Understanding Passion: The Key to Success

This book explores the concept of ’Passion’ as a strong motivational force that can increase well-being and quality of life. The authors focus on the importance of having passion in various areas of life, to increase well-being, life satisfaction, and promote meaning in life. They go on to present how we can find and increase passion, supported by various psychological theories and research. Finally, the authors connect passion to expertise. They argue that it is essential to maintain passion during the process that leads to expertise, which is characterized as a long and demanding process that can be associated with negative consequences.

Hermundur Sigmundsson (b. 1964) is from Iceland. He is a professor of biological psychology at the Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. Hermundur research focuses on learning, skill development, motivational factors, flow, and well-being. He has been an active researcher for 31 years with over 130 international publications and 8 books in the Norwegian language.

Magdalena Elnes (b.1994) was born in Poland and moved to Norway with her family when she was 11. Already at that time, she aspired to become a researcher. Her passion for the field of psychology developed while she was a part of HS’s research group at NTNU. Today, as a PhD student at Oslo Metropolitan University, she investigates gender differences in how the environment influences cognitive development in children, continuing to explore and nurture her passion.