Today, we continue our Dadly Daily Declaration series with readings from The Passion Paradox by authors Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. So far, Stulberg and Madness have discussed the pitfalls of passion and the sole focus of pursing your passion. Today’s reading focuses on a technique to become self-aware and avoid the pitfalls of becoming too encompassed in your passion: self-distancing.
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Here are a few gems from today’s reading:
- One technique to create space between thoughts and feelings is to pretend you’re giving advice to a friend. This strategy allows you to see more clearly and think more rationally in the midst of an emotionally fraught moment. This practice is a great way to gain self-awareness in just about any situation where emotional inertia is at play.
- Similar studies show that when individuals think or journal in third person rather than in first person—for example, “John is running into challenges with his start-up that seem insurmountable” versus “I am running into challenges with my start-up that seem insurmountable”—they also evaluate themselves and their situations more clearly. Collectively referred to as “self-distancing,” this practice allows us to remove our emotional selves from highly charged situations, paving the way for more thoughtful insight and subsequent decision-making.
- When we take ourselves out of the picture, we often gain a much fuller and more holistic view of it; a view that promotes thinking alongside feeling and yields greater wisdom.
- Self-distancing helps us gain self-awareness by zooming out of our own selves and situations, even if only a little bit. It allows our more rational, thinking brain to emerge and flex its muscle in circumstances that are laden with passion.
Those gems lead us to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration:
Regularly evaluate your passions as if they belong to someone else. What would you say to that other person? Would you tell them to keep pushing, or perhaps to push even harder? Or would you tell them to pull back, that the trade-offs they are making in order to pursue their passion are too great?
