Emily McDonald

It's perseverance times passion.

I'm like, what is passion?

Like, what is passion scientifically?

Because, you know, I'm...

It's kind of a loaded term.

And what I've found through, you know, my research is that there's actually two different forms of passion, which is this harmonious passion, which is driven by love.

And it's driven by, you know, the want to do it rather than the have to do it.

And it's a part of who you are, but it's not the whole picture of who you are.

Like when you're

And I experienced this actually when I was in my PhD and I was, you know, toying with the idea of graduating early and going off and onto my own thing to pursue starting my own business and helping people more in a hands-on way.

I had this...

You know, I'm a PhD student.

I am, you know, all these things.

And that identity was keeping me from moving forward on a journey and on a kind of path that was actually way more aligned.

And so that was something that I ran into where it was kind of like my entire identity was wrapped up in what I was doing.

And that is actually sort of leaning more into self.

The other side of passion, which is like obsessive passion, which is driven by fear or anxiety or pressure to perform pressure from whatever outside force.

And it's your entire sense of who you are.

Your entire identity is wrapped up in it.

And so it is exactly that.