Follow your passion.

You’ll hear this a lot. And yes, it’s important to pay some heed to it. Because it makes you believe in what you’re about to do, the journey that you are ready to embark upon. It makes you believe that it is completely worth it.

I don’t deny it — I believe in nurturing our passion and the happiness that you derive from being able to follow what your heart wants is truly unparalleled. But at the same time, it is important to realise that *that* alone doesn’t always work out, no matter how strongly you feel about it.

To be honest, much like many other things, ‘following your passion’ is quite over-romanticised. Because we don’t talk about it. Much of harder truth, like in parenting, relationships and marriage, is never spoken about. Which means people only see the ‘amazing adventure and good things’ part, but none of the sweat and work that goes into it. For instance, look at #blogging or #writing. It’s a ‘passion’ for so many, but a lot want quick fire success — which is either a fluke or doesn’t exist. Most people don’t even ask about the number of drafts it took us to get there, the mind-numbing research we had to do, the number of days we’ve spent watching that blinking cursor taunting us about the empty white space behind it or even about the times when the mouse pointer hovers over the delete button urging us to delete the entire thing we just spent sleepless nights on.

They only see the end product, that glossy well-presented piece of work, and think, ‘Look at her/him. They followed their heart and they’re successful. I should be able to do it too.’ And no, there’s absolutely nothing wrong in someone being inspired to do something because of your work. After all, there is no greater compliment, is there? But here’s the trouble with it. They’re only focussing on the ‘following the passion’ part, and not the sweat, blood, tears, hard work and the rest of the sacrifices you’ve made to get there. And that’s when the trouble starts.

Because passion is only a part of the feeling that makes you commit to a cause. Passion, by itself, isn’t always the sole ingredient that dictates your journey or the outcome. You must be willing to adopt, adapt, evolve and give your 100% to whatever you commit to.

That’s what passion is really about.