The Passion Paradox
Ratings5
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings5
Average rating3.6
The coauthors of the bestselling Peak Performance dive into the fascinating science behind passion, showing how it can lead to a rich and meaningful life while also illuminating the ways in which it is a double-edged sword. Here’s how to cultivate a passion that will take you to great heights—while minimizing the risk of an equally great fall. Common advice is to find and follow your passion. A life of passion is a good life, or so we are told. But it's not that simple. Rarely is passion something that you just stumble upon, and the same drive that fuels breakthroughs—whether they're athletic, scientific, entrepreneurial, or artistic—can be every bit as destructive as it is productive. Yes, passion can be a wonderful gift, but only if you know how to channel it. If you're not careful, passion can become an awful curse, leading to endless seeking, suffering, and burnout. Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness once again team up, this time to demystify passion, showing readers how they can find and cultivate their passion, sustainably harness its power, and avoid its dangers. They ultimately argue that passion and balance--that other virtue touted by our culture--are incompatible, and that to find your passion, you must lose balance. And that's not always a bad thing. They show readers how to develop the right kind of passion, the kind that lets you achieve great things without ruining your life. Swift, compact, and powerful, this thought-provoking book combines captivating stories of extraordinarily passionate individuals with the latest science on the biological and psychological factors that give rise to—and every bit as important, sustain—passion.
Reviews with the most likes.
I'm disappointed in this book because I enjoyed Peak Performance, and was able to take away useful tidbits of information that I semi-successfully integrated into my life. I was hoping this book would focus mostly on sports examples but it ended up being more like any other generic self-help book I've read (and in fact, referenced quite a few of those). And like many of those books, pretty much everything you need to know is in the title/subtitle. So I can't say I found anything particularly novel or insightful here. Maybe a sign I should stop reading these?
This book really connected with me on many levels. I could relate to the discussion about how dopamine insensitivity can lead to addictive behaviors, as the early chapters pointed out.
What struck me most was how it highlighted the possibility of channeling that drives towards positive pursuits instead of harmful ones like gambling or drugs.
The book also touched on the concept of a mastery mindset, which, while not entirely new, was presented as a great framework to follow.
One particular idea that resonated with me was the notion that passion and balance don't always go hand in hand. It's okay to go all-in for shorter periods, experiencing highs and maybe some lows, as long as you eventually even out in the long run.
Thinking of it mathematically, it's like seeking a balanced average while allowing for some high-standard-deviation moments.
I must admit, those high-standard-deviation periods make me feel truly alive.
In short I loved it.
