Passion and purpose at work

There's much discussion these days about passion and purpose in the workplace. A Google search on "passion at work" results in 11,5000,000 hits – although its clear from these that many of us confuse the two. So, what is the difference between passion and purpose - and how do the two connect?

Purpose defines why one is on the planet. Some refer to purpose as a calling. Others, as ones "life work."

Passion is energy - emotional, physical, mental, psychic, often spiritual - that drives supports us to focus our efforts. Sometimes this is purposeful, sometimes not. It can help us positively during the day, pushing us to look for ways to continually improve what we do and how we do it. But it can also be limiting and destructive – both to ourselves and to others.

For example, some passionate folks dress up and go to sporting events to engage in harassment, uncivil and disrespectful behavior – all in the name of being passionate about their team.

Colleagues at work can unfairly judge others, be bullying, engage in gossip, be rude, demeaning and disrespectful about their co-workers' lack of skills and talents – all because they're so passionate about what they do (so why do you have to be so stupid!)

And just as some folks feel their passion allows them to be disrespectful, others channel it towards self-destruction, coming home at night and binging on alcohol, food or drugs.

So passion is energy. The important question is, toward what end is this passion directed?

Is your passion positive? Is it supportive of yourself and of others? Or is it negative, self-destructive and harmful? Just because you're passionate doesn't automatically make you humble, emotionally intelligent, good at relationships, honest, skilled or talented. Passion is just energy.

But purpose completes the passion equation. It's the magic ingredient that gives passion a raison d'etre.

Without purpose as an anchor, passion has no inner or outer guidance system. Without a purpose, life will often will disoriented, out-of-sync and unhappy.

In my years working as a coach, I've always been curious about folks who run into a mid-life crisis at 30 after spending enormous amounts of time, energy and money studying something like law, medicine, IT, finance or management. It amazes me how quickly they have ended up literally hating what they are doing

In some of these cases, they choose to enter a particular profession or career area because they were directed that way by career coaches or consultants who suggested that their talents or interests lay in that direction.

But what these career folks, parents, relatives, even good friends almost never measure is heart. Heart is the focal point of purpose. Not the mind. Not logic. Not what's sexy. Not what The Futurist says one should do and especially, not "Hey you're really good at (blank) that so why don't you pursue (blank)"?

Some never get it. Purpose is not a career or even a talent. But purpose can be manifested in a particular career or by making use of a particular talent or area of expertise. The difference is the energy (passion) that an individual brings to that endeavor and whether their actions and work are "purposeful".

So two lawyers, two IT professionals, two managers or two bloggers can both do the same thing, but their energy, their engagement, their true love (not ego) of the work, their steadfastness and sense of well-being depends on whether or not they're on purpose when they're working.

Only the purposeful are engaged in their work. One has their heart in it; the other muddles through with an ugh at every turn.

Purpose is the anchor, the beacon, the direction, the career compass that guides us to make decisions that keep our lives moving forward. Without such a guide, many people hit a dead end at 30 (then 40, then 50), constantly wondering "is this all there is?" Or worse, "I have all this talent, and I don't understand why I'm not happy".

The heart is what drives purpose, not the mind or the ego. When someone has their heart in their work, meaning abounds; they are - and feel - purposeful in their work as well as in the rest of their life.

But when everything is ego-driven, meaning is most often trumped by unhappiness, agitation and constant negative judgments and invidious comparisons with others while always feeling to some degree, lacking, deficient, and disconnected.

And from what do such folks feel disconnected? Their heart, their purpose, their true and real self, their essence. The ego mind, logic, assessments, "thinking" and "figuring it out" are not the path to purpose.