Are you passionate? Or are you emotional? Does it mean the same?
No… on the surface of it, you are passionate about something; you get emotional about someone.
But there’s a more fundamental difference between the two.
Passion involves mind; emotion, by definition, excludes mental judgments.
Passion drives you to action. A passionate gardener; for example, would study his plants, read up about how best he can take care of them, he wouldn’t mind getting his hands dirty with soil – on the contrary, he would just love it. On the other hand, someone who just gets emotional about plants and trees would keep on complaining about loss of forest cover without ever setting out his foot to do something about it.
It is alright, in fact essential, to be emotional about someone. But emotions block critical analysis; you can hardly bring yourself about to criticize the object of your affection. But, being passionate about the relationship will make you strive for giving your best, and bringing out the best from the other person.
Emotions are self-centric… one may pine away for someone without ever thinking of ways to improve the other person. Passion is all about making its subject better.
Passion is often backed by a vast knowledge about the subject. If you are passionate about computers, you are likely to read more about them, study them in detail. If you are just emotional about movies of the past, all you are likely to do is whine about how such classics are no longer made.
More often than not, emotions are abstract feelings about generic subjects. It is rather difficult to describe why you feel the way you feel. A passionate person is more likely to give you the specific reasons for why he or she rooting for a particular cause.
Emotions are important…. they distinguish us from animals, and bring in some beautiful moments in one’s life. One can’t help being emotional; but it would help to bring in more of passion to everything, be it your work or your relationships.
