Zen Pencils always gets me thinking. Even when a comic doesn't quite strike the mark at first, it inevitably comes back to enlighten me. This adaption of John Green's words is one of those that I had to chew on a bit before it finally hit home.
I've focused myself on following my passions and doing work that I love. That's important; the first thing you must do is find your passion.
That's where I thought it ended. Find my passion and the rest will follow. Heck, there's even a Zen Pencils to that effect.
Yet I've found that it's usually not enough. I can be quite passionate about my own projects. Inevitably though, when I'm making it to only meet my needs, once I lose that original interest, I drop it. I find something else to distract me and never meet my original goal.
How many projects have you dropped midway through because you got bored or distracted?
When you make gifts for people, you become part of something greater than your own transient desires. The motivation is no longer confined to yourself; it also comes from others cheering you on, and your own desire to provide something amazing for someone else.
And when you make something for another person, they're also there to help you along. Your audience gives you an input you can't provide yourself. It's still your gift, and it's your responsibility to make it the right way. But that extra input can go a long way in transforming a sort of working side project in to a fully functional gift.
Find your passion. Find a way to turn that passion in to a gift for others. Make gifts for people.