Have you heard the advice “Follow your passion?” That advice can be both inspiring and infuriating. You might be thinking, “I’d LOVE to follow my passion if I could figure out what the heck it is!”
But author Elizabeth Gilbert address this topic in an intriguing way. She says:
“The world is divided into two kinds of people: there are the jackhammers and there are the hummingbirds. Jackhammers are people like me. You put a passion in our hands and we’re just like (drilling sound) and we don’t look up and we don’t veer and we’re just focused on that ‘til the end of time.
Hummingbirds spend their lives doing it very differently. They move from tree to tree, from flower to flower… trying this, trying that. And two things happen. They create incredibly rich, complex lives for themselves. And they also end up cross-pollinating the world. …If you’re willing to just release yourself from the pressure and the anxiety surrounded by passion and humbly and faithfully continue to follow the trail of the hummingbird path… one of these days you just might look up and realize ‘I am exactly where I am meant to be.’ …In other words, if you can let go of passion and follow your curiosity, your curiosity just might lead you to your passion.”
Follow your curiosity. YES.
This concept works for both people who are aware of their passions and want to drill into them, and for people who are still exploring and discovering.
As someone who is in the process of exploration you might sound more like a hummingbird. What is positive about this? How can you embrace who you are as you check out your options?