when you see it, say it
If I hear one more person describing how they are passionate about something they do, or some meaningless entity and pastime in their lives, I think I’m going to get…passionate about shoving something down their painfully passionate throat!
“I have a great passion for…” is one of those phrases that has become meaningless through overuse and the word ‘passionate’ has lost much, if not all, of its potency. Sandwich shops are passionate about their quality baguettes and coronation chicken, delivery companies are passionate about logistics and deadlines, garden centres are passionate about plants, booksellers are passionate about books and every shallow, self-centred, self-obsessed celebrity is passionate about something or other – usually some cause that coincidentally both raises their visibility and profile even higher and further endears them to the great unwashed. Sorry, the passionate unwashed that is.
I like to think I’ve done quite a few things in my life to date. Starting-up a business was a hoot and daunting in equal measure. Buying a large commercial property was just daunting and selling it was terrifying. Playing squash for 25 years has been excellent fun and what a laugh. I wish I could calculate the pints I’ve downed…on reality I guess I’d rather not know but I can assure you I’ve enjoyed every last one of them. Learning to swim was fantastic and completing the Ironman was far more emotional than I’d thought it would be. And the common denominator is? That I’m not passionate about any of them. The day I hear someone bleating about their passion for recruiting is the day I advise them to leave, or see a specialist.
So what’s to do? Claim back the word passionate and use it for only actions that truly warrant such a description? Nah, it’s gone too far already I reckon and along with ‘incredible’ and ‘amazing’ they’re lost to us all. Straight synonyms aren’t really going to help either. If you were to describe your self as ‘fervent’ or ‘fanatical’ then I’m afraid you’re going to be walking a line far too close to obsession and may even be portraying yourself as delusional! No, I think the only way to avoid being regarded as either a numpty or a closet OCD suffering lunatic is to properly and clearly state fully what you actually enjoy about said act without referring to such evocative and extreme terms. Whatever happened to such descriptions as ‘enjoy’, ‘good’, ‘amiable’, ‘terrific’, ‘fun’, ‘satisfaction’? We need to reclaim their use.
The actual overuse of many evocative terms I believe has been caused by the new mechanisms of social media. With only 140 characters available on twitter you’ve got to make your latest outburst as extreme as possible in an attempt to catch someone’s eye and make it stand out. My own spin on this is that if you have something worth saying I’d be surprised if you could make it so in only 140 characters. Facebook is no better as your constant updates need to be better, and bigger, and more outlandish; your smiles need to be wider and brighter; how could your life and your enjoyment of it, not be growing exponentially? And hence your desire to share all that passion with us expands in the same manner. OMG. A little perspective and understanding the relative wouldn’t go amiss and please spare me the passion.
