So on this forum this might be a really dumb question but what the heck…
Is there anyone out there who is not truely passionate about something?
What I mean about passionate is something that if told you could never do again, you would be really, really devastated, and not sure what to do or how you were going to live with out it? Something you spend lots of time on now.
I posed this at work and was somewhat surprised with how many of my co-workers said No. (me included).
I haven’t really been able to run for over 6 months and now biking is giving me trouble as well (hip issues.) Even though I’ve been doing tri’s since '98, I never considered myself passionate about swimming, biking or running, but after a not so good visit to the ortho yesterday I couldn’t stop crying. I pretty much cried all day and got choked up again today when a friend asked what I was training for. I guess I’m way more passionate about running and cycling than I thought.
What I mean about passionate is something that if told you could never do again, you would be really, really devastated, and not sure what to do or how you were going to live with out it?
You mean besides the Lions? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…I kill me!
Bernie
QRgirl,
I know where you are right now with this. In 2002, I found out the hard way how “passionate” I was about running. I had chronic ITBS and couldn’t shake no matter how much time I took off from running or how much physical therapy I did. It lasted 2 years, truly the darkest 2 years of my life. I never realized how integrated running was into my life. Until then, it was really something I did just to keep my weight under control. I think that what makes it worse is that the injury takes on a life of its own, especially as we try to beat it. I was lucky because I finally found a solution that works for me (a chiropractor that performs ART), but I understand how you feel. Running is a huge part of my life, I love it way more than biking or swimming. It is a source of amusement to me that I love running but it is probably my worst discipline of the three.
I can be very passionate about my job. I love being a fire fighter and a paramedic. But, for reasons I think it best not to talk about here, I try to keep my job at arm’s length. I used to be passionate about the saxophone. I lived, ate, and breathed it. But I moved on from that.
I don’t know if there is anything that will be a “life-time” passion for me (besides my wife). But there are several things that I can think of that I have been passionate about at any one time. Triathlon, woodworking, music are among those.
Education is coming back in my life as well. I am learning that I will likely be a student for a good portion of my adult life!
Bernie
So on this forum this might be a really dumb question but what the heck…
Is there anyone out there who is not truely passionate about something?
What I mean about passionate is something that if told you could never do again, you would be really, really devastated, and not sure what to do or how you were going to live with out it? Something you spend lots of time on now.
I posed this at work and was somewhat surprised with how many of my co-workers said No. (me included).
Ask them if they are passionate about breathing. I would think that would change their minds. 
“you could never do again, you would be really, really devastated,”
Scuba diving, without a doubt. If told I could never ride my bicycle again it would be hard but I could find another way to stay fit. But scuba diving can’t be replaced.
Never being allowed to see nature’s natural beauty in the underwater world would be truly devastating. The most memorable moments of my life have occured there.
Education is coming back in my life as well. I am learning that I will likely be a student for a good portion of my adult life!
Right there with you, Bern. The main reason I’m pursuing a PA career is for the opportunity to continue learning and applying that knowledge in a branch of a field that currently has no ceiling, not necessarily because the physical nature of the work would appeal to me more than working in the field with the public as an independent medic. Once you hit the relatively low ceiling of knowledge and opportunity in this line of work, it becomes more tiresome and intellectually stifling (which may explain why I troll the LR for stimulating conversation as opposed to, well, other places I would certainly consider education a passion of mine; the athletic elements of my life probably qualify as well, particularly ultra-running.
Two things I’ve always wanted to pursue recreationally, that I think I could easily develop a passion for, are woodworking and music. Go figure.
