This question caught my attention in U.S. News, “Does passion really matter at work?” What do you think? Well, it’s probably no surprise that the answer is, yes, it absolutely matters!  It is not just fluff.  Here are 3 reasons why passion is one of the best investments you can make in your career:

It helps you feel more confident. For too many people, work is about getting up in the morning and trying to be someone they’re not. Not only does that drain their energy, it also keeps them off balance. Think of someone standing on one leg with the other leg up in the air and their arms waving, trying to keep their balance. They’re deathly afraid that someone is going to come up and bump into them, because they’re already in danger of falling over. Trying to be who you’re not in your career is a little like that. You have to put extra effort into doing what doesn’t come naturally. Maintaining the façade keeps you off balance.

It’s an energy source. When you’re on fire about what you do, it energizes you, and you can put that energy back into your work. Instead of the energy drain your work actually becomes an energy gain. So not only are you getting energy from what you’re doing, you also aren’t having to dig into your energy reserves just to get through the day. When you’re aligned with what energizes you, it’s like having both feet solidly planted on the floor. The energy differential is huge in helping you feel confident about your work.

It feeds your persistence. The odds are good that, whatever your career path you are  going to run into roadblocks and bumps along the way. When you’re doing something in pursuit of what energizes and inspires you, those roadblocks and bumps are a lot easier to take. Don’t get me wrong. They never become enjoyable, but their size relative to your objective is smaller.

I have suffered bumps and bruises in pursuit of something I didn’t really care about (my past career) while I’m in pursuit of something I am over the moon about (my current career), I have to tell you, the difference is night and day. In the path I love, persistence, confidence and energy come naturally as a daily part of the job.

- U.S. News article by: Curt Rosengren, career author

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Blog, Career advice, Career coaching, Career options, Career resilience, career counseling, tweet this. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.