S1 Ep7 - Passion

Welcome to the Rebrand Revolution. It gets us hot under the collar but should we give it the keys to the car and let it drive us over the edge? Sidonie Henbest explores the concept of passion, examining it as purpose, a compass for decision-making, and a personality trait. She asks why passion has taken centre stage in our modern lives, and notes that while passion can inspire and motivate, Henbest argues it is unstable and erratic, making it an unreliable guide for life decisions. She advocates for values as a more stable compass and suggests that passion should be enjoyed for its aliveness and inspiration rather than as a life directive. 

• Show Notes

• Audio Transcript

  This podcast is recorded on Kaurna Country. We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Kaurna people as the traditional owners and custodians of this land.

  You are listening to Rebrand Revolution, the podcast where we take today's pop culture cliche and turn it into tomorrow's empowered call to action. My name is Sidonie henbest, and thank you for joining me. This episode offers up a word that is all about the feelings. Those feelings that flutter in our tummies, pound in our hearts, whisper and then scream in our heads and often erupt as an outward expression we cannot take back, even if we wanted to. I am talking about passion. We are encouraged to have passion, or passions these days, to follow them, to pursue them at all costs, to broadcast our passions to the world. Pop culture even goes so far as to suggest that we cannot truly be happy without passion front and center in our lives. Hang on a second. I thought this podcast was all about flipping the script on pop culture buzzwords? Well, it is. And having tackled a couple of the heavy hitters in the most recent episodes, I was actually wondering where to next? When I noticed over the course of a day, this little word topping up everywhere. It was, on reels, and on buses, and in articles, and on podcasts, and on at least two reels that I was sent by a friend. And I thought, you know what? We might have something here hiding in plain sight. Are we talking about the passion of unbridled lust. Are we talking about the passion that's the fist thumping, table smacking, stand up and be counted? Are we talking about the kind of passion that sees someone take a dream and turn it into a reality? So I've narrowed it down to three you'll be pleased to know, and the three areas that I want to look at today are the idea of passion as purpose, passion as compass or decision making tool, and passion as personality.

  Strap in. Here we go with some definitions. And I will say that the word passion wins the prize to date, for the most listed definitions in the dictionary. How exciting! These are the things that get me up on a Monday morning. Passion defined by the Oxford English dictionaries as a noun, "strong and barely controllable emotion, a state of outburst or strong emotion, intense sexual love, an intense desire or enthusiasm for something, a thing arousing, great enthusiasm". There is a second meaning to the word passion, and it refers to "the suffering and death of Jesus Christ", and any accounts of that, or any musical settings of that. That's not the kind of passion that we're discussing today. You know me, I just can't help myself, and I have to go back and see where this all comes from. Where and how does it appear in our language. So this one's relatively straightforward, although quite the eye opener. The origin of the word passion comes from two sources, both old French and Latin, and passion is derived from "passio", which comes from the Latin word "parti", which means to suffer. How interesting that the word we are all madly crushing on these days means to suffer. Methinks, there'll be some gold in there.

  So what are the benefits of passion? At its best, passion shows us moments when aliveness or the consequences of aliveness burst through the surface. Whether desire, rage, arousal, bittersweetness, joy, enthusiasm, these things make us feel alive, and that is not to be underestimated. So let's test this out against our three areas of passion that we're focusing on today. Let's consider what is good about passion as purpose, and by that I mean when people identify their life's purpose as being the same as what they are passionate about. So when we have a clearly articulated sense of purpose, it tends to make us humans feel more certain, certain about ourselves, certain about our lives, certain about why we are here and what we are doing, and in that sense, the feeling of being in it or living it that is. Our passion provide validation that our experiences, for good or for bad, are for a reason. Next, we have passion as compass, as I call it, or, you know, passion as a decision making tool, as a way of working out which way to go and when. I think, simply put, if we feel that something is clear and strong, it can give us or it can offer us a sense of direction, and therefore a means of navigation. In other words, passion could help us with Wayfinding. We get that sense that if we are following our passion, we must be going "that" way, or our passion is going to lead us "that" way. So both passion as purpose and passion as compass provide us with some innate sense of confidence in how we approach decision making, and that is really important. Being a human is really confusing a lot of the time, possibly all of the time, and anything that can help us feel more certain about who we are, anything that can help us feel more certain about how we make decisions? Well, it's likely to make us feel better about being here, even if it's not necessarily going to actually help us. The third aspect here is what I called passion as personality. When I say passion as personality, I mean people who use it as a definitive part of their identity and their I am statement things like, "Hi, I'm Sidonie. I'm passionate about the environment", or "Hi, my name is Bob, and I'm passionate about restoring old cars". Whatever the passion, that upfront assertion acts as a lightning rod for connection, and that is a very attractive quality to other human beings. It feels like a clear read on someone and what they stand for, and in that sense, it probably helps us to make some quick decisions about where they belong in our moral and cultural universe. So people who wear their passion on their sleeve, well, they're easy to read.

