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Uncover Your Passion

February 11, 2003

"What do we mean, exactly when we talk about passion for your work?  Passion is intense energy or emotion, good or bad.  It is love in all its glorious forms of joy, glee, confidence, and serendipity.  Or hate with its ignoble spin-offs of jealousy, rage, and fear.  When we talk about uncovering passion at work, we are talking about something more than motivation.  For example, what parts of your job would you want to keep doing even if you weren't being paid?  What parts would you be reluctant to leave behind if you were promoted?  Or, if you listed all the elements of your job from the most exciting and enjoyable to the least enjoyable, what would be at the top of the list?  Right there at the top of the list is where your passion, and your best potential for great work, lies (Whiteley, 2001, pp. 20-21).

Reference:  Whiteley, R. C. (2001).  Love the work you're with: find the job you always wanted without leaving the one you have.  New York:  Henry Holt and Company.

What are you passionate about?

Love the Work You're With is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center.  A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/  

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Created: 2008-12-22, Updated: 2009-01-09