The Passion Recipe

Over the course of this chapter, we’re going to start stacking

intrinsic drivers, learning to cultivate curiosity, amplify it into
passion, and transform the results into purpose. This is not an
overnight process. Some steps may take weeks to accomplish; a
few could last for months. Take the time to get it right. You
don’t want to be two years into pursuing your passion only to
discover it was actually a phase. You want to take the time to
dial in intrinsic drivers today because, two years from now, if
you discover you’ve dialed wrong, consider how frustrated
you’ll feel having to start all over again. In peak performance,
sometimes you have to go slow to go fast. This is one of those
times.
MAKE A LIST

The easiest way to start stacking intrinsic drivers is with a list. If

you have the option, write this list in a notebook rather than on a
computer. There’s a powerful relationship between hand motion
and memory, which means, for learning, pen and paper triumph
over laptop and keyboard every time.1
Start by writing down twenty-five things you’re curious
about. And by curious, all I mean is that if you had a spare
weekend, you’d be interested in reading a couple of books on
the topic, attending a few lectures, and maybe having a
conversation or two with an expert.
When it comes to creating this list, be as specific as possible.
Don’t just be interested in football or punk rock or food. These
categories are too vague to be useful. Instead, be curious about
the pass-blocking mechanics required to play left tackle; the
evolution of political punk from Crass to Rise Against; or the
potential for grasshoppers to become a primary human food
source in the next ten years. The specificity gives your brain’s
pattern recognition system the raw materials it needs to make
connections between ideas. The more detailed the information,
the better.
HUNT FOR INTERSECTIONS

After your list is complete, look for the places where these
twenty-five ideas intersect. Take the above example. Say both
grasshoppers as a food source and the mechanics of playing left
tackle are on your list. Well, if you’re into pass-blocking
mechanics, you’re probably also interested in the nutritional
requirements necessary to play left tackle. Insects are
exceptionally high in protein—would they make a good football
food?
The point is that curiosity, by itself, is not enough to create
true passion. There’s just not enough neurochemistry being
produced for the motivation you require. Instead, you want to
look for places where three or four items on your curiosity
list intersect. If you can spot the overlap between multiple
items, well, now you’re cooking. There’s real energy there.
When multiple curiosity streams intersect, you not only amp
up engagement—you create the necessary conditions for pattern
recognition, or the linking of new ideas together.2 Pattern
recognition is what the brain does at a very basic level. It’s
essentially the fundamental job of most neurons. As a result,
whenever we recognize a pattern, the brain rewards us with a
tiny squirt of dopamine.
PLAY IN THE INTERSECTIONS

Now that you’ve identified the spots where curiosities

overlap, play in those intersections for a little while. Devote
twenty to thirty minutes a day to listening to podcasts, watching
videos, reading articles, books, whatever, on any aspect of that
overlap. If you’re interested in supply-chain management in the
health care industry and you’re also curious about artificial
intelligence, then it’s time to explore the advantages and
disadvantages that artificial intelligence brings to supply-chain
management in the health care industry.
Or, to return to our earlier example, if insects as a protein
source and the mechanics of playing left tackle are your starting
points, then it’s time to play around at their intersection: What
are the nutritional requirements for high performance in contact
sports? Can insects satisfy those requirements?
The goal is to feed those curiosities a little bit at a time, and
feed them on a daily basis. This slow-growth strategy takes
advantage of the brain’s inherent learning software.6 When you
advance your knowledge a little bit at a time, you’re giving your
adaptive unconscious a chance to process that information. In
the study of creativity, this process is known as “incubation.”7
What’s actually happening is pattern recognition. Automatically,
the brain begins looking for connections between older bits of
info you’ve already learned and the newer bits you’re currently
learning. Over time, this means more patterns, more dopamine,
more motivation, and, eventually, a bit of expertise.8
 And it’s expertise that arrives with less work.
When we play with information we’re curious about, we’re
not forcing the brain to make new discoveries. There’s no
pressure, which is helpful, since too much stress lessens our
ability to learn.9 Instead, we’re seeing what connections our
brains naturally make, via the incubation phase, then allowing
our biology to do the hard work for us. We’re letting our pattern
recognition system find connections between curiosities that
make us even more curious—which is how you cultivate
passion.