372 Why Purpose Is Better Than Passion

“You want to compare yourself against the progress you’ve made.” - Ryan Holiday If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/372 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:11Ryan Holiday?

  Well, I think passion, I think passion is dangerous, right? So throughout philosophy, especially in Stoic philosophy, they warn against the passions like lust, greed, anger, fear. This is what historically, passion has meant extreme emotions.

• 0:28Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 0:28Ryan Holiday?

  And so I tend, I tend to gravitate towards that definition. But I think purpose is better than passion, right? Because passion is like, I like this, it feels good, I want to do this. Purpose is, here's what I'm trying to accomplish. Here's why it's important and I'm, and I'm not going to stop until it's done. Like, who would you rather have work for you? The guy that just really loves writing or the person who's like trying to write for a reason? You know? And, and so that passion can be blinding and it can get you like, it's not enough just to love something or else everyone would do what they love.

• 1:08Ryan Holiday?

  You also have to be good at it and you also have to know how, like how to make smart decisions and how to plan.

• 1:14Lewis Howes?

  Is it possible for us to always have a purpose?

• 1:17Ryan Holiday?

  What do you mean?

• 1:18Lewis Howes?

  I mean, a lot of people, I think, don't know what their purpose is.

• 1:21Ryan Holiday?

  Sure.

• 1:21Lewis Howes?

  They don't know how to discover it. They don't even know what they're passionate about. So how do you find a purpose? Period. How do you even go about saying, oh, this is my purpose in this point in my life?

• 1:32Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, well, I think one of the reasons that people like to say, find your passion is that it sounds really smart. And you don't, like, no one's like, okay, then what? Right? Like, it's just, it's just like, it's like, do what you love. You know, it's okay, then how? You know, so when I, when I'm saying purpose, I think it's about defining your goals, defining what the life you're trying to build is and.

• 1:59Ryan Holiday?

  And having a real model for what you're doing.

• 2:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 2:01Ryan Holiday?

  And for me, I've tried to be very clear about what I'm trying to accomplish to myself. So that I'm not getting distracted by all these like, I like to do lots of things, but I, you gotta pick one to really get good at it, you know? And it's also, it's like, if you're doing this thing because it means something to you and you know exactly what success looks like for you, it's nice because then you're not as distracted by the fact that so and so is posting photos of them surrounded by hundred dollar bills on Instagram or on a yacht in a visa or whatever. You know, you, you want to make sure that you're not comparing yourself to other people. You want to compare yourself against the progress you've made to, for whatever your purpose is.

• 2:45Lewis Howes?

  Most people never do that. That's the best way to compare yourself as to how far you've come or what you've created as opposed to what everyone else has created around you.

• 2:52Ryan Holiday?

  Well, you probably learned that in sports, right? Where it's like, it's not about what other players are doing. It's about whatever you, whatever you're capable of.

• 3:00Lewis Howes?

  From the previous game or the previous week or what we've done.

• 3:02Ryan Holiday?

  Right.

• 3:03Lewis Howes?

  Getting closer to our goal or to our vision.

• 3:05Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, because like, look, some people are freaks. You know what I mean? Like some people are just way better than you and they're always going to be better than you and they're not going to have to work as hard as you. So it's like, if you're comparing yourself to them or just mimicking them, you're not, it's, that's not the right, that's not the right approach.