MIND newsletter: Passion - a blessing or a curse?
Happy Saturday everyone! As promised, I’m sending you some beautiful colors from Montreal this week.
And in case you missed our previous newsletters, here is the link to the archive.
This week, I would love to bring to you:
1. M (Challenge your mindset)
In August 2022, Korean actress Yoo Ju-Eun chose to end her life after leaving a note to her family: “Having something that you want to do is a blessing, but only wanting to do that thing is also a curse”.
For me, there was a time I felt shameful and inadequate because I didn’t have a passion, and I felt jealous of people that have one. It turns out that in a society where passion is being worshiped, whether you have one or not, you still carry such a burden on your shoulder.
I prefer to use the word “interest”. It’s less intimidating. At least I can answer the question “what’s your interest?”.
2. I (I’m my own coach)
One of the most powerful tools to reflect on and dive deeper into your interests is Zoom in your FLOW moments.
Some characteristics of FLOW, according to Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi (2009), are:
- An intensely focused concentration on the present moment and a loss of relative self-consciousness.
- A sense of deep focus and effortless involvement that makes other needs negligible.
- Intrinsically rewarding activity.
- No concern about the judgment of others.
- A sense of personal control or agency in the activity.
- A sense of distortion of time (e.g., time seems to slow down or pass quickly).
Zoom in your FLOW with 5 elements (Burnett & Evans, 2016):
Activities: What were you actually doing? What was happening?
Environments: Where were you? What kind of a place was it, and how did it make you feel?
Interactions: What were you interacting with—people or machines?
Objects: Were you interacting with any objects or devices? What were the objects that created or supported your feeling engaged?
Users: Who else was there, and what role did they play in making it either a positive or a negative experience?
3. N (The power of Now)
Does the work you are doing fit well with your interests?
4. D (Do)
If your current job no longer exists in this world, what would you do instead?
References:
Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2009). Flow theory and research. In C. R. Snyder & S. Lopez (Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive psychology (pp. 195-206). Oxford University Press.
Burnett, B., & Evans, D. (2016). Designing your life: How to build a well-lived, joyful life. knopf.
