Do not use a sentence beginning “I am passionate about...” to describe yourself.
I for one mentally substitute “insecure about” and I strongly suspect I’m not the only one
“Passionate” to me is now unbreakably associated with frantic signaling and unsustainable levels of over-motivated underachievement, scenesterism, grifts, hustles...
Spikes of explosive theatrical activity that peter out and turn into depressed abandonment and derelict projects.
Not that there’s any good reason to market yourself to me since I have no jobs or investments to dole out, but...
What I actually like to know about a new acquaintance is what they’re patient about. Steady, quiet, indefatigability. A thing you’d plug away at for 20 years.
It’s next door to popular terms next door to “passionate” like “gritty” and “relentless” but I look for a gentler trait. A whole ‘Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption’ energy.
When I spot that, I feel comfortable building off it.
Grit is chewing glass while being punched in the face. Desensitizes you.
Relentless is Terminator. Robotic Ives you.
Patience is digging a tunnel for 20 years with a geologist’s hammer. A persistence so gentile it’s like erosion by water.
I hear you.
I started dancing when I was 5, went to professional training from 9 to 19, then worked as a dancer for over 15 years.
Dance have been a life companion to me for two thirds of my life.
"Passion" or "grit" just doesn't cut it.