The Importance of Passion in Choosing Your Career

The Importance of Passion in Choosing Your Career Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name July 22, 2019 Throughout the years several studies have already been conducted about the role of passion in shaping a person’s career. On the one hand, proponents of the idea that passion is important strongly suggests that passion leads to a greater overall success in life and in career. On the other hand, the opponents of this idea shows that there are a variety of factors that could affect one’s career paths and choices, making passion either less important of not important at all. In the succeeding chapters of this article, some of these arguments would be discussed in greater detail. Nonetheless, the author believes that while passion is important for achieving career success, there are a lot of other factors that must be considered to reach one’s dreams in life. Factors Affecting Career Success in Life Before working on the idea that passion is important for one’s success in career and in life, it is first important to understand the definition of success. While what is considered as successful can vary a lot from different individuals, its definition could be narrowed down to two important categories, namely (1) fulfillment and (2) monetary or status rewards. On the one hand, fulfillment refers to how a person views his career, position, or role in the workplace. Following this idea, a worker who feels ‘fulfilled’ with his role of photocopying documents, could be said as more successful than a CEO who feels unsatisfied with his rank and position CITATION Alh19 \l 1033 (Alhanati, 2019). In contrast to this, success could also be defined as the achievement of a high-ranking position in an organization or the acquisition of great sums of money in one’s profession CITATION Boh18 \l 1033 (Bohanes, 2018). This definition is the one that is more commonly known definition as compared to others. However, it must also be noted that these classifications are not mutually exclusive from each other. There are even times when the two is very difficult to distinguish from one another, especially since there are people who either acquires fulfillment through the acquisition of great sums of money, or those who gained a lot of money by following the things that they are passionate about. Thus, for the purpose of this article, success should always strike a balance between being able to do what one is passionate about and acquiring money and status out of it. Each of these factors would be discussed in the following sections. Theories on Passion and Success As stated earlier, there are different schools of thought related to the importance of passion towards success, or more particularly how could one strike a balance between ‘fulfillment’ and ‘monetary or status rewards’. To further understand these two approaches, two contradicting theories about passion for work should be noted, namely (1) fit theory and (2) develop theory CITATION Che15 \l 1033 (Chen, Ellsworth, & Schwarz, 2015). According to the fit theory, choosing a career that is in line with a personal passion and be true to the location where a person will find truly meaningful work. The fit theory advises that choose a career path that will give individuals higher positive outcomes, such as positive workflow, entrepreneurial initiative, decreased burnout and general work satisfaction, where work is a reward in itself. Looking for a career path that is the fit to the person's passion requires a great deal of matching suitable work for people that will generate great job satisfaction and lower psychological stress CITATION Che15 \l 1033 (Chen, Ellsworth, & Schwarz, 2015). On the other hand, the development theory suggests that there a perfect job to fit a person is almost impossible to find especially in the high competition within the jobs market that making people lose the luxury of choosing jobs that is the in line with a person's passion. The fit theory only describes what is ideal; however, the realistic approach of the development theory suggests that choose a career that is financially stable, then, create mastery over the skills needed in completing a work. The development theory suggests that developing passion through hard work is better than expecting an ideal scenario that is not realistic to everyone. However, the result of Chen et al’s (2015) study showed that people's beliefs are not a function of the socioeconomic background of the person where annual income was not associated with the people's choice in choosing either theory. Choosing which theory to follow depends on the situation of the individual. A person should try and find a "perfect fit" first if there is a presupposed passion within the heart of the individual. On the contrary, if a person does not yet have anything to be passionate about, then, develop a passion through hard work. While the results of their research supports both the proponent’s (e.g., Alhanati, 2019) and the opponent’s (e.g., Bohanes, 2018), what is resounding in the research is that passion is important for one’s career success regardless of whether it is innate or developed for the individual. In the succeeding sections of this article, this idea would be expounded by understanding the two factors of success that was provided above, namely fulfilment and monetary and status rewards. Categories of Passion and Success Fulfillment In an article written by McKay, a career planning expert, she suggests that having a successful career only needs a person to enjoy doing the work rather than worrying on finding a job that is in line with a person's passion. This contention is similar with the idealistic fit theory, provided by Chen et al. (2015). The author pointed out that there are advantages when choosing a career that is consistent with a person's passion like the suggestions of many career experts that a career should be personally satisfying for it to be meaningful; however, finding and following a passion creates mental recoil that contributes to stress and confusion rather than feelings of personal satisfaction. Added by the author, passion is too emotionally compact and a very strong word to describe a career choice, so it is better to choose a career that is enjoyable, rather than passionate. The author explained that there are more important factors that contribute to achieving success other than passion. People only need to choose a career path that is fit with their "personality type, interest and values" to achieve career satisfaction. The author presents a neutral view onto the importance of passion in choosing a career. This post does not discredit the importance of passion as a great contributor of success in a chosen career; however, most people don’t have any particular activities to be passionate about but are successful in careers they only enjoy doing, making passion not the only factor of success CITATION Mck18 \l 1033 (Mckay, 2018). In another article written by Alhanati (2019), he discussed the importance of following the things that you are passionate about. Particularly, he said that passion is greatly important regardless of whether the person is trying to start a new business venture or choosing a new career path. He even added that even though there are other factors that may contribute to personal success like talent, intellect, and ambition; passion is often the distinguishing factor on what makes a person successful or not. Again, it must be noted that passion in this case relates to fulfillment or the “achievement” of a strong personal desire, rather than the acquisition of great sums of money or status. In a similar study conducted by Forest et al (2011), being able to follow one’s passion helps one’s career more fulfilling, especially in high-ranking jobs, as it gives the additional emotional and psychological boosts to the satisfaction already provided by career growth. Nonetheless, going back to the contention of Alhanati (2019), she added that one of the reasons why passionate people often becomes successful is because following one’s desire will tend to make them create investments that are in line with their personal satisfaction and enthusiastically to face overwhelming odds. In other words, Alhanati (2019) noted that passion makes people invest so much time and effort to try and overcome different faces of adversity; therefore, achieving success. In an article written by Schumer (2018), she supported how importaed following one’s passion is for the betterment of a person’s psychological capacity, which is essential to improve a person’s performance. According to her, “The author further explained that pursuing passion help in decreasing mental health issues such as stress and increase the overall happiness that a person will experience overtime.” To support her contention, she started her article the story of Andrew Rea. Rea was a former visual effects supervisor at a well-paying company; however, Rea eventually seeks professional help since he was overtaken by depression. Having a passion for cooking and film making, Rea focused on changing his career path to pursue his passions rather than the high paying job of his former company. According to Schumer’s article, Rea, currently have a popular YouTube channel called “Binging With Babish,” which is an online cooking show that recreates popular dishes in movies. This inspired Rea to overcome his depression by following his passion. In Schumer’s (2018) point of view, passion can inspire a person to create a new sense of meaning in life. She also furthered that, in order for passion to turn into a career, a mental picture of what a person aims to be in the future is essential, then, working backward to see the individual’s starting point. This is similar with Chen et al’s (2015), fit theory which focuses on finding the individual’s passion and us...