Guy: I CAN’T WAIT to start working out again! I’m pumped!

Me: Why’d you stop?

Guy: WELLLL….you know how it is. Life….busy-ness.

Me: Alright, when are you gonna start?

Guy: I’m waiting for January 1st to start!

Me: What happens on January 1st?

Guy: That’s when my resolution starts!

Me: What happens if it starts now?

Guy: That’s NOT how this works.

Me: Not how what works? How fairy tales work?

Guy: NO!! I can feel it! It’s 2018! It’s the New Year!

…Yeah. What do you think happened when 2018 came? It didn’t take long for his artificial motivation to catch up to him. Two weeks into January, when the soreness kicked in, when the days of feeling tired showed up, he quit.

Look, I’ve tried new things and quit before. The tiring days have gotten to me. The days of giving up and feeling hopeless – I’ve been there. I’ve given in to my weakness, fallen for temptations, and lacked discipline.

And a big reason why I believe what misleads us is the obsession with “passion.” I’m all for passion, but it easily can deceive us all. There’s a type of passion that appears to be legit but tricks us. I’m talking about unbridled, thoughtless enthusiasm. This type of passion is entirely pleasure driven and evades tasks that require hard work and persistence. While this passion seems to be full of excitement, deep down it’s lazy and unmotivated.

It is living in its own imaginary fairy tale and covers its eyes to challenges. This is fake passion. People led by fake passion, think having passion alone will do the work for them.

This is not a post meant to discourage you if you’ve been led by fake passion. You are not alone. Everyone has at one point in their life, been influenced by fake passion, especially me. I’ve covered my eyes to the challenges and wanted to believe in some fairy tale. I’ve evaded the hard work. I’ve put off the challenges until tomorrow. The purpose of this post is to address the misconception of fake passion so we can focus on being led by real passion.

The guy who was all hyped about the New Year had thoughtless enthusiasm. His drive to transform his body was fueled because it was the New Year and nothing else. He told himself a story of how everything would turn around because of a random day on the calendar. Once the hard work showed up, he fled.

Maybe if he ran as fast on the treadmill as he did away from the hard work things would be different.

The work doesn’t start until the days of being tired, and feelings of uncertainty show up. That’s day one. Not that exhilarating high of starting something new – that’s preseason. Those days are meant to familiarize and condition you for the path you’re about to commit to.

I’m not saying when you’re working on something you love there won’t be days of feeling on cloud nine and in love with your craft. Those days will definitely be there. But so will the days of putting up with the tedious tasks, the days of feeling discouraged, the days of feeling only sub-par.

There are people who love talking about passion, and there are others who like to rip it apart. I think the real meaning of it is in the middle. Real passion is a desire for something so strong and meaningful that nothing can slow it down. This passion will put up with the most tedious tasks because it never loses sight of the big picture. It runs toward the obstacles. It slays dragons. It is relentless. It doesn’t stop, it can’t stop.

Real passion moves toward discomfort, fake passion looks to avoid it.

“Everything you want is outside your comfort zone.”

– Robert Allen

Fake passion people often cling to some success story – a one-hit wonder. Someone who went from dirt poor to filthy rich in mere months. Someone who had their big break for apparently no reason. Because it was “destiny.” Because “it was meant to happen.” This is their source of belief. This is their expectation.

They become seduced and infatuated with the story rather than led by their abilities.

I’m not saying this can’t happen to you, but I guarantee the people that had those dramatic transformations relied on less commonly praised fundamentals – work ethic, discipline, humility, talking less, doing more.

It’s the people with real passion that seem to come out of nowhere. Because instead of telling everyone what they’re doing, they’re too busy doing it. They seemed to have disappeared, but they were busy getting after it. The cost of this comes with the haters calling you an overnight success. But the person with real passion is not pursuing their goal for artificial reasons such as getting someone to like them or “looking good.” There’s more depth and meaning to their goals – the wellbeing of their family, living by their purpose, contributing to a larger cause.

Someone who embodies real passion has the same enthusiasm in December, as they do in January, as they do in July, and so on. The same drive that’s there on Monday, is just as strong on Tuesday, as it is on Saturday. They understand what you can accomplish on January 1st is no different than what you can achieve on December 31st.

The key difference between fake passion and real passion is one’s drive is inward, the other’s is outward. Fake passion relies on some outside source to be their motivation; real passion relies on their internal qualities to be their source of strength. One is pleasure driven, the other is goal driven. One seeks immediate gratification, the other delays it for a much larger reward.

Principle: Don’t try to live someone else’s story. Write your own.  

Writing your own story is leading through your inner voice rather than someone else’s. This is where you unlock real passion.

Fake passion people cling to someone else’s story as their drive. They believe some random day on the calendar or someone else’s success will be the reason for their success.

Look, you don’t need that person’s story. We think we need the story to cling to, to put all our eggs in one basket and believe in the fairy tale. You don’t need that. You have plenty of experiences where you’ve summoned real strength, real determination, and real passion to reach that goal. Now go use that.

Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Thinking “if it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen.”
• Waiting until the New Year to start a new goal.
• Pursuing goals to “look good” or to be liked.

Key Takeaways:

• Fake passion cannot endure the tiring and discouraging days.
• Real passion is relentless with its goals.
• Real passion never loses sight of the big picture.

Taking Action:

Write down three experiences where you summoned real strength. Let that be your story.