Most of us have owned a version of our unused treadmill. It might be a guitar gathering dust, a DSLR locked away in a cupboard, or a course we started with excitement and quietly abandoned. We didn’t lack motivation—we lacked an understanding of how passion actually works. Most of us don’t fail because we lack passion. We fail because we expect passion to appear before effort, struggle, and competence. In reality, passion is rarely the starting point—it is the side effect.

This series is my attempt to document the ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that worked for me while learning skills and building habits over the years. These lessons came from my parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, and from books and blogs on self‑improvement. The path was anything but linear. It involved trial and error, false starts, and long stretches of inconsistency. I don’t aim for perfection. I go off track for days or weeks at a time—but once something becomes a habit, returning to it becomes easier.

Before we begin, a brief disclaimer:

Keep in mind J. Krishnamurti’s guiding principle:

“Don’t follow anyone. The moment you follow someone, you cease to follow the truth.”

 Following anyone leads to imitation, fear, and a loss of personal understanding. Truth must be discovered personally and directly, not by accepting the beliefs of others.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let’s begin.

If you’d like a deeper context, I’ve explored these ideas earlier.

1. Self-improvement –> Goals, Mindset, Habits, Focus, Practice, and Self-help books
2. Habits –> Discipline and Habits – How to Build Habits
3. Practice –> Practice Vs Deliberate Practice

Scenario 1

Our fictional character, Tom, sees Jerry taking beautiful photographs and publishing them online. Jerry’s posts get lots of likes. Jerry owns a high-end digital SLR camera with multiple accessories. Tom is impressed and develops an interest in photography. He buys an expensive camera with multiple lenses, accessories, and filters. He walks around his neighborhood taking pictures. He photographs his family and friends. He visits a nearby park and takes a few shots of nature and birds. All this happens in the first few weeks. Then the interest fades. He finds it hard to lug the camera around on family vacations. Compared to Jerry, his photos don’t look that good, even with a state-of-the-art camera. He slowly loses interest and motivation. Eventually, the camera ends up locked away in a cupboard. Nowadays, he is perfectly fine using his phone camera.

This is a classic case of mistaking motivation for habit—something I’ve written about in more detail while exploring how habits actually form – How habits actually form –> Discipline and Habits – How to Build Habits 

“Most of us don’t fail because we lack passion—we fail because we misunderstand how passion actually develops.”

Scenario 2

The story starts similarly to Scenario 1, but with a key difference. Tom wants to find out whether his interest is short-lived or whether he has the mindset to stick with the hobby. Instead of buying an expensive camera, he purchases a good second-hand one at a low cost. He makes a deal with himself: if he can sustain the motivation and effort for six months, he will reward himself with a new camera. He joins a photography course to learn the technical terms, the science behind photography, and the basics of taking good pictures. He takes a few pictures of nature, people, and animals. He shares them with experts and asks for feedback. Using that feedback, he takes more photos and repeats the cycle. Once he becomes comfortable with the basics he signs up for an advanced course. He joins other photographers on safari trips to shoot wildlife. Two years later, he owns a top-of-the-line camera and lenses and spends a few days every month travelling to different parts of the world photographing nature, animals, birds, ocean life, and people.

This feedback-driven loop is a textbook example of deliberate practice, not just repetition. Deliberate Practice –> Practice Vs Deliberate Practice

Scenario 3

This is a variation of Scenario 2. Tom buys an inexpensive camera and starts taking pictures. After a few months, he realizes that he cannot invest the time for frequent travel. Instead of quitting entirely, he adjusts his expectations. He sticks with a decent camera – better than a phone camera – that allows manual control over aperture, exposure, and ISO settings. It meets his needs for family functions and vacations and is easy to carry around.

These scenarios aren’t just about photography, they reveal a pattern most of us fall into across skills and hobbies.

The Pattern We Fall Into

If we are not careful, many of us end up in Scenario 1. Think about the items we’ve bought believing that owning that will change our lifestyle: a treadmill, bicycle, dumbbells, digital SLR camera, guitar, e-reader. The treadmill becomes a clothes rack. Dumbbells gather dust. The bicycle stands still like a piece of artwork with flat tires. Most of the rest end up as showpieces.

We imagine buying a sewing machine and picture ourselves stitching our own clothes and saving money. Our brain often tricks us into believing that buying items like irons, vacuum cleaners, food processors, and coffee makers will make a difference in our life. In many cases, these eventually land in storage or get given away. So, why does this pattern repeat across so many skills and life choices?

