Need your thoughts: is passion good or bad?

[db05]

I've read too many books that talk of passion as a bad thing. And I get the impression that the mind has to be controlled/ conscious, almost ALL THE TIME.

So if passion is a bad thing, and one must be focused all the time on "important" things (career and other goals), where does love fit in?

If passion is not a bad thing (as I hope), then how can one follow it without being an utter failure in "important" things?

If love is not passion, or part of it, or related to it, then what is it?

If you had to make a choice, would you take a life of passion/love but professional failure, or professional success but no personal passion/love?

[thalbergmad]

Life without passion is meaningless.

Thal

[lostinidlewonder]

From professional success you may find that you indeed love your work. I have met many people in this boat, who did not choose an occupation because of a passion but eventually they find the passion in their work.

Some of us however have such a calling that even if we take another path what we are destined to be doing (if you believe that thing) will hip and shoulders its way into your life and commands it. I have met many musicians who faced this and a number of ministers of religion.

Passion is essential however whether it is a forced used to make initial decisions or the resulting force from a lot of dedication/work. I think absence of passion is obvious in your work, I have met a few teachers who find no joy in their work (and unfortunately have been taught by a few of them!) The most successful businessmen I have met do not chase the dollar as a measurement of their passion/success but the thrill of chasing success, the power of determination and the "reaching for the stars" is a much more powerful driving force.

[jesc]

I've read too many books that talk of passion as a bad thing. And I get the impression that the mind has to be controlled/ conscious, almost ALL THE TIME.

just avoid extreme emotional detachment, it'll feel weird when you suddenly realize you're emotionally detached that you can't get angry, mad etc. trust me.   

[rachmaninoff_forever]

would you take a life of passion/love but professional failure, or professional success but no personal passion/love?

Passion/love beats professional success any day!

BUT, if you're professionally successful, then you have passion in what you do!  You can make seven figure digits a year and still not be successful.

So I guess professional success comes with passion/love.

[counterpoint]

Passion/love beats professional success any day!

BUT, if you're professionally successful, then you have passion in what you do!  You can make seven figure digits a year and still not be successful.

So I guess professional success comes with passion/love.

That's very well said.

But I think, professionals need more than passion: they need discipline as well!
No matter how they feel in every day life, they are expected to play at concerts in top form and with the greatest possible expression. That's totally different from just being "passionate".

Perhaps it's inhuman   

[davidjosepha]

But I think, professionals need more than passion: they need discipline as well!
No matter how they feel in every day life, they are expected to play at concerts in top form and with the greatest possible expression. That's totally different from just being "passionate".

I used to barely practice piano at all. Maybe an hour a week. In a matter of about two weeks, I went from an hour a week practicing to two hours a day. I really don't know what caused the shift, but boy was it sudden. Now that it's summer I often play/practice 5-6 hours a day, sometimes more.

Obviously, my teacher noticed and commented on it, saying I had really become a hard worker, or something like that. I told him the truth: Nope, I still have no discipline, I just enjoy playing the piano now more than anything else. Any day that I don't feel like playing, I just won't play. I haven't forced myself to practice in a couple years now, and I know that the minute I stop loving what I'm doing, I'll drop down to how little I used to play, maybe less. I'm glad I'm not pursuing music as a career because I now have this option. If I stop enjoying what I'm doing but force myself to keep playing and playing, I'm going to start to not only "not feel like practicing", I'll hate the piano. Right now, I can quit playing any time I want--not that I'm going to!

So that's that. I'm passionate about piano. That's good, because I really enjoy what I'm doing, but it'd be terrible to have your music based on passion if piano were anything more than a hobby.

[ajspiano]

I would quickly go insane if I was overly focused on something that I was not in the first place passionate about...

I've read a few books that suggest that the primary requirement for success is the burning desire, and passion to succeed, its the motivator - and is applicable to professional and personal situations.

[j_menz]

In one's self, good. In others, sometimes just a little bit creepy. 

[rachmaninoff_forever]

In one's self, good. In others, sometimes just a little bit creepy. 

Hey what the heck?!

[db05]

But I think, professionals need more than passion: they need discipline as well!
No matter how they feel in every day life, they are expected to play at concerts in top form and with the greatest possible expression. That's totally different from just being "passionate".

