Pursing care rather than happiness

Jon Jachimowicz explores in a video in headspace video the pros and cons of having a passion for your work. He discusses how updated work culture at large encourages people to be on all the time, so pursuing what you're passionate about could conflict with you pursuing other hobbies since you'd be more likely to bring your work home with you.

Jachimowicz also discusses myths of passion such as the idea that passion is fixed as explored in the July 31 blog post.  He also discusses how separating what you care about and what makes you happy can help you to feel more complete and not reliant upon a hobby.  He suggests focusing on what makes you happiest outside of work, so that you do what you care about in the office, but can leave it in the office.

I think this was a really interesting video because I don’t tend to explore how passion can be damaging to your mental health.  I think Jachimowicz’s clarification of focusing your career on caring not happiness is an important distinction to make so that you do not burn out your passion in a particular field.  As seen in other blog posts, passion helps us thrive in the workplace, but it's important to protect your mental health, and being able to leave your work at work is an important step in that.

Written by: Bryn Garick

Source: YouTube. (2021). Passion Meets Purpose: Do I Need to be Passionate about Work or My Job? YouTube. Retrieved August 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtTg_0Wbjus.