"The most important thing in life is to follow your passion and pursue your dreams"
About this Quote
Coming from Liv Arnesen, “follow your passion” isn’t a dorm-room poster; it’s a field report. An explorer who has hauled her body across polar emptiness is using the language of self-help to smuggle in something harsher: passion is not a mood, it’s logistics. In Arnesen’s world, “dreams” aren’t private fantasies, they’re plans that survive weather, risk, and boredom. The line works because it sounds gentle while implying a ruthless standard of commitment.
The intent is motivational, but not in the glossy “manifest it” sense. Arnesen is pointing to a kind of agency that only becomes visible under strain. “Follow” suggests discipline and direction, not constant inspiration. “Pursue” is even more telling: it assumes obstacles, detours, and the possibility of failure. That verb makes the quote less about entitlement (“you deserve your dream”) and more about endurance (“you will have to earn your dream”).
The subtext also pushes back against a culture that treats passion as a personality trait you either have or don’t. Exploration, especially in the Arctic, is built on repetition, preparation, and long stretches where the romance evaporates. By tying purpose to action, Arnesen reframes passion as something forged through doing, not discovered through contemplation.
Context matters: a female polar explorer speaking in a historically male-coded arena quietly broadens who gets to claim ambition. The sentence is simple enough to travel widely, but its real payload is specific: dream big, then pack accordingly.
The intent is motivational, but not in the glossy “manifest it” sense. Arnesen is pointing to a kind of agency that only becomes visible under strain. “Follow” suggests discipline and direction, not constant inspiration. “Pursue” is even more telling: it assumes obstacles, detours, and the possibility of failure. That verb makes the quote less about entitlement (“you deserve your dream”) and more about endurance (“you will have to earn your dream”).
The subtext also pushes back against a culture that treats passion as a personality trait you either have or don’t. Exploration, especially in the Arctic, is built on repetition, preparation, and long stretches where the romance evaporates. By tying purpose to action, Arnesen reframes passion as something forged through doing, not discovered through contemplation.
Context matters: a female polar explorer speaking in a historically male-coded arena quietly broadens who gets to claim ambition. The sentence is simple enough to travel widely, but its real payload is specific: dream big, then pack accordingly.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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