Passion vs. Interest

I usually have a pretty good idea of what I like to do, what I want to do and what is rewarding to me. Although I realize I have a dream that can never come true, but I certainly don't mind dreaming about it and wake up with a smile. I have dreams that I want to pursue but contingent upon opportunities like take a gap year and travel around the world, volunteer and help the poor and be an independent investor and do that for a living. I also have dreams that I am currently pursuing like learning new things, leading complex technology projects at work and developing myself a leader.

I don't want to be very technically correct about the terminology - dream. But inevitably, it has to be well defined and the following passage will help achieving my dream(s).

Jessica McGregor Johnson certainly put things into perspectives for me. She elegantly distinguished the difference between passion and interest, and explained how to integrate passion and interest to make something practical, useful and realistic out of it while maximizing the performance and quality of life.

A passion is something you can't live without. When it is missing from your life, you feel a hole and it nags way at you. You constantly wish that you were doing, living, being, or having it.

An interest rouses your curiosity. An interest is a more intellectual thing, something that you want to discover more about. It 'piques your interest'.

She provided a few examples of people merging their passion and interest and make careers out of it. Until I read her website, I know not how important things are for what I thought was important. I still can't believe what I read. It is a miracle and the opportunity of coming across it; this is incredible. I had a discussion with Jiayun earlier today about what to do, dream, passion, figuring things out and all that good stuff. Just as I thought of to search for something online to help her figure things out, I typed in the keywords "interest vs. career" on Google and Jessica's website is what popped up. I don't know why it is the second Google recommendation, it ought to be first! So trying to help someone ended up enlightening myself.

It will take some time to sort things out, writing down what are my passions and interests and figure out how to integrate them. Right now, here is a rough draft:

Soccer, music, being a leader, helping people and create things are my passions.

Investment, business ideas, tennis, table tennis and other sports, cooking, living in Shanghai and California are my interests.

I am not sure where I can place enginering and aviation, I need some time to think it through. Here is something I don't need to think through:

Jiayun is my passion because she is someone I can't live without, I want to part of, living with, being with and having her. She is also my interest because she has so much personality traits that interests me like intellectual, kind, warmhearted, smart, funny, silly and more things I want to explore about.

I love you, Jiayun and thank you for understanding me!