Passion versus duty: The showdown
Behind all actions there is a motive. Motive is arguably just as important as the action itself. In an action as simple as eating food the motive is very decisive. Is a person eating for pleasure, or because they will go hungry if they do not? These two motives plainly show the two distinctive categories of motives: passion and duty. If you are eating a food simply because you love it, you're motive is passionate. On the other hand, if you're only eating strictly because you're hungry you have a duty driven motive. However, food is not a choice. Each of us have to eat if we are to survive. There are many choices we could approach with either passion or duty that could very well change who we are as people. To understand the differences between your decisions, it's important to understand the differences between passion and duty.
One of the most obvious differences is objective. Passion could be described as following ones heart, whereas duty has a specific goal orientation. You may chose to go to class one day simply because you like it, but you may also go just for the grade. Both scenarios have the same decision and roughly the same outcome: you go to class. It may seem like this means the decision was made and the impact is done, but how it was made has just as much impact on the situation. If someone chose to go to class because he loved it, he'd pay attention and therefor absorb more of the material. The same could be said for making the grade, but once it's no longer useful for that goal one would probably forget the material. Even though the objective is met, the outcome is different in the end. Passion and duty are usually represented by two very different attitude. If a person is doing something solely because he or she wants to, the attitude used to approach the activity is usually more upbeat or bubbly. Duty can bring forth a wide range of attitudes. Attitudes can range from bland boredom to oppressive zeal. Attitudes that come with duty aren't all bad, however. Dutiful motives can be extremely productive in a business or service environment. On the same token, passionate motives are not always good. These motives can be unproductive and often chaotic and unguided. Passionate motives can often be placed in a religious or volunteer sort of setting. These facts bring us to another important contrast between passion and duty: their settings. Each motive has an extremely distinctive place of use. In fact, it can often be dangerous if their places are mixed. Dutiful religious leaders taking it upon themselves to commit genocide, for example.
Although the two motives have extremely clear differences, their singularities aren't always as clearly defined. As I've mentioned previously, both duty and passion are motives. This means that a sense of passion or duty can start an event. The event can differ according to the motive, and it can either be for evil or good. Behind any major world event, you will probably find passion or duty to be the catalyst. Aside from the start, both have a similar ending. Passion and duty can both end in personal or strategic gain. In fact, both tend to lead to very effective methods of generating gain. They each have very strong emotions derived from them. It is rare that someone with a sense of passion or duty is emotionally dull. Passion and duty can be expressed as a driving force behind a persons dreams. Something that holds such an epic place in a person's life rarely goes without emotion.
No matter what you're going through in life, the world continues to turn. Ever changing events make it important to have a motive in your life. When making a decision or starting something big, it may be important to ask what the driving force is. Is it duty with it's objective orientation and zeal, yet bland appearance? Could it be passion with it's personal and heartfelt attitude but sometimes unproductive in nature? Such a question could tell a lot about the outcome of the decision before it's even made.
