Posted by Have you ever been passionate about something in your life? Do you have a hobby or pursuit in life that excites you and that you are driven to pursue? Do you spend a lot of time on your passion? Does your passion add meaning to your life and give you something productive to do in your time outside of work?
What about an addiction? Is there something you spend a lot of time on that does not add meaning to your life? Is this time well spent or is it time when you should be doing something else? Do you find yourself looking back on this time spent and wishing you had done something else?
An addiction is harmful to your life. It takes up time where you could be doing something more meaningful or productive. If you spend time doing something unproductive and time wasting when you should be doing something else, you may be in the grips of an addiction, especially if you spend most, or even all, of your free time on this activity.
For example, I used to be hopelessly addicted to video games. I would spend a lot of time playing video games instead of doing more important things like cleaning my house or doing other chores. I would also sometimes sit down to do work on my computer and end up playing video games instead of what I had planned to do.
One aspect of addiction is spending too much time doing what you are addicted to. Imagine spending an entire evening playing video games, even skipping meals because you are so absorbed in your addiction. This is not healthy behavior and other areas of your life may suffer if you spend too much time on your addiction.
What about something you are passionate about? When you have a passion for something it excites you and you are engaged and enthusiastic when you are pursuing your passion. You can spend a lot time pursuing your passion and doing so enriches your life.
For me, being a member of Toastmasters International became my passion. Once I discovered leadership roles in Toastmasters, I found that I spent my time outside of work doing things for my fellow Toastmasters instead of wasting time on video games. These leadership roles gave me a feeling of importance. Acting in these leadership roles also gave me something meaningful to do with my time outside of work.
Now that I had a passion for Toastmasters, I spent a lot of time volunteering for various leadership positions. For example, I volunteered as club secretary for a year, club vice president of education for a year and as club president for a year. I also served one year as an area director for my district and two years as a division director. I learned a lot while pursuing these leadership roles and my life was much more interesting because of it.
Now you know that I have a passion for Toastmasters, but it is also important to note that my passion also became an addiction. At one time I had signed up to be a member of four Toastmasters clubs at the same time. This caused a lot of pressure on me and I found that I was constantly running out of time because being in four clubs at the same time demanded a lot of my time and attention. I found that I started to get burned out and was not enjoying being a member of all of these clubs because I had not had time left over for anything else in my life. I had overcommitted myself and all of my time outside of work was being committed to Toastmasters. This was not healthy because it is also important to do other things in life, not just Toastmasters.
I am happy to say that I did find out my passion had become more of an addiction than a passion. I was able to reign in my passion and I quit the extra Toastmasters clubs and returned to being a member of only one club. I also stopped volunteering for more than one leadership role at a time. For example, I had been serving as both vice president of education and division director at the same time. Both of these roles are large responsibilities and I don’t recommend serving in both of these roles at the same time. I learned my lesson and from now on I will still pursue leadership roles in Toastmasters but I will limit myself to one position at a time.
When pursuing your passion, be careful you don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t overextend yourself. Don’t spend all of your time pursuing your passion and let other areas of your life suffer or fall behind. There is nothing wrong with being passionate for something. Just don’t let you passion consume your entire life.
Now you know that you can have passions in life and that there is also the danger of being addicted to something in your life. Knowing this you can review your life to see where you are spending your time and energy. If you find that you have an addiction I recommend taking steps to cure yourself of this addiction. If you have a strong passion for something be careful that it does not become an addiction. Pursuing your passions makes life worth living. Just be careful that your passions don’t become addictions.