What’s Really Going On?

Why do we keep making the same mistake? Why does this pattern repeat? Most of us wrestle with these questions at some point. At the core, this boils down to the passion vs skill set debate. “Follow your passion” is a popular mantra. Some people know exactly what they want to pursue. Many don’t. Others have multiple interests. Misunderstanding passion often leads to dissatisfaction and anxiety. People keep switching jobs, searching for the right one.

There is a belief that if we are passionate about something, learning it should feel effortless. When things become difficult, people quit, assuming they haven’t found their true passion yet.

Talent, Practice, and a Common Illusion

“What looks like natural talent is often just the visible tip of a massive iceberg of deliberate practice.”

We often attribute expert performance to innate talent. Because someone appears passionate and skilled, we assume the work comes naturally to them. This belief, geniuses are born, is psychologically comforting – it explains why we aren’t at their level and quietly excuses us from putting in the same effort in practice.

Two observations are worth noting:

• What we usually see is only the expert’s performance, not the thousands of hours of deliberate practice behind it. What looks like natural talent is often just the visible tip of a massive iceberg.
• Studies of world-class violinists and chess grandmasters show that experts simply accumulated more hours of intense practice than their peers. There are no naturals who reach expert level with less work. The inverse is also true: some people practice intensely yet remain mediocre.

Genetic advantages do exist. Science calls it “genetic baselines”. Height helps basketball players. Lung capacity helps swimmers. Certain cognitive traits, hardware for working memory or processing speed, can make learning faster. These are better viewed as enablers, not gifts. They provide an early advantage, but at expert levels, specialized knowledge outweighs general ability.

The real distraction isn’t lack of talent or passion – both are largely outside our control. What is in our control is mindset and deliberate practice – how many hours we put in and how consistently we do it. Our brains and bodies are remarkably adaptable. Expert performance emerges from physiological and neurological changes driven by sustained, intense training.

Take Chess as an example. Chess is a human-made game. No child is born with an innate talent for it. Everyone starts from the same line. Progress depends on deliberate practice, mindset, and the willingness to leave the comfort zone. The number of hours of deliberate practice and mindset determines whether they quit, stagnate or become a grandmaster.

How Passion and Skill set Actually Work

“What keeps us going isn’t passion—it’s mindset.”

We usually begin with interest, not passion. We pick up a new skill because something draws us to it or because we need a job. Let’s call it interest rather than passion since passion is an overloaded word. In the early stages, learning is fast. Small improvements produce satisfaction. As skill levels rise, complexity increases. Learning slows. Practice demands more time. Frustration and boredom appear. “Why I am doing this” question appears.

What will keep us going isn’t passion – it is the mindset. A mindset that embraces challenges allows us to endure difficulty, long practice hours, and discomfort. Over time, deliberate practice leads to mastery. Mastery improves output quality. Better output increases satisfaction. Only then does passion emerge.

In short:

• Interest gets us started.
• Mindset keeps us going.
• Deliberate practice builds mastery.
• Mastery creates passion and satisfaction.

Final Thought

“Passion is not the starting point. It is the side effect of mastery.”

It is normal to have multiple interests. Psychology calls this “Shiny Object Syndrome.” When we see others succeed, our brain releases dopamine as if we’ve already achieved success ourselves. That makes us jump from one thing to another.

The secret isn’t finding the perfect passion. It is choosing a good enough interest and staying with it long enough to cross the Threshold of Competence. It isn’t innate talent that makes us an expert; it is mindset and hours of deliberate practice. Passion is a side effect of mastery.

How do we differentiate between an expert and genius? In my view, it is the nature of contribution – originality, non-linear leaps, and the ability to reshape the field. But to get to genius is built on top of expertise, not separate from it. No one bypasses mastery.

Initial interest gets us started, mindset keeps us going, and deliberate practice builds mastery – passion follows as a side effect. Mastery and competence lead to passion and internal satisfaction – rest of the world may call it innate talent.

Some of the books and ideas that influenced my thinking:

1. Peak by Anders Ericsson
2. Mindset by Carol Dweck
3. Grit by Angela Duckworth
4. Deep Work by Cal Newport
5. Tyranny of Merit by Michael J Sandel
6. Atomic Habits by James Clear
7. Hyper Focus by Chris Bailey
8. How Minds Change by David McRaney