Should You Really Follow Your Passion?

Last week I was watching Shark Tank, a great show about entrepreneurs that are asking investors for financial investment in their ideas in exchange for part ownership in their company.  One of the entrepreneurs was explaining how he decided to follow his passion and one of the sharks responded with a statement that lept out and smacked me!  He said, “Everyone talks about following their passion.  People should be talking about following their effort.”

How incredibly profound!  We spend a lot of time talking about our passions but do our efforts reflect that?  Do the priorities and choices we make every day align to what we say is important to us and what we’re passionate about?

Let’s say your dream is to start your own business.  How much time to you spend thinking, dreaming, and talking about it versus actually doing something about it?  If you say that you are passionate about spending time with family, but when you’re with them you’re checking email and constantly on the phone, are your efforts really showing that your family is your passion?

Being passionate is wonderful.  Demonstrating effort that makes your passions a reality is even better.