Why Our Passions Start To Feel Like Work
Or, an exploration into why activities that used to give us satisfaction and joy cease doing so, and what this means for individuals, organizations, and institutions
Have you ever had a passion you pursued, but eventually it started to feel like “work”? Perhaps whatever you’re passionate about actually became your career, and for some reason, you lost interest in this passion. How does this happen? That’s what I want to talk about today. Specifically, I want to discuss three interrelated concepts that are helpful for understanding this phenomenon:
- Perceived Locus of Causality: A fancy term that essentially asks, did you decide to do this on your own, or were you forced? It’s not a binary consideration. Choices exist on a spectrum from fully autonomous to totally controlled. We shall discuss.
- Optimum Challenge: This is when a task is not so easy that it’s boring and not so hard that it’s impossible, but in the “goldilocks” zone. It’s challenging enough to be interesting and rewarding when completed.
- Reward Effects: How do various incentives and incentive structures affect motivation and behavior?
First off, what do I mean by passion? In this context, something you’re passionate about is something intrinsically rewarding, which means that the act of doing the thing is rewarding in and of itself. The incentive is built into the action. You’re not doing it to get paid or to show off or because you were coerced in some way. Exercising, reading, writing, doing math, solving puzzles, cooking—these are just a few examples of things people find intrinsic value in. There could be instances in which you discover you have an aptitude for something, and that sense of being good at it makes the activity intrinsically rewarding. For example, in my last essay about Nightmare Alley, I explained how the protagonist discovered he had an aptitude for reading people. This made him feel good.
Συνέχεια εδώ
Πηγή:ragazzo.substack.com
