The Power of Passion
I often hear people speak of the importance of passion, both in our personal lives and in our work. I found this quote by the French writer and philosopher Denis Diderot:
“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.”
(Language notes: “elevate” means “to lift up”; “the soul” means “your spirit”)
When I teach, I try to bring great passion to the classroom. I deeply care about my students’ success, though sometimes they don’t know it. I am fascinated by how people learn and grow. I love it when students can easily do things that they could not do before. It’s a lot of fun to watch students improve!
I used to have great passion for a certain woman, someone I cared about very deeply. Unfortunately, she did not have the same passion for me. It was a sad, though common, situation, but I guess I learned something from it. It was worth all of the pain if I am a better person now.
What do you have passion for? Do you have passion for a special person in your life? Do you have passion for your work. Or maybe passion for your FUTURE work? What kind of great things could you do in the future?
Chichi Said,
March 30, 2008 @ 12:18 am
Hello teacherjoe,
I often visit your blog and this is my first comment.
Passion… I used to have great passion for a dream, but realities and sickness gave me a big frustration. I was disappointed by myself and was sad about myself. I think about your question now and think about my life again. I won’t be able to get anything if I am afraid of failures or setback. I should be strong and brave to get over again and again. Passions will make life wonderful.
teacherjoe Said,
March 30, 2008 @ 2:00 am
Hi Chichi,
I now understand how it feels to lose passion due to illness - my stomach has hurt for the past few months and I sometimes I have trouble motivating myself to do things. (I guess that’s one reason I chose to write about passion.) Now, though, I am finding passion in other things, like making videos. Did you see the one I made yesterday? After making that, I started getting lots of good ideas for future videos. I hope I have the energy to actually make them! (*_^)
BTW, to all my students, my stomach seems to be a bit better - I eat more vegetables and fruits, and I avoid fast food as much as possible. And I drink more water and tea. But also a little (well, quite a lot) of rum last night, but that was a special occasion!
Robert Said,
April 9, 2008 @ 12:28 pm
Hi! Joe!
It’s good to hear that you feel better now.
My Chinese teacher has the same stomach problem as you do.
Once in class she told us that she was very uncomfortable, so in the end our teacher took a rest and the class was treated as a study hall.
As for my passion, no doubt it’s —–ENGLISH!
That’s why I’m here.
In fact, I have the strong desire to major in English in my future college.
But my father objected me to do that.
He said I should study Science subjects such as Physics, math and Chemistry.
He said by studying those subjects I can easily find jobs.
I thought maybe he’s right.
So I followed his advice.
But my passion for ENGLISH will never fade!
Robert
Rose Said,
November 18, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
Hey Teacher Joe,
people look for passion in sensuous things, the real passion we all should have is the one for our spirits. I don’t think that illness can cause us lose our passion unless we are weak persons. you might be ill, you might be in pain, thought, you have a great passion ! so, the point is that don’t look for the passion in poeple or in only sensuous matters.
by the way, if you have any problem in your stomach, don’t drink tea! it’s the first thing you should keep it away your diet.
wish you a good health . Thanks
pika Said,
November 20, 2008 @ 5:45 am
hi mr joe.
i did have a lot of passions when it was about my study. however, the passions was diminished somehow when i didn’t get what i deserve or to be accurate what i want. I’m not a fluent speaker and i always mess up in my English subjects. recently, i bend over backwards with full of passion in order to achieve good result in my advance writing. but, in the end the result was still bad and sadly i got the worst grade in class. on the other hands, my speech comp.’s lecturer said that she didn’t understand what i was trying to say in speech. only that she could comment after i working very hard in practicing and preparing myself. i started to think, is my passion not enough to elevate my soul?