This response resonated more with me, and I suspect with many other people, than the idea of a “burning passion.” To paraphrase Robert Greene in his book Mastery: when we are very young, we are attracted to certain activities, such as sports, music, words, visual patterns or mathematics, etc. He refers to this as “primal inclinations,” indications of what makes us unique. As we grow older, most of us lose touch with these inclinations. We are distracted and influenced by outside opinions and judgments, and thus become lost and frustrated. To find one’s vocation and achieve mastery, it’s important to reconnect to these primal inclinations, and equally, if not more, important is to deliberately learn skills through hard work and discipline. “It is time to reverse this prejudice against conscious effort and to see the powers we gain through practice and discipline as eminently inspiring and even miraculous.” In other words, instead of finding passion, we might be better off cultivating passion.This approach brings to mind the two kinds of romantic love that Jonathan Haidt described in his book: passionate love and companionate love. Passionate love is what one falls into in the initial phase of a relationship. It ignites and burns brightly, however it does not last forever. To support a strong and long-lasting relationship, passionate love has to transform into companionate love, which is the kind of love that people build day-by-day over a lifetime with deep-rooted trust and mutual respect. It is certainly hard work to maintain, any long-term couples would acknowledge, but it is also considerably more satisfying. Perhaps we should approach work in much the same way. Perhaps the key to finding our vocation is to identify what we love, and more importantly, spend our life working to cultivate and strengthen it through respect, devotion and diligence. Cultivate passion, pursue life’s vocation, and invite the world to share our joy in the making. (Nicolas Renier, 2015)