Passion vs Practicality
Welcome to Your Love Breakthrough! Get Real. Love.
In this edition: Passion vs Practicality
Perspective – Passions Alone and Together
Practical Tactics – Let Passion Transform The Practical
Living Life to the Fullest? What Does That Even Mean?
Perspective – Passions Alone and Together
When I worked at eHarmony, the most common answer in online dating profiles to the question, "What are you most passion about?" was "Living life to the fullest." It was a cliche that become a joke because people stopped there without describing what they meant by that. It meant nothing.
Whether coupled or not, people suffer when they don't allow their individual passions to rise up, breathe, get expressed, and lived out.
In fact, a large function of healthy, fulfilling partnership it is to champion your own and your partner's passions so you and your significant other can become more of who you are meant to be--individually and together.
Case in point: My friend had dated her boyfriend for a couple of years before they decided to break up because they had different goals that they'd believed weren't going to work out in practicality.
So, once broken up, my friend got practical and joined eHarmony. She dated several different people who she admired. But she felt flat about each of them. She told me one of her favorite things about her former boyfriend had been that he was passionate about his own endeavors. He had a personal spark, and they had a spark about each other. She missed that passion in the person she dated, and having passion about the person she dated.
I'm happy to say that the solution to their practical issue became a mutually shared passion that they've enjoyed as a married couple for over 20 years.
Practical Tactics – Let Passion Transform The Practical
Practicality often snuffs out the blaze of passion. It doesn't have to.
If you're uncoupled-and-seeking partnership:
Take time and energy to set up an attractive and intentional online dating profile on one or more apps/sites. This way, you don't have to make it a full time job. A well crafted profile does more than 50% or more of the "work" by eliminating many poor matches.
Spend more time, energy, and funds on finding groups and communities where you can develop your passions. You might just meet someone special in your passion pursuit.
Exploring passions alone makes life fulfilling now and gives you something to contribute when you find a match.
If you're coupled:
Explore your solo passions, and get involved in your partner's passions if possible for mutual encouragement.
Find mutual passions to invest in together.
Split the practical duties to get through them quickly so you can emphasize time for passion pursuits.
Gamify practical tasks to make them more enjoyable, even fun.
In this way, your passions can bring new life and purpose to those menial responsibilities; practicalities exist to make the passions possible.