How to find passion
"My passion is sales!"
Heard it before?
Of course you have and you have for sure seen it in a job add.
Passion. This mythical term that we so often associate with success, drive and assertiveness. But also joy, positive emotions and contaigious energy.
Is passion always great?
And if it is....how to track it down?
First of all. Litterature divies passion into two different kinds.
We have on the one side Harmonious passion (HP) and on the other side Obsessive passion (OP).
Harmonius passion refers to a strong, yet controlable, desire to engage into activities that one loves. Passion is a significant part of the individuals identity but is also coherent and well-integrated with other life domains.
Obsessive passion (OP) refers to an uncontrolable urge to engage in activities one loves. However these individuals feels pressured to engage and this rigid engagement can lead to neglect in other aspects of life.
Both HP and OP are associated with a strong commitment to the activity. But they lead to vastly different consequences.
HP is associated to attention, concentration and flow during engagement. It is also associated with positive affect, high-quality relationships and psychological well being.
OP is associated with negative affect, conflict and rumination.
Dalpé et al, 2018 set out to explore the possible correlations between personality and passion. Such a study would suggest just how much of passion can be "enforced" in different ways. Either internally (one pushes oneself) or externally (one being affected by social surroundings, school etc).
OR is passion a consequense of a set of biological personality traits?
The results suggest that HP is posetively related to concienciousness, Openess, Agreeableness and Extraversion.
OP seems to be posetively related to Neutorisism, Agreeableness and Extraversion.
In other words
HP=C+O+A+E
OP=(-C)+(-O)+(-A)+N
Interestingely enough the facet "assertiveness" in the trait of Extraversion seems not to be a major part of HP. It is being passed by warmth and positive emotions by far.
For obvious reasons it is important to identify what kind of passion individuals bring to the table. OP will be not only tearing on the group and the organization but also at the individual itself.
Passion is a strong force that needs to be facilitated and controling for the source of the self-proclaimed passion seems to be of uttermost importance, since not all kinds of passion is constructive.
