Follow your passion, we’re often told. But how do you find your passion? Let me put it another way: what is it that breaks your heart about the world? It’s there that you begin to find what moves you. If you want to find your passion, surrender to your heartbreak. Your heartbreak points towards a truer north — and it’s the difficult journey towards it that is, in the truest sense, no mere passing idyllic infatuation, but enduring, tempestuous passion.
Interpretation
Finding your passion involves understanding what profoundly affects you emotionally.
This quote emphasizes that discovering one's passion is not merely about following generic advice, but rather about introspection and recognizing what deeply moves or disturbs you. The author suggests that heartbreak can be a powerful indicator of your true passions, guiding you towards pursuits that offer both meaning and fulfillment, even when the path is challenging.
In practice
This quote can inspire students deciding on their career paths during a motivational speech.
I'm firmly of the belief that your youth should be spent pursuing your passion - not just slightly, tremulously, haltingly, but unrelentingly, with a vengeance, to the max and then beyond. So dream laughably big - and then take an absurdly huge risk or two.
Tell the truth, but tell it slant.
You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.
Speak only endearing speech, speech that is welcomed. Speech, when it brings no evil to others, is pleasant.
Your eloquence should be the servant of the ideas in your head. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.
Work on your stony qualities and become resplendent like the ruby. Practice self-denial and accept difficulty. Always see infinite life in letting the self die. Your stoniness will decrease; your ruby nature will grow. The signs of self-existence will leave your body, and ecstasy will take you over.
Everything comes if a man will only wait.
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