Don't Mistake 'Momentary Pleasure' for 'Life's Passion'

You must absolutely not confuse passion with pleasure. Even adults often confuse the two. Pleasure has no sustainability and is easily obtained. Candy and chocolate for little kids, and computer games for students — those are the typical examples. Failing to distinguish momentary pleasure from the passion of a lifetime is the start of a failed life. If a student is still hooked on the computer games they enjoyed in elementary school by the age of 15 or 16 and can't break free, they won't succeed when they step into the world. Whatever job they take, they won't be able to focus — they'll just be waiting to get home and play.

 

 

 

"Don't mistake momentary pleasure for life's passion."

 

Robert Greene, the author of the newly released Mastery, introduced earlier this month (Economy Notes, July 4, 2013: "Nietzsche — Even a genius first learns how to stack bricks, and then learns how to build a building"), spoke in a newspaper interview about the importance of distinguishing pleasure from passion. An important point. 

 

We can create meaning and happiness when we choose work that we can do well and that we 'truly want' to do. But it's easy to confuse 'what we truly want to do' with 'momentary pleasure.' 'What we truly want to do' must be the 'passion of our lives.'

 

"People who have become masters realized early on that the true joys of life come not from short-term pleasures but from long-term achievements. Rather than giving gifted-child education to their kids, parents should teach them that joy comes from long-term achievement, not short-term pleasure."

 

In a previous Economy Note I shared Nietzsche's line: "Even a genius first learns how to stack bricks, then how to build a building, and constantly searches for materials, using those materials to keep completing himself." As Nietzsche says, if you're going to start from stacking bricks — learning the foundational, possibly tedious basics rather than pleasure — and keep completing yourself, the most important thing is knowing what 'life's passion' is for you.