  These seem like some lovely qualities. Sidonie, are you sure there is a downside to passion? Fair question, fair question, people. And I think the answer is best put like this. If you think of humans as just fleshy blobs hanging out on Earth hungry for good vibes, then maybe you're right. What on earth is wrong with these things that feel high intensity, high velocity, wow?? I mean, apart from the fact that when they leave, you tend to be wrecked on the floor. But apart from that, what a hell of a ride, hey?! All this lust, and desire, and anger, and joy, and anguish, and all of these big feelings. But if we view this from the perspective of a little further out than just the lumpy, watery flesh suits that we are, and we think of it from the perspective of the sentient beings. That we are more than just flesh and blood, things with a mind and a soul, then quickly this starts to look like less attractive as a prospect. You see passion for all of those whooshy, wow, feelings, for all that kapow, is pretty unstable. Passion erupts. It swings, it explodes. So I guess it's also a bit violent. And it is impermanent. It erupts, it subsides. It comes and it goes without warning. (so many jokes, so little time.)

  So let's revisit that decision making piece from earlier. If I use our little mate passion to define my sense of purpose, to navigate who I am, where I am going, why I am going there, and those decisions are based on something explosive, erratic, ephemeral, then that might make for a very unstable me. Sometimes feeling great, often feeling confused, no sense of equilibrium, of balance. A personal compass that blows hot and cold, that gives me really high reads on certain things and no read on something else. Hard to trust, yeah? No consistency, which is likely to also mean less feelings of security or certainty for me. Can anyone say "hello anxiety?" And the same sort of thing can apply to passion as personality. If I define my personality by that same set of explosive, erratic qualities, that becomes part of who I am, rather than passion being something that happens to me, that happens to us. If good is about feeling alive, about giving us a sense of confidence and knowing, things get a bit sketchy when we consider that this isn't a very stable basis for identity decision making... Then what do I think makes this really ugly? Well, back, we return to first principles. So you recall at the top of this episode, the word passion comes from the Latin "parti" to suffer. As many wise people would tell you, to live is to suffer. And there's no doubt that that is true, but I would add - to seek out suffering, to consciously and slavishly attach ourselves to it. Well, that seems worse than a poor choice.

  You see the thing about passion that is beautiful, that is so deeply attractive, and why it will always be part of the human experience, is because it is not measured and it is not considered, and that's why we like it so much. It is really fun. It is also quite frightening. Passion is like having a firecracker in your pocket, very fun. So energizing, but best not ignited whilst still in your pocket. Yeah? So in this episode of Rebrand Revolution, I am going to offer us a little bit of a reframe, or a remembering, as I have called them before, about this word, what it actually means, and therefore where I think it belongs in our world. Because there is no doubt about it, passion is here to stay, and I love that for us. I just want to put it somewhere where it benefits us as beings and as a world, rather than a place where it's really, really blowing up our pockets, as it were. Passion is brilliant for when our body and our soul need to experience and remember aliveness, inspiration and motivation. When we need to feel fired up, when we need to remember what it feels like for the volume to be turned up to 11 and to want to react purely on instinct. When we need to remember to connect to our own self, whether that be via desire, rage, joy. These are all mighty rivers that flow from the Divine through us.

  Passion is brilliant for feeling. Passion is not brilliant as a directional or compass tool however. in fact, I think it's reasonably likely to strand us in a desert with no water, if left to its own devices. But there is something close by that does provide us with the insight, assistance and context that I think we are really looking for, and what we really mean when we say passion. The things we care about, the things we stand for, the things we would die for. I think what we mean is values. We should be encouraged to find our values and pursue them and know them and use them as a compass to guide life decisions. In the same breath, we can also see the idea of passion as this ignition of this fire within us. As a cue for curiosity. And finally, our little friend, passion as personality. Whether it's at a networking event or on your Tinder profile, telling strangers what you are passionate about, has become so normalized that I think we have lost touch with just how strange an introduction it is. I mean, when you think about it, to lead with our most unhinged aspects is pretty weird, right? It's hardly likely to make for an appealing or accurate portrayal of who we are. So if passion is really all about color and movement and aliveness, then perhaps its place in the realm of personality is more as sparkle rather than actual substance. As I've said, I would suggest the substance is our values. Then it ends up sounding a little bit like this, "Hi, I'm Sidonie, and here is what I stand for", rather than "Hi, I am Sidonie. Here is what makes me blow my top." Yeah? Now I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. I am, in no way advocating for the removal of passion from our lives, but I am inviting you to consider where it belongs and how it most benefits us. As a tool, to feel, to remember and reconnect to our aliveness? That is a "hell yes!" As a means to wonder, to be curious, to notice what matters to us? Abso-freaking-lutely people. As the reason to choose a path or a shortcut to knowing ourselves better? That's a "Yeah-nah", from me, which, for those outside of Australia, means "no".

  Passion should be fun. It should be surprising. It just shouldn't rule the way we make decisions, nor define who we are out there in the world. This idea that if you follow your passion, everything will be okay, that it is somehow more virtuous to follow your passion as a way of choosing a life path... We don't mean passion when we say that. We mean curiosity, we mean talent. So let's put passion where it firmly belongs, between the sheets, on the streets in a march, standing up for our rights. These are times when passion is the tool we need. So you know my call to action here is the same as it is every time take this conversation out and have it with other people. As always, I'd love your feedback. Talk to me on Instagram @rebrand.revolution, or via our website www.rebrandrevolution.com.au, and get involved in the conversation. And together, let's change the way words and meaning come into our lives. You've been listening to Rebrand Revolution, and until next time, stay curious.

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