I’ll leave this here for anyone (especially young people) who cares. Reflect deeply on your job, your interests or whatever you’re passionate about and practise telling it to other people as seriously and compellingly as you can.
This is a sensitive topic. I know this because I talk to people often. I get past affectations and probe into their real interests. To really know them. I find, almost always, that this part of people is generally very unarticulated. Even for the most articulate.
People generally struggle to articulate what they are, what they do, or are interested in. Even professionals. It’s not that they are inarticulate; some never fully come to terms with what they are or have become nor do they find themselves worthy of their interests.
Some have thought about it, but they haven’t cared to couple those thoughts together in a way that can be communicated with sureness, with clarity. Some hate what they do, they’d rather not think about it. So they have no story to tell.
Some others are not sure what they’re interested in; they pretend when necessary, since everyone else seems to have figured it out. It’s understandable, we’re victims of excess information. It used to be power. But since information is everywhere now, clarity is the new king.
Still, there’s nothing more admirable than being able to talk about yourself — your interests or work — with sureness. And sureness is not arrogance nor is it infallibility. I think of it as the non-verbal manifestation of soulful authenticity and belief in oneself.
And if you find something you’re passionate about, maybe your job, or a side interest, talk about passionately. Better than the pitches you rehearse. Say it like no one is listening. Let your voice show it, let your eyes light up and for once, drop the affect.
In my interactions with people of across all classes, I have found that everyone pays attention to a passionate talk. Sureness resonates with people because it is often the part of them they mostly struggle with and some never quite realize it until they hear someone else.
The easiest way to be loved by people is to display passion for what you do or are interested in. Not many people will tell you this — sometimes not even your boss or your friends — because while passion is easily seen, it is barely understood.
Always have a mental note of how you describe yourself; your work, interests, goals. Refine it as you make progress but keep the authenticity. In those defining moments people watch out for it. And sometimes the luck you get, flows from the passion you exude.
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