Perhaps it's inhuman   

That's exactly what's been bothering me! I'd like to pursue a career related to piano/ music, but I'm like davidjosepha, sometimes I barely practice. Sometimes the piano is heaven, sometimes hell. Hearing myself play can be torture.

It seems I don't have so much desire or discipline, or both to see things through. And it sucks because my teacher thinks I have potential. IF ONLY I can put in enough inspired work!

Some students play 4 or more hours a day. Serious pianists go as far as 8-10 hours. 1-2 hours a day puts me in either the "lazy" or "forced to practice" category.

But what if, say, you found out that you were CRAP at piano and you NEED to have a day job, a normal, full-time job totally unrelated to music? Something you're not passionate about at all? How could you make ends meet without going insane? 

[davidjosepha]

But what if, say, you found out that you were CRAP at piano and you NEED to have a day job, a normal, full-time job totally unrelated to music? Something you're not passionate about at all? How could you make ends meet without going insane? 

Well, I'd say that's how over half the world lives, and it's sad. Hating the thing they spend the majority of their waking hours doing, only doing it so they have enough money to buy the beer to drink when they get home at night

I think sometimes you just have to suck it up, but when it's 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for the rest of your life, you shouldn't have to just suck it up. Do something you enjoy, or could enjoy. Pursuing a career in piano, realistically, won't get you very much money on average. If you're fine with that as long as you enjoy what you do (and it probably won't be playing in a packed concert hall...more like giving lessons to 5 year olds who don't want to be there), that's great, but I know a lot of people aren't. You might even grow to hate piano because it's now your job. Otherwise, there are other options. I wouldn't say sitting at a desk is anyone's dream in life, but there are plenty of people who have office jobs and don't mind, maybe even really like what they do. Plenty of things like that are out there. Just pointing out, there are options where you won't be miserable even if you choose a career path unrelated to piano.

Or maybe that's just what I'm trying to convince myself...

[ted]

I've read too many books that talk of passion as a bad thing. And I get the impression that the mind has to be controlled/ conscious, almost ALL THE TIME.

So if passion is a bad thing, and one must be focused all the time on "important" things (career and other goals), where does love fit in?

If passion is not a bad thing (as I hope), then how can one follow it without being an utter failure in "important" things?


If love is not passion, or part of it, or related to it, then what is it?

If you had to make a choice, would you take a life of passion/love but professional failure, or professional success but no personal passion/love?

Passion in love is wonderful as long as it does not bring about someone else's tragedy, in which case it can produce no lasting joy for anybody involved. Sadly though, few people actually appear to consider the latter consequence. Passion in the arts, music, science, on the other hand, seems to me at worst a harmless waste of time and at best a vital driver of all that is good in the human mind.

But what if, say, you found out that you were CRAP at piano and you NEED to have a day job, a normal, full-time job totally unrelated to music? Something you're not passionate about at all? How could you make ends meet without going insane?  

That is exactly what I have done and at sixty-five I am not, as far as I can determine for myself, insane. Neither am I exactly "crap" at piano. But I do have a totally impossible psyche as far as fitting in with the external, societal, economic musical world is concerned, and the roots of my musical passion do not have a common spring, so in terms of your question it amounts to the same thing.

[Derek]

This is a pretty deep question. For a long time I had been driven almost totally by anxiety and mania. I think I mistook this for genuine passion. I believe genuine passion was there all along, but as lostinidlewonder implies, it is actually something one must develop. It's like, when we're young, we want to fall in love with something so intensely that we never feel like we have to work at it. If this is overdone, one might reach an epiphany at some point in one's life realizing that one hasn't exerted any real effort towards one's "passion", at all, only allowing oneself to be battered about by manias and the constant ebb and flow of interest in something. I really think I began to develop true passion for my work only recently, and true awareness of who I was as an amateur musician only recently as well. I no longer feel that I must be carried by that momentum of "mania," I feel a deeper drive to work at it. Hard to describe but probably only life experience can really teach this lesson.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I feel like I've had this question on a standardized test...
 
This is like one of those questions that are like, 'can one truly redeem him/herself?' or, 'is determination better than doubt?'.

I've always hated those.