Passion Is Not Enough.

You've heard it before, probably many times...you've got to be passionate.

Passion is for amateurs.

Loving what you do and being fully engaged in a labour of love brings out something beyond passion.

If you really go way back the etymology of the word passion means to suffer. 

[Middle English: from Old French, from late Latin passio(n- ) (chiefly a term in Christian theology), from Latin pati ‘suffer’.]

Suffering for what you do - as it's greater to die for something than to live for anything.

But in today's vernacular, it is a popular word to denote the standard by which you need to start or run a business, find the right career or engage in the right occupation.

It also tends to fall in the same category of if the work you're engaged in is "right" then it would be a free flow and easy therefore if you are not passionate about your work then it is wrong.

This would be fatal thinking to your endeavours. 

When you really get into the core of how long it takes to build your own pathway to success there's got to be something beyond just the fleeting emotion of passion.

Passion is for amateurs because it will only get you started but just like using sugar as an energy source it burns rapidly and comes in waves.

No, no you need something far greater to power your efforts.

A purpose will give you a far more compelling reason to keep at it, your why-power will certainly help you through those dark nights and is a slow burning fuel.

However, it's still a fuel and needs a top up.

In my life to go from dancing as a hobby to a recreational competitor to amateur competitor, then professional and finally to world professional dancer, I know that passion started off the entire journey but there was a deeper and more present state.

It was what drove myself and Alison to train 6 days per week, several hours a day, take no vacations, sink every dollar we earned into classes, lessons, development, then travel interstate and around the world for over ten years in pursuit of what we wanted to achieve. 

Whilst our friends were working 9-5, having nice dinners out, buying new clothes and the latest things, I would eat rice and jarred Indian which was the cheapest meal we could buy and had one pair of shoes with holes in it walking 3 miles through the snow to get to the studio to train hard. 

To this day I cannot go near jarred Indian for dinner!

So what is the key trait or characteristic of the truly greatest artists, musicians, business leaders, entrepreneurs, dancers, community leaders or anyone who achieves excellence in a chosen field?

Simple.

A magnificent obsession.

Passion will get you started, a purpose will keep you going and a magnificent obsession will see you stay up late get up early to do whatever it takes to have you rise to the top.

Vaughan.