How many times have you heard an adult tell a teen that the most important vocational task is to find his or her passion? Perhaps as many times as you have heard adults say that they have never found their own passion! At the risk of prying, reader: Have you found your passion?

While there are, no doubt, people who have found passion in their work lives, most of us are still in pursuit. And what more laudable chase is there? Finding your passion is such an unquestionable goal that it justifies money, time, energy and even a break with social convention: Gap year, Pilates, therapy, weekly photography classes, and going completely green. If passion is such an important chase, why are so many of us never making the catch?

There are some good reasons. In this three-part series, I’d like to stick my neck out to question passion in one’s work. In this article, we’ll review what makes passion so hard to nail down. In the next installment, we’ll explore why the pursuit of passion alone so rarely generates happiness. Last, I’d like to suggest that there is an alternative race with both more winners and a bigger jackpot. 

So, what is so wrong with seeking passion in work? It is an unusually tricky goal for many reasons:

Passion is hard to identify. First of all, it is not an easy thing to really grasp what one’s passion is. For example, I get a big kick out of volunteering to teach a weekly sewing class to 10 year-old girls. But what part of this is passion? Is it working with kids? Creativity, more generally? Sewing, more specifically? The recognition that comes from working within my children’s community? To understand my passion, I have to untangle these ends. And even though I have tried to, the answer is not clear. 

Passion itself is a pretty vague ideal. Do you know exactly what passion looks like? Is it pleasure? Fun? A sense of confidence? Meaning? Readers will be quick to say that it is a combination of all these things, which is a perfect segue to my next point.

Passion is a really high standard. Whatever passion is, it demands deep thought. Does my husband like his job? Sure. Enjoy the people he works with? Most of them. Does it fulfill his passions? He’d hesitate. Why? Because one must be careful about the label, because one can’t quickly conclude that one is passionate about work. Are you passionate about your work? If you hesitate, too, it is largely because the standard is just so high. In other words, the very definition of passion all but denies its possibility. 

Some jobs and tasks are just not the passionate sort. Another reason my husband would say he’s not sure that he is passionate? He’s a corporate lawyer. Whatever else is great about his work, and much is, it is not the kind of job you easily use the word “passionate” to describe. Teaching kindergarten, theater acting or medicine—these are words where passion seems to fit. Your job might be fantastic but not easily described in visceral, emotional terms.

Passion eclipses other values. This is my biggest concern. I worry that the cultural emphasis on passion has squeezed out other templates. I do tell my children to pursue what they love, but they have to do their math homework, too. There are other good reasons to do something: it is good for the world or someone important to you, for example, or just that it is simply necessary.

At the end of the day, the reason many of us have not found our passion is due to the nature of the standard itself. Passion is hard for all these reasons, and this is before we consider the reasons that passion often does not equal happiness

Do I want you to be deeply contented in your work? Absolutely, and that is, in fact, one of the biggest reasons to look for other values than passion.