Christina Frei
When I talk to prospects, I sometimes hear this: “I want to have more passion in my marketing.” or “It’s so important to have passion in your work.” or “Passion is so important.”
And I think to myself, “Nope.”
There’s nothing wrong with having passion. But let’s look at the origin of the word. It’s the Latin word pati, which means “to suffer.” Right out of the gate, there’s a heavy, dramatic quality to this word.
One of the definitions is “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something.” Sounds good, but like in romance, it doesn’t last.
Whether it’s for marketing or anything else, the most powerful thing is to find your lane, not your passion. What is the area you can devote yourself to that offers a longer track of success and fulfillment?
It’s like school in Switzerland, where you find your lane by age twelve, and stay in it until you get a decent job out of school. How? With an assessment process that puts you on a good track, based on your abilities and pre-dispositions. You stay in your lane and you get good. This is a country where even waiters make a living wage.
When you discover your marketing voice and your one strategy, it’s a good day. You will experience joy, maybe even passion. But that is not the grand prize.
Here’s a great quote from Stephen Pressfield, who wrote The War of Art.
“The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.”
So after you discover your marketing goodies (and they ARE game changing), then it’s time to get to work. I want you to operate in a consistent manner that will bring mastery, deep trust, and the best clients. The work itself is the reward and you need to do it every day.
Gary Keller talks about the benefits of this in The ONE Thing. “What you will be is someone who has something regularly working for you because you regularly worked on it. You’ll be a person who used selected discipline to build a powerful habit.”
So let’s aim for commitment and consistency in your lane, rather than operating from fleeting passion. You will find enjoyment and satisfaction here.
