Have you already found your passion?
I was just reading an interesting post about the reality of finding your passion.
The central point is that you’ve already found it but you just don’t realise it.
I think that’s a great angle on a well-trodden subject. Here’s a quote on that suggestion:
You already found your passion, you’re just ignoring it. Seriously, you’re awake 16 hours a day, what the fuck do you do with your time? You’re doing something, obviously. You’re talking about something. There’s some topic or activity or idea that dominates a significant amount of your free time, your conversations, your web browsing, and it dominates them without you consciously pursuing it or looking for it.
That’s your passion. my main one is movies. Given the choice of any ways in which to spend my free time, I’ll often choose something related to one of that topic. I read movie books, check movie sites, hell, I even go to the movies – a lot. There was a weekend earlier this year when the rest of my family was in Mexico, leaving me alone in LA with a couple of free days. Reader, I spent those 48 hours watching thirteen movies, eleven of them in the cinema. I started at 9:30am, meticulously planning my days so that I could fill them with the most movies, then I went home at 10 and watched another movie on iTunes that I knew my wife wouldn’t be interested in. And I loved it. (By the way, I tweeted that I had done this. My boss saw these tweets and told me how envious he was that I’d managed to find such a large chunk of movie-going time. So I know I’m not alone.)
Can you think of anything in your life that you’d voluntarily want to spend that much time doing?
Of course, I have other hobbies and interests, but they’re mainly related to the visual conveyance of stories. I’m writing a screenplay with my wife, I write novels in the hope of making them into films, I listen to Howard Stern on the radio because he often interviews film stars, I have lots of friends out here who work in movies (or TV) etc. My passion seeps into and out of almost everything I do.
Thankfully my job is related to one of my passions: TV ads are little movies with scripts and directors. The process of creating them is somewhat like the studio system, with submitted and selected scripts, allocated budgets, shoot schedules and release dates. Movies have very high profile advertising (I collect movie posters) and result in successes or failures that are generally matters of opinion. The process of taking a concept and making sure it communicates powerfully is both the advertising and movie businesses in a sentence.
Yes, we also create posters and press ads, but as I drive round LA I see Apple’s billboards alongside those of 20th Century Fox, Universal and Disney. I feel like it’s all part of the same world, with the same high profile that means it’s all a large part of the lives of ordinary people.
So are you living your passion? What is it? How do you squeeze it into your working day? Or is your job simply a means to an end, allowing you to pursue something you really love outside your office hours?
Dude, you should totally move to LA.
Great question. I think I am. I just love doing advertising. I have done a TV show and it was fun but all-consuming. I didn’t like that bit.
I think following your passion should involve travel ideally.
Oh yeah… forgot the ‘moving to LA’ bit.
The movies appear to be like some kind of magnet.
Or maybe it’s storytelling. That seems to cover everything.
Same for me as Vinny, it’s doing advertising. (I’m a copywriter.) Looking back it took my five years to find my passion. To find your passion you need to know where you’re good at and find a field where you can apply your skills. If you approach life with an open mind, you increase your chances of stumbling into that field. But once you’ve found your passion it’s more hard work, because you care about the quality. Hard work, but fun. Sometimes people are blinded by the illusion that once they’ve found their passion, everything will be smooth and easy. It won’t be, but you’ll have more fun while you’re at it. (A while back I wrote about this here: http://jabjab.me/2014/03/30/passion-is-still-an-illusion/)
‘I feel like it’s all part of the same world, with the same high profile that means it’s all a large part of the lives of ordinary people.’ I think maybe your ‘ordinary people’ is half a world away from mine.
I find this intreresting Ben. Do you not think that binge viewing has a negative effect on your opportunity to enjoy each film?
Let me explain.
When I saw Goodfellas the first time (not that far from you – a multiplex in Century City) I enjoyed it so much I stayed in my seat and watched the next screening as well. Just to double the pleasure.
When I saw The Prophet I was numb and excited at the same time. I walked out of the cinema at midnight and an hour later I was still walking – just tumbling the story over in my mind.
Inception was a similar experinece – couldn’t do anything except think about the plot etc for hours and hours after seeing it.
The thought of going back to back with something (probably inferior) after any of these films would have been like eating at a Michelin starred resturant – and then sneaking into Maccy D’s on the way home for a quarter pounder….
You would want time to reflect on the joy of Chinatown after watching it wouldn’t you? Or would you step out of Screen 1 and dive straight into Paul Blart Mall Cop in Screen 2….?
There’s a difference between a passion and an addiction.
That’s an interesting question. I think some films require/deserve that kind of afterthought, but I’m not sure the ones I saw came up to the level of Inception or Goodfellas.
Having said that, they were the Oscar contenders of last year (Foxcatcher, Inherent Vice, Selma, American Sniper, The Theory of Everything, the codebreaking one with Cumberbatch and Knightley), but none was more than a B+ overall.
Addiction: pursuit in the face of consequences. Alas, there weren’t really any consequences.
B+ doesn’t sound like a brilliant night at the movies.
I get to the cinema much less often than you Ben. But try and make it an A class experience if possible. Too precious an opportunity to tolerate dross.
But then I miss so much. And – possibly – great movies that don’t come with any fanfare and PR bandwagon attached. I remember going to see Fish Called Wanda at the peak of its hype. The screen was full and we couldn’t get in. Rather than turning away, we went to the ‘other’ screen to see a movie I hadn’t even heard of. “Midnight Run” remains one of my favourite movies to this day.
You don’t know unless you go. Oh no. Wait. That’s surfing not films.
I saw Midnight Run ten times in the cinema.
Hashtag addiction?
Is that moron number one? Put moron number two on the phone.
Here come two words for you: shut the fuck up.