Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness have written a couple great books together. First, they gave us Peak Performance. Then The Passion Paradox.   Today we’re going to talk about one of the central themes of The Passion Paradox. (Tomorrow we’ll chat about some goodness from Peak Performance.)   So…   Passion.   It’s AWESOME!   Except when it isn’t.   Enter: The Passion Paradox.   As Brad and Steve put it: “Mindlessly living with a passion can be extremely harmful and destructive. Mindfully living with a passion can be the key to a life well lived.”   They tell us that psychologists differentiate two types of passion by calling the unhealthy kind “Obsessive Passion” and the healthy kind “Harmonious Passion.”   Obsessive Passion is toxic. It has two primary facets: 1. Focusing too much on extrinsic results (like fame, wealth, achievement, etc.); 2. Being too worried about failure.   Harmonious Passion, on the other hand, gives us a deep sense of joy. Whereas the toxic passion is focused on