7 more ways to kill passion
If you’ve found yourself still encumbered with hope, goals, and passion, you’re in luck! I have a few more tips to get rid of it.
8. Hyperfixate on what you’re passionate about
Lighters don’t stay lit forever, but they burn out a lot faster if you dump all the fuel out and burn it at once! If we hyperfixate on our passions, we won’t be able to see past them anymore. When you make a single thing into your whole world, you’ll find that it will quickly leave you feeling unfulfilled in one way or another. If we are bent on killing our passions, hyperfixation is like poison. It won’t kill it immediately, but it will quickly show symptoms and die out.
Our solar system is a good example of the core principle at work here. In order for a world to sustainably revolve around something, that thing needs to be life giving. If you stare at the sun too long or spend too much time in it, you’ll get burned, suffer permanent damage, and want to avoid it.
9. Make no plans on how to sustain it
Like compression in audio signals, the key to sustain is cutting out ends of the whole signal. If you allow your passion to roam free in its full wavelength, you’ll see that it will dissipate much sooner. Compressing the signal of your passion will force limits and boundaries for it to abide within, rather than taking up all the space available.
10. Make big, unrealistic promises
PROMISE BIG, DELIVER SMALL. Name a more iconic duo than big expectations and even bigger disappointment. They go hand-in-hand, almost as though they’re universally bound to each other. Within seconds, you should be able to think of things you had high hopes for that were dashed by the reality of life. Passion is no different. If you boast of “big things coming”™ , you are practically guaranteed to see those big things never rear their heads.
Think of a realistic deadline and quality in your mind. Then, convince yourself that you can do it faster and better than that. This one works 100% of the time, most of the time.
11. Ignore critiques and never improve
There are two approaches we can take to this: The first is that if everyone else hates what you’re doing, you probably will too. Make your passions insufferably static so that people will get accustomed to how annoying you and your passions are. Don’t bother changing, because the people that don’t like what you’re doing will inevitably get to you.
The second approach is that if people criticize you, they’re just haters with nothing better to do… right? Just keep doing exactly what you’re doing, the way you have been. As long as you keep that up, you’re golden. Ignore people who tell you that you can do better, because you really just can’t. Your passion is proof of that!
12. Embrace failure and disinterest as real options
If you simply believe that it’s okay to give up and leave parts of you behind, it’ll become a lot easier to kill your passion. Try convincing yourself of the following de-affirmations: “Maybe you were just supposed to suck at this?” “Maybe you should have never tried?” “It’s okay to lose interest, even if it seems important to you!” Plus, if you’re feeling extra, you can try: “You’ll probably suck at the next thing too!”
Losing interest is a natural part of life. We are bound to leave behind things that we decide don’t matter to us anymore. Only extremely healthy people understand that if something gives you the ick, you should give up on it immediately. One red flag is all it should really take.
13. Keep your passion completely segregated from the rest of your life
Don’t talk about it, don’t think about it, don’t act on any passion unless you can completely separate it from your life. Let your passion be something in secret and you’ll be astounded by how quickly it wilts. If you cut it off from any of the sunlight of your life, friends, etc., it will wilt in no time. Don’t give anyone the chance to water it or help it grow.
The more you can isolate yourself and your passion, the less you will care about caring for either of them. This is true.
14. Don’t just listen to the haters, agree with them!
If you can’t beat em’, join em’! Perhaps they are right to dunk on you. Perhaps the worst thing you could do is care, try, or have a want. Sometimes the best option is to join in when people stand against you. I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes: “I’m a firm believer that when someone’s down, it’s best to kick them.” Why not be the lead kicker on the team?
Haters might get a bad rap sometimes but I think they have a decent track record! They’ve been right sometimes and we need to not gloss over that fact. They were right about Hitler, Star Wars, Jazz, and probably you too!
Closing thoughts
With these 7 (additional) easy steps, your passion should be snuffed out in no time! We overthink this whole “mehhh my passsionnnn” thing anyways. Too easy. If you can’t figure out how to kill your passions by now, you probably shouldn’t have them in the first place!
Thanks for (enduring too much sarcasm and) not reading.
