While reading Jim Collins book Good to Great I was struck by the idea of passion.  Collins talks about how companies need to have passion, and their employees need to have passion about the company.  It made me start thinking about my passions for what I do and where I work.  I am truly passionate about being a nurse.  There is no other job I would rather do than be a nurse!  I have known since I was young that I wanted to be a nurse, and even though I changed the type of clients I wanted to take care of I still wanted to be a nurse. 

Working now with the Early Childhood population (Head Start, Early Head Start, and Preschools) I have gotten to see other peoples passions.  Working in a hospital you get to see the healthcare passion, but there is a whole other passion in early childhood.  The teachers are passionate about teaching and having the children learn new things.  As the Health Coordinator I am excited to see the kids and families be healthier and make good healthcare choices.  Everyone I work with has a passion for what they are doing, and it is not the money.  The Early Childhood programs don't pay much, but everyone is there because they love what they do. 

An article by Vallerand, Paquet, Philippe, & Charest, (2010) discussed the difference between obsessive passion and harmonious passion.  The suggested that obsessive passion would cause conflict between work and other parts of a persons life.  Where harmonious passion would indicate work satisfaction.  The study showed that it is true, if a person is obsessive about their passion especially at work there may be a conflict between work responsibilities and other life responsibilities, it also leads to more burnout.  Harmonious passion did prove to lead to better work satisfaction, with people being excited to go to work.  I would hope that everyone stays in harmonious passion.

As a supervisor in the early childhood realm I hope that my passion is visible to those I work with and supervise.  I also hope that they are passionate about their work.  We sometimes find people that we say "have quit but are still working" meaning they no longer have passion for the job, it is just a job.  I hope this never happens to me and if it does I hope someone points it out.  I think the best way to stay passionate is to learn new things and take the initiative to keep yourself passionate.  Without passion you will never truly be happy.

Reference:
Collins, J. (2001) Good to Great. HarperCollins Publisher Inc. New York, NY

Vallerand, R., Paquet, Y., Philippe, F., & Charest, J. (2010). On the role of passion for work in burnout: a process model. Journal Of Personality, 78(1), 289-312. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00616.