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Have you ever thought about turning your passion into a career?

Probably.

The allure of making money off of something you intrinsically love is strong.

But there is a trap you need to be aware of—one with the potential to drain your energy and turn something vibrant into a dull grey mass.

I call it the Passion Paradox.

The Stanford Marker Study

In the early 1970s, Stanford psychology researcher Dr. Mark Lepper conducted a study with a group of young children at the Bing Nursery School on Stanford's campus.

The children selected for the study had shown a keen intrinsic interest in drawing, having regularly chosen the activity over others when placed out in the room.

In the study, the researchers gave each child some markers and paper and asked them to draw.

The children were split into three groups:

1. Expected Reward: This group was told that they would receive a "Good Player" award if they drew.
2. Unexpected Reward: This group was not told anything, but was then given a "Good Player" award if they drew.
3. No Reward: This group was not told anything, nor given anything.

Two weeks later, the researchers came back to observe how the children behaved when markers and drawing paper were placed out in the room (with no instructions or reward incentives).

The findings shocked them: The children from the "Expected Reward" group exhibited significantly less interest (half as much) in drawing as they had before the study had taken place, while the children from the "Unexpected Reward" and "No Reward" groups exhibited the same amount of interest.

The researchers concluded that tying an incentive to a task that the children had previously felt intrinsic motivation for had actually reduced their intrinsic motivation for the task.

In other words, drawing was fun—until it became a "job".

The Passion Paradox

We've all heard the common trope: "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."

We're encouraged from a young age to pursue our passions.

But as the Stanford Marker Study shows, it is possible, even probable, that by chasing our passions as a career, we will quickly turn them into any other job.

The intrinsic motivation to pursue a given task is undermined by the reward system that inevitably enters the fold.

Play can quickly become work.

I often think of the trap as a paradox—the Passion Paradox:

We have a deep desire to chase our passions, but by chasing them, we may actually reduce our passion for them.

So how do we avoid this unfortunate end?

3 Strategies for Escaping the Paradox

I have three strategies worth considering...

Strategy #1: Keep Play as Play

In this modern digital era of online businesses with low barriers to entry, there is a rampant narrative that you need to monetize your hobbies and passions.

If you don't you're missing out (or so they've tried to convince you).

My advice: Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD.

It's perfectly reasonable, and even advisable, to keep some hobbies and passions as just that, hobbies and passions.

It's ok to keep play as play.

Strategy #2: Let Work Be Work

Just as it's ok to keep play as play, allow yourself to let work be work.

As Simone Stolzoff points out in his new book, The Good Enough Job, we need not make work the center of meaning or self-worth in our lives.

In other words, it's ok for a job to just be a job.

Forcing yourself to feel bad about that is unproductive—it saps your energy that could be spent enjoying your passions outside of work.

Strategy #3: Make Work Feel More Playful

After concluding the research, Dr. Lepper and his team developed a set of principles for making work feel more playful—The Five C's.

The Five C's apply to adults and children alike:

1. Curiosity: The name of my newsletter is no accident. Curiosity is a major driver of play. When we pursue things because we have an innate curiosity for them, it never feels like work.
2. Challenge: Humans love a challenge. Fostering challenge in the work creates a video game atmosphere that will make it feel like play.
3. Competence: The desire to learn and improve is natural. Create evidence of improvement and expanding competence.
4. Control: Maintain a "Player One" mentality of being in control of your own fate. When we feel in the driver's seat, we feel like a real player, not a cog in the wheel.
5. Context: Embrace context changes that place you in new and imaginary environments. Separate yourself from the ordinary context regularly.

Considering the Five C's regularly is a powerful way to maintain a degree of intrinsic motivation around your work (especially if it has started to feel dull).

Leveraging these three simple strategies will help you escape the Passion Paradox.

Intrinsic by Design

I've often encountered the Passion Paradox in my work, but I've been very deliberate in designing my ecosystem to avoid allowing it to sap my intrinsic motivation for writing.

I want my work to maintain a level of playfulness.

All of my content is free. I don't charge for the newsletter and I don't sell courses or products. I never want my writing to feel as though I am punching the clock to get my reward from my followers or subscribers each week.

Rather than focus on money (which I don't find particularly motivating), I try to focus on impact.

How is my work connecting with people? How is my work causing people to ask better questions and make tiny positive changes to their lives?

My logic: There are millions of ways to make money, but the only way to create impact is by delivering consistently inspired, thoughtful content, week in, week out.

So as you consider your own work, hobbies, and passions in the weeks ahead, I'd encourage you to consider the Passion Paradox:

• How will you keep play as play?
• How will you let work be work?
• How might you make work feel a bit more playful?