Why Following Your Passion ISN'T Always a Good Thing

have you ever been told to just follow your passion and you'll be fine what if I told you that following your passion could actually tank your business I'm Jana Hennemann and today we're talking about why following your passion isn't always the best course of action we're going to get into the pros and cons and navigate this shiny and sometimes misleading piece of information I know I know everyone loves to tell us follow your passion and while that's cute and all here's the reality passion doesn't always pay your bills or bring in clients it's like being told to start a bakery because you love cake but then realizing you can't bake worth a damn perhaps my hobby is knitting doilies sure I can sell them to willing buyers but can I make enough and sell enough doilies to pay my bills probably not so how do we really handle this passion nonsense let's break it down following your passion sounds great on a Pinterest board but in real life it's a one-way ticket to burnout and regret especially if you don't pursue it rightly passion alone doesn't always get you where you want to be it needs to be backed up by skill strategy and a hefty dose of reality so let's dig deeper there are several downsides or pitfalls to following your passion blindly number one it's too emotional passion is emotional and emotions they don't pay the rent business requires logic and logic and feelings don't often play nice when they're in the same room I always say when emotions go up intelligence goes down yeah we need to find the fulcrum in business you know a perfect balance between logic and passion chasing your passion without looking at the Practical side of things can be futile like I know a contractor who loves doing remodels but when it comes to running a business and hiring other contractors while he loves the business he didn't have the skills or the strategy in order to run that business and he ran it right into the ground number two you can be blinded by your love for it when you're in love with an idea you're not always seeing things clearly this passion of yours might make you blind to the fact that the Market's already saturated or your audience doesn't care or you don't have the skills to back it up I knew a lady once who wanted so badly to fall in love that she moved Halfway Around the World to do so she met this wonderful gentleman online and after chatting for a couple of months she moved from England all the way to Southeast Asia she was led by her passion and all logic and reasoning went out the window unfortunately for her after a couple of weeks the relationship did not last and she found herself in another country not knowing what to do and lamenting the fact that she left her life in England because she was in love with the idea of being in love number three the market doesn't always care about your passion the world doesn't owe you anything just because your passionate about something your passion means nothing if the market isn't ready for it or if the market doesn't care passion doesn't always build a business sure it can fuel your drive on how to figure out how to build a business but flying blindly on faith isn't always the answer again there's a fulcrum that needs to be reached a balance if you will number four it can lead to burnout doing something you love sounds great until you're doing it all day every day day in and day out suddenly you don't love it anymore you end up just being tired and broke I have a mentor who After experiencing this several times in his professional career uh kind of wised up and he decided he was going to launch his own business helping business owners fall back in love with their business after they have been burnt out or they're just sick of the same old same old every day now he travels around and he launches something called councils business owners meet and they talk about the trials tribulations and navigate the tricky Seas of being a business owner in essence he helps them find the fulcrums in their business so that their passion doesn't run dry number five it can make you ignore your weaknesses when your head over heels in love with an idea you may overlook your lack of skills or expertise so instead of growing you end up digging yourself a hole because you're more focused on what you're excited about over what actually needs to be done years ago I had decided that I my passion and I I felt my purpose was to support people uh via facilitating them through emotional growth I became a transformational coach and I worked with people predominantly one-on-one and while it was great in the beginning and as my uh clientele list grew I became more and more Overjoyed until I didn't have any time for myself or my family after a while I realized that I was burning myself out sure I had a ton of clients and I loved what I did but over time that passion fizzled right out of me I wasn't charging enough money I didn't have enough boundaries and there was no way for me to grow my business if it was limited to just me doing Ono ones with people long story short I learned the hard way I had to step back re-evaluate and realize that passion wasn't enough I started putting in place a strategy utilizing what I was good at and learning about the things that I needed to know in order to run a successful business and guess what it worked passion alone almost buried me but that passion fueled my way to figure out how to make it all work and while these are some of the downsides of blindly following your passion here are some of the the pros to it some of the good things number one when wielded correctly it can push you to do the things you don't really want to do when you combine passion with practicality you'll start to work on things that actually drive results it's the full passion gives you that extra oomph to get things done number two in pursuing your passion you'll figure out what it is that you're really really good at sometimes passion can make you blind but if you let go of the follow your passion advice and start focusing on what works you'll realize that you might even have some skills you didn't know that you had number three Passion can help you through difficulties when things get tough passion can keep you from quitting also a healthy dose of stubbornness will do that too passion's not going to fix everything but it'll get you through the rough patches when your bank account is screaming at you and you're eating ramen noodles for the third straight night in a row four passion brings fresh perspectives if you find the right mix of passion and purpose it can open your eyes to opportunities that you didn't see before it can make you question the status quo and come up with some new ideas sometimes that little spark is exactly what you need to push forward hardship breeds resilience and passion can get you through those tough times so long as again then you find that fulcrum number five it fuels the long-term grind if your passion aligns with your business your mission and your vision statements and you're clear about your goals passion can fuel your journey just make sure it's not all talk and no substance in summary here's the deal passion is not a bad thing but if it's all you're working with you may be setting yourself up for a rough ride passion should fuel your strategy not replace it you need passion and and a plan take a step back look at the bigger picture and make sure that your passion has a practical Foundation again one wielded rightly passion can be a huge Catalyst for Success it's all about the fulcrum thank you so much for tuning in please remember to like follow subscribe leave us a comment and remember to sign up for our once a week newsletter no fluff just the good stuff I'm Yan Henman and I'll see you this time next week