Writing and Real Passion

I've heard many writers claim a passion for their work, but in the common use of the word as a heightened emotional state full of excitement. And then they face periods when things are difficult, the assignments come up short, and they go into a funk. I think it's because real passion is something else.

Strong emotion comes and goes in life - often within a matter of minutes, or even seconds. Have you ever found yourself swinging from "love" to "hate" when someone you care about does something you think is mistreatment? Only to feel remorse and self-pity when you decide that you over reacted? Or you're high, sailing on the wind of an assignment, and then falling when you run into difficulties? Now what once was inspirational and energizing is a painful struggle. You wonder if you're really suited to a writing life and figure that if it were that important, you'd feel strongly about it all the time.

But that isn't the case. In fact, the opposite is true. When you have passion for something, you continue pursuing despite emotional roller coasters, not because of them. When your outlook is wonderful, you keep your eye on what you're doing to make sure you don't get sloppy. When things seem bad, you soldier away, knowing that one step still needs to go in front of the other. The ordinary swing of emotions is what keeps you staggering one way and then the next.

Real passion requires a more constant state of commitment and resolve. It's what gets an explorer to the top of a mountain or someone like Michelangelo lying on his back for three years as he painted the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel. Passion has you in your chair day after day, making calls, finding homes for your work, struggling to improve your craft each time you sit down. The image may not be so romantic or enthralling, but the results of regular and constant efforts are far more satisfying.

Keeping Your Eye on the Right Numbers

In my business planning classes, I've often advocated knowing how much money you need to make in any month to reach your goals, and that's fine as it stands. But there is a danger when you think that you directly affect those numbers. By force of effort, you cannot force people to do business with you or to work on your schedule. What you can control, though, is the amount and quality of your effort.

To be successful, you don't keep saying "I have to sell X to this client." That feeds a sense of neediness which can actually drive customers away. Your target number is supposed to be a goal that you can use to see how your progress goes. But if you're hiking, you don't get to the summit faster by thinking, "I have to get to the summit faster." Rather, you put one foot in front of the other, concentrate on keeping your cadence, and continually look for the best route.

In business, and that's what we're all in, the equivalent is that you focus on making another sales call, on generating another idea, on following up with another client. You can't compel someone to send a check your way, but you can make yourself work for another hour on efforts that to go marketing and sales. When you do that, you get on the right side of statistics and have the law of averages working for you. You take care of that one extra thing to keep a client happy or call one more source to set up a greater chance that a client will ask you to do more work in the future.

So, there are two numbers. There is the goal that shows you the way, and then there are those numbers you can directly influence. Know where you want to go, keep directing your efforts where you can effectively, and eventually you will succeed.