Dan Pink detests the question, “What is your passion?” Really. He says as much in his blog post about passion here. If you find it strange he would argue against passion, try to remember he IS an attorney - not practicing, but graduated. And he makes a great case. The article he references in his blog appears in The Telegraph, a UK publication.

I read it a couple of days ago, but I had to roll it around in my head for a while before commenting. Why? Because it took me to my knees with the truth of it. Okay, Dan is not only the author of my favorite book of all time, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need but Dan is the man who got me to TED Global a couple of years ago and sat on the front row during my TED talk. He had to call in some favors to get his seat down front since it was standing room only and no one else was being allowed in. I think he is an incredible man and the most humble and insightful people I’ve ever met.

So Dan is amazing. I’ve written about him for Motivated Online Magazine, and read all his books and follow his blog. He always has great stuff, but this was a standout piece. Essentially he says, de-emphasize passion and re-emphasize doing. He urges people to think NOT about what they’re “passionate for,” but what they simply like to do. It’s well-written and his examples are wonderful. What bowled me over about it is that I’m writing for a living - something I do well and something I love, but it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning and sit at the computer and write. I just wasn’t feeling the “passion” for what I do. I thought, well, maybe I’m not passionate about writing. So I started noticing what I do when I’m not working on an assignment. And what I do “for fun” and so on.

Wow. When what you do for a living is so close to what you do for fun - it’s a subtle difference this passion and doing thing. It took this article to open my eyes.

What I love doing is teaching, coaching and helping. I come alive and feel “in the zone” when I can connect with someone and help them write better, or share information or insights about their writing, their work, their company. I get to do some of that with my clients - and they benefit because I love it so much I often do it as extra value and don’t charge for it, and I do a lot of that with my friends. But I make my living writing content FOR other people. I like the kudos and appreciation and the writing challenges, but in a different way.

So I started thinking about Dan’s article and realized that what makes me light up is NOT writing content FOR other people. What floats my boat is actually working with people who want to write their own content. One feels like work, the other feels like love. There’s just something about having someone see the light, understand what they’re not doing as effectively as they could be, and then seeing them change their writing and their life.

The other thing I love is working on my own books. I can zone on that and write non-stop for hours and crank out a 25-page book a day if I had the time. I just LOVE it! So when Dan Pink said what would you do, or what do you when you’re not working - my response was immediate - I write for myself. There’s never hesitation, or a lack of what to do, where to start. So, that’s where I’m moving. I’m going to start putting my love into what I love to do and quit worrying about passion. It’s like that old romance novel truism - your soul mate is often the best friend you overlook while looking for love.