Once you hit the relatively low ceiling of knowledge and opportunity in this line of work, it becomes more tiresome and intellectually stifling (which may explain why I troll the LR for stimulating conversation as opposed to, well, other places
THere is certainly a pretty-low ceiling. I am in a relatively small department (40). It is pretty good most of the time. There is one guy that I have watched over the years and he is completely unhappy. He is definitely passionate about fire fighting and EMS. But he keeps hitting his head on the low ceiling. It is kind of amusing in a mean-spirited sort of way. So he went out and got himself a degree. Now it is even worse for him, because “now that I have an education I can really see all of the problems around here!” HA! I keep trying to tell him that the only real problem we have is well…YOU. He thinks I’m kidding. So now he is trying to get an MBA, like that will make it any better. Honestly, he is insufferable. He keeps asking me why I am pursuing a degree that is outside of the fire-service. And I keep telling him that while I love what I am doing now, once I retire, I don’t want to continue working in the fire service. He doesn’t get it.
Woodworking is cool. I have found that I have a pretty limited aptitude for it though. I can make some nice things I guess, it’s just that it takes me a long time to do it. The music thing is a little different. In high school and college (the first time) I was in a bunch of bands and I even used to write and arrange music. But the problem there was that there was a “use it or lose it” sort of thing. Once I started developing other interests, I became unable to spend the time necessary to keep up the skills. Then frustration set in. It is hard ot love something you are frustrated about. I still love music just in a different way.
Bernie
We’ve got a few of them around as well. Our department is roughly 150, give or take 10, and the number of people I can actually relate to on a personal level is increasingly limited (most that I do have already had that “why am I doing this again?” moment, usually around the 5-year mark). Professionally, we’ve got guys pursuing masters degree’s in EMS-related fields, only to knock their heads against that same ceiling that is comprised of good-old-boys who have simply stuck it out longer (or, as I describe it in my weaker moments, those who have had the most limited options for the longest period of time). I will most likely continue to work in this profession in the future, but not for my livelihood. I can’t imagine leaving it altogether, at least not at this point.
I’ve found my best woodworking is done in macro-form, usually involving circular saws, hammers and drills. I’m good at making big, sturdy stuff, and from a good distance, it almost looks good, too. I have a thing about right angles, though. We never really got along, so we mostly avoid each-other.
I was watching a program about Les Paul last night on PBS, wondering what kind of rare talent I may be sitting on, completely untapped and unknown. I think everyone has that one thing, but very few ever find it. There’s a great commercial about finding your true calling (monster.com, or one of those resume-posting sites), where Larry Bird is shown working behind the counter in a paint store, passing the time by shooting paper baskets into a garbage can. Boy, can I relate. I’ve got the most amazing talent, but I’ll be damned if I can find it. With my luck, it’ll probably be something completely useless, like my wife’s uncanny ability to recite every jingle for every product ever marketed during her 32 years of life. She can’t remember where she left her car keys on a regular basis, or that half the time, they’re stuck in the front door from yesterday, but she knows every note and word to every commercial for every product you’ve never even heard of.
Is there anyone out there who is not truely passionate about something? <<
Someone not passionate about something in life is not to be trusted!
My list:
travel
swim/bike/run/lift
reading
clm
I used to be consumed by skydiving for a few years. Tried it once, was hooked, got into it (as expensive or more than tri’s sometimes!) and never thought I would ever want to give it up.
Did a jump the weekend before 9/11 where a guy and I carried the American and Pennsylvania flags into a new soccer facility for the school where I grew up. It was a perfect day, a perfect jump and a perfect crowd to boot. I got to jump out over my home town, it was windy so we opened high and traveled over where I grew up under canopy and landed in front of a bunch of people and teachers I hadn’t seen for years. Plus my wife (GF at the time) and now stepdaughter were there watching.
Then after 9/11 they shut the skies down for a while and I took a few weekends off of jumping. Then, for whatever reason I didn’t go back the first weekend they were able to jump again. Then a few weeks grew into months and then the next thing I know I put my rig (skydiving term for parachute and container), helmets and all my gear on e-bay and didn’t even think twice about it. I had a lot of fun and jumped out of some really cool things (727 jet, B-24 bomber, helicopters, hot air balloons, biplanes), but I also saw a few people get hurt REALLY bad over the 3-4 years I jumped. For whatever reason the last jump I did in my old home town seemed like a perfect ending to a jumping career and it was never gonna get better than that, so for whatever reason I had no desire to ever jump again. If you would have told me that before that jump I would have said you were nuts. The only thing I ever miss is the fun and excitement on new jumpers faces and their fear when you put them out for their first jump or video’d them on a tandem.
