How to Distinguish Between a Passion and a Hobby

4:39:43

2023-10-05

1894

Part 2: Checking Your Attitude

1- Ask yourself if the activity is relaxing or intense. Start doing the activity and after you’ve been at it a while, gauge how you feel. If you’re enjoying yourself and feel calm, you are probably pursuing a hobby. If you feel almost upset, or at least a bit tense or focused, you’re working on a passion.

This may seem crazy, but passions tend to cause you a bit of suffering. You care a lot about it, so pursuing a passion is not usually a calming experience.
Hobbies are enjoyable and pleasant, so you should feel pretty at peace when you’re engaging in a hobby.
For example, head out to your woodshop and start building something. If you are in deep concentration and feeling on edge, you’re passionate about woodworking. Otherwise, you’d feel relaxed.

2- Determine if you are trying to improve at the activity. Do the activity a little more frequently than you usually would. Pay attention to whether you are working hard to get better at it or if you are simply doing it for the enjoyment you get in the moment. You work harder on passions than on hobbies.

You work to be the best at a passion, but you are satisfied with having fun with a hobby.
For example, if you are always cooking new recipes that challenge you, it’s a passion. If you like to cook chili and cinnamon rolls repeatedly, that’s more of a hobby.

3- Question if the activity is related to your values and beliefs. Make a list of values you have about life, society, or your faith or belief system. Then make a list of pursuits that you think might be passions. If any of the activities line up with values you hold, those are passions.

This takes some abstract thinking, so give yourself time to look over the lists.
For example, you might list hiking, singing, and gaming as hobbies. You might list being adventurous, staying healthy, admiring beauty, and unplugging from technology as values. As you can see, hiking aligns with those values, so it’s a passion.

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