The Passion Paradox

A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, and Discovering the Benefits of an Unbalanced Life

By: Brad Stulberg, Steve Magness

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

"Should we throw everything to the wind and follow our passions? Or should we strive for balance and let our passions cool? This book offers the surprising, nuanced, and research-backed answer." (Daniel H. Pink, Bestselling author of When and Drive)

"I feel like this book was written for me. I had to resist underlining every sentence." (Shalane Flanagan. New York City Marathon Champion, Four-Time Olympian, and New York Times bestselling author)

The coauthors of the bestselling Peak Performance dive into the science behind passion, revealing the ways in which passion is a double-edged sword and offering a plan for following your passion without ruining your life.

Common advice is to find and follow your passion. A life of passion is a good life, or so we are told. But it's not that simple. The same drive that fuels breakthroughs - whether they're athletic, scientific, entrepreneurial, or artistic - can be every bit as destructive as they are productive. Yes, passion can be a wonderful gift, but only if you know how to use it. If you're not careful, passion can become an awful curse, leading to suffering and burnout.

Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness once again team up, this time to demystify passion, showing readers how they can find their passion, sustainably harness its power, and avoid its dangers. They ultimately argue that passion and balance - that other virtue touted by our culture - are incompatible, and that to find your passion, you must lose balance. And they show how to develop the right kind of passion, the kind that lets you achieve great things without ruining your life. Swift, compact, and powerful, this thought-provoking book combines captivating stories of extraordinarily passionate individuals with the latest science on the biological and psychological factors that give rise to passion.

©2019 Brad Stulberg, Steve Magness. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

It was pretty good, but 5 star ratings get thrown around way too often on Audible

Very interesting and insightful, I will probably need to listen to it again to absorb it better. This might be a book where you would be better served actually reading rather than listening to it.

necessary reading

possibly the best timed book recommendation for me ever. a way to think about all my life , successes and failures, constructively. hopeful without cliche.

Insightful

I really enjoyed this book it points out some interesting facts about human nature and the things we do and how we can simply try to change our perception of them. Narration was excellent

Okay, until the end - then gets great!

The book was kind of standard personal development stuff, but I thought the last 20% really had some great takeaways.

Exactly as the Cover States

The main points:
1. Stop believing that your passion should be marriage at first sight. That means instead of believing an activity should be immersive from the get go, seek activities that are interesting at first. Like for me when doing Python, I was not ecstatic but after a few weeks of learning now I’m obsessed.

2. Make sure your passion is for intrinsic rather than extrinsic reasons. Take being an NFL quarterback like Tom Brady. Instead of the $25 million contract, mansion, beautiful wife and Super Bowl Rings. It has to be for a love of the game, you have to be immersed to lifting weights, practicing on the field every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and so on. Icing yourself, eating fruits, vegetables, clean protein, meditation/visualization. Intrinsically motivated means you do all of that and you are able to have fun along the way.

A preview of what this book has to offer, and answers all your questions about how to get real, long lasting passion.

Passion Paradox: Important | life stories

Passion Paradox: An important discussion | life stories - Why are life stories told about the exceptional few? What about life stories of those struggling with mediocrity?

awesome

a great book for self-reflection. and also a great book to think about both the positives and negatives of passion. what I really like about this book that they also give pointers at the end of each chapter so you can embrace and mold your own passions so they don't become obsessions.

Another Really, REALLY good one

As a national team rowing athlete and aspiring Olympic hopeful, this book resonated deeply with me. Thank you guys once again for another book that goes in my very short list of must read books again.

Game changer especially for the over 40 crowd.

Very practical and insightful at the same time.
Audio performance is excellent. Will listen to it again.

Wise words for the driven

Steve and Brad really capture what it means to embrace passions and channel it in a healthy and productive way. I hope they started a new book while waiting for this one to release. A great book for coaches, leaders and the pushers out there. Great job guys!