When you don't have a passion

The media is full of stories about those incredibly passionate people. You know the ones. They are usually stories of those who 

• were inspired by
• were enraged by 
• were driven to
• saw a problem
• found a solution
• survived against the odds

The stories come in a few different flavours, and probably I haven't identified them all.  I think that it is great that such stories, experiences and motivations exist for some people. The world is moved in positive directions by people like Greta, Elon, and Malala, but this post is not about those people and stories.  

How are those of us without the fire, the anger, or the passion, but who still feel that we have something to contribute, supposed to go about our lives and feel content that what we are doing is worthwhile? Most of us are not always angry. Most of us don't have something that could change the world on our mind. It does not mean that we are against the idea of making things better. It just means we have trouble maintaining the rage. Or we haven't had the fire lit below us. Or we haven't been put in a pressure cooker position that required us to survive or crash. Or we have many obligations.

I am all too aware how easy my life has been. Learning came easy to me. Communicating comes fairly easily. I was lucky enough to find a career with an amazing buffer. I have been brought up in easy circumstances. I have enough, probably more than enough. And I have seen the lives of those that struggle, those that have not been able to rise out of the less privileged positions that their circumstances have started them in. 

So I can see two options are 

1. Feel guilty about being in a lucky and privileged situation, but also guilty that I am not driven by a fire and passion that is widely lauded as the way to make big change
   or
2. Accept that not all change comes from rage, fire and passion. Accept that small daily steps towards a better world can make a big long term impact. Work towards making those continual small steps.

For now, keeping on keeping on is called for.  Probably it has always been this way, but the current era of mass communication and social media has amplified some lives and voices above others. In his life time less people probably "knew"* of Albert Einstein than already "know"* Greta Thunberg inside her short lifespan. It is easy to develop an inferiority complex, feel impostor syndrome or even to just get lost amongst the shouting. Remembering that we all have our own journey to tend to is probably a good grounding thought.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"

Chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching ascribed to Laozi 

*What we think we know of other's shouldn't be confused with who they are.  This is perhaps part of the overall problem, elevating thoughts to knowledge.