Then I got really into golf after that then last June saw an ad for a sprint tri, figured that’d be fun and now I’m hooked. It’s funny how you come back to your roots though as I was a swimmer all through YMCA and High School and raced bikes for 2-3 years after high school back in the early 90’s and as soon as I got into tri’s I still had the same fire I had back then.
Funny though how I now could care less about golf (I was down to a 4-5 handicap) and my one friend occasionally goes skydiving but I dont’ have any desire to do that at all.
Without passion your dead. Go check the grave yard.
I’m with you on the running thing. I’ve been w/o running for 9 months now. Slowly starting back. It sucks. I would give up swimming and biking if I knew I could run again.
I grew up the kid of a runner, and a runner myself. My entire life I identified myself as a runner. After my last knee surgery in 2002, my orthos pretty much said…you won’t run at all. My 2nd opinion said “eh, maybe a couple of days a week of easy jogging…but that’s it.” For a couple years, I was DEVASTATED. I mean destoyed. You’d think I had lost my best friend. And MAN was I a bitch. Then, one day, I got over it. Now, I enjoy what limited running I can do, and have moved on. the world didn’t end b/c I couldn’t run.
The one thing I don’t think I could ever live without (breathing and eating/drinking aside) is animals. I am passionate about animals. I could not imagine living a life without pets in my home. Having to give them up would be just about the worst thing I could imagine. There’s just something amazingly intuitive about companion animals that I find irresistable. In many, mnay ways, i prefer them to people 
What I mean about passionate is something that if told you could never do again, you would be really, really devastated, and not sure what to do or how you were going to live with out it?
You mean besides the Lions? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…I kill me!
Bernie
I think I might kill you to
I busted out laughing at that one. Thanks I needed a good laugh.
Is there anyone out there who is not truely passionate about something? <<
Someone not passionate about something in life is not to be trusted!
…
clm
Don’t trust me then.
Without passion your dead. Go check the grave yard.
Have not seen my Headstone yet but will keep looking ;)
I have moved through several hobbies in the past 15 years, Golf, Woodworking, Old Cars, and now Tri’s. I have to say I appear to be sticking with this tri thing the longest.
Partly cause of the health benefits and partly cause I truely have not gotten completely into it and am still way overweight and slow. But am enjoying spending to much time here and buying cool bike stuff.
I like doing creative things…
This is a very broad term, “creative things”, but I mean that I ‘can’t’ do anything the traditional way. I’m just not ‘normal’. I can never decorate a room using just store-bought furniture. I can’t wear normal store-bought clothes (like from The Gap or someplace). I can’t drive a regular car without doing something to it (I hand-paint my tire covers – right now there’s a picture of Botticelli’s Venus on the shell). I can’t hold down a regular 9-5 job because it bores me to tears (but I’ll work a 12-hr self-employed career). I even had to have my own house built.
I’ve been an artist since I was a child; I went to art school to get my degree. I am successful in photography, print design, video-editing, costume design, prop design, special effects, etc – and this doesn’t even include the live-action performances I can be creative about.
Even my coaching isn’t normal: I don’t coach “triathlon” (or any other sport) - I created my own programs which teach clients ‘mindfulness’ regarding lifestyle: eating, training, stress-reduction, time-management, thoughts, goals, etc. It’s almost CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) but not at all.
If someone ever said that I had to toe a traditional line —ie: remove my creative directions-- I’d probably shrivel and bleed, which I have done… and then I’ve bounced back with creative directions.
Fitnesscoach,
Beautiful. Thanks for your comments. I just visited your website and spent an hour there (and signed up for the Daily OM). There is peace in passion.