling lives. Jachimowicz's work delves into the psychological aspects of personal growth and adaptation, offering insights on how people can navigate transitions and find new sources of motivation.
- The sunk cost fallacy is the tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made, even if the current costs outweigh the benefits. People often let past investments influence their decisions, even when those investments are no longer relevant to the outcome. It can lead to irrational decision-making by focusing on recouping past losses rather than objectively assessing the situation. Overcoming this fallacy involves recognizing that past investments should not dictate future choices.
- Shankar Vedantam is an Ame ...
Counterarguments
- While reinventing oneself can rekindle passion, it may not be a viable option for everyone due to financial, personal, or societal constraints.
- The concept of letting go of a deep-seated passion to embrace a new path might not acknowledge the complexity of individual attachments and the grief that can accompany such a transition.
- Overcoming the sunk cost fallacy is important, but the text may oversimplify the emotional and psychological challenges involved in making significant life changes.
- Redefining passion and success can lead to personal growth, but it may also lead to uncertainty and instability, which can have negative consequences for some individuals.
- The stories presented may not represent the experiences of the majority, as they focus on successful individuals who had the resources and opportunities to make such transitions. ...
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The Complex Relationship Between Passion, Performance, and Obsession
The program delves into the nuanced dynamics of staying engaged in one's passions and contemplates the boundaries where passion meets performance and can verge into obsession.
Finding Meaning and Purpose Over Pleasure
Jon Jachimowicz shares a personal account of how his mother found profound fulfillment in a job that many might consider mundane. After losing her job during the financial crisis and struggling to find new employment despite retraining, she landed a position as a member of the cleaning staff at a retirement home. This role turned out to be the most passionate job she ever had, and she held onto it until her retirement.
As an immigrant in Germany for almost 30 years, she used her experiences to mentor younger immigrant colleagues, offering guidance on navigating German life, from dealing with authorities to cultural nuances. She went beyond her assigned duties, for example, driving a colleague to work who was intimidated by German traffic. This demonstrated to Jachimowicz that the depth of passion and purpose in a job isn't always determined by its surface-level tasks, as his mother’s seemingly mundane role was where she discovered significant passion and fulfillment.
Accepting Passion May Never Be Resolved
Jachimowicz talks about the idea of full commitment to a cause, inspired by readings such as "Mountains Beyond Mountains." This all-in approach and belief in tackling formidable challenges attracted him and many others who have found that despite intense dedication to their passions, feelings associated with these pursuits can inevitably fade, causing confusion and distress.
While details of "Mountains Beyond Mountains" are not explicitly discussed in the transcript, it's clear that Jachimowicz was moved by the book's protagonist, Paul Farmer's relentle ...
Here’s what you’ll find in our full summary
The Complex Relationship Between Passion, Performance, and Obsession
Additional Materials
Counterarguments
- Passion in a job might not be sustainable for everyone, and what worked for Jachimowicz's mother may not apply universally.
- Some individuals may find that mentoring and going beyond assigned duties can lead to burnout if not properly recognized or compensated.
- Surface-level tasks can affect job satisfaction, as not everyone may be able to find deeper meaning in certain types of work.
- Full commitment to a cause might not be practical for everyone, especially those with multiple responsibilities or limited resources.
- While Farmer's approach is admirable, it may not be the most effective strategy for everyone; some may find that balance and self-care are necessary to sustain their efforts against injustice.
- The idea that ...
Actionables
- You can find deeper meaning in your current job by identifying how your role impacts others and actively seeking to mentor or support new colleagues. For instance, if you work in retail, take the time to guide a new employee through the nuances of customer service, sharing insights that aren't in the training manual. This not only helps them but also gives you a sense of purpose in contributing to their growth.
- Maintain your passion for a cause by setting small, achievable goals that contribute to the larger issue. If you're passionate about environmental conservation, instead of feeling overwhelmed by the global challenge, focus on organizing a local river cleanup. This provides a tangible sense of progress and keeps your passion alive through continuous action.
- Cultivate a habit of reflecting on the ev ...
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