Passion is a balance between excitement and burnout

In their paper, “Passion at work: A meta-analysis of individual work outcomes” authors Jeffrey Pollack and Brad Kirkman looked into the benefits of having passion in your role at work. 

While their hypothesis that passion leads to better outcomes in the workplace was supported, they found that it wasn’t as easy as simply having passion. Pollack and Kirkman broke down passion into 3 categories: general passion, dualistic passion, and role-based passion. Pollack and Kirkman found that the different types of passion that employees reported having correlated to different positive outcomes. Though what surprised them the most was that obsessive passion isn't always negative as most literature suggests.

 While obsessive passion can lead to burnout, it can also lead to more dedication and commitment to the field. 

 I relate to this feeling of having an obsessive passion a lot.  Recently, I’ve started embroidering and I’ve noticed that the more I do it and want to take on new projects, the less energy I have to complete those projects. I start to get burnt out by the idea of embroidering. However, if I allow myself to get excited about one project at a time and complete that project slowly making sure that I’m enjoying the hobby itself, I have a lot more motivation to keep doing embroidery projects.  This obsessive passion is a double-edged sword of both working myself to a point of burning out, and also having such a desire to complete a task that I will stay committed to it despite challenges.

I think as Pollack and Kirkman's study shows, there needs to be a balance between the burnout and the commitment of an obsessive passion because having a passion that makes you that obsessive is something you should pursue, but while being careful to protect your own mental health.

Americans want to be passionate about their careers, but as Pollack states, it’s impossible to always be 100% passionate about every aspect of your job.  The balance of passionate aspects of your job and more mundane aspects is what leads to success and limits burnout. Finding a career where you can have this balance and feel successful is what leads to greater happiness and success.

Written by: Bryn Garick

Source: Pollack, J., & Kirkman, B. (2021, September 1). Finding passion in everyday work. Poole Thought Leadership. Retrieved June 16, 2022, from https://poole.ncsu.edu/thought-leadership/article/finding-passion-in-everyday-work/