What’s the anchor holding your boat in place?

For decades, I have heard that one should always follow his or her passion in life. The quotes always run along the lines of “do what you love!” or “follow your heart!” or “follow your passion!” These days, the insinuation, and most often the interpretation, is that one will find success, especially financial success, by following his or her passion. To this day, my biggest question remains, “how would someone know that something is his or her true passion?”

Online dictionaries define passion as enthusiasm and excitement or devotion to some activity, object, or concept. Are enthusiasm and excitement enough to decide whether that is what one should do with his or her life? Do enthusiasm and excitement guarantee devotion? Or at least enough devotion to turn it into something that fits the 21^st century definition of success? Is passion enough to build a career? Should passion even be pursued as a career?

Do you know which concept excites me? History. Specifically human behavior throughout History. I have tremendous enthusiasm for the activity of learning History in fiction and non-fiction forms. My objects of excitement are books and movies. My favorite time periods are the American Revolution and World War II. I cannot get enough. Although lately I have become more interested in the American West circa early 20^th century prior to World War II.

On March 1, 2026, I published a Historical Fiction novel of my own. I experienced enthusiasm and excitement for the activity of writing this book. I devoted time to the writing, publishing, and marketing processes. Alas, writing is my passion, not my career. It is not the most productive time of my day. It is one part of my day. I am working on my second novel that I plan to publish in 2028 with some non-fiction works in 2027. Yet, writing is not my career.

Right now, I am not even sure I have a career. After two decades in the corporate world, my biggest lesson has been this. I am not happy unless I am productive. I do not feel successful unless I am productive. But productivity means different things to different people. For me, making Pasta Puttanesca from scratch is productive. Writing for two hours in the early morning is productive. Doing work that earns me an income to enable the above activities is productive.

My current full-time job is not my life’s passion, but it is the most productive time of my day. It is the anchor that keeps the boat of my life from wandering off into dangerous waters from which there might be no return. Occasionally, I can lift the anchor and explore new waters, knowing it is available to moor my boat to the bottom if needed. In fact, the anchor makes it safe for me to leave the boat and try other things and return when I am ready. Or when I must.

Of course, the productivity that enables my passions might not always be there. Corporate jobs can be here today, gone tomorrow. For some, they can stifle other passions of life instead of enabling them. For others, they themselves are the passion. Over the decades, I have been on all these boats. Productivity was the anchor holding each boat in place. Which boat are you on? Is passion your anchor? Or productivity? Or something else? Which boat do you want to be on?