A passion gives you a reason to keep learning and to work toward mastery.
If you could do one thing to transform your life, I would highly recommend it be to find something you’re passionate about and do it for a living. Learning how to find your passion may not be as easy as it sounds, but it’s well worth the effort.
Today I am going to introduce you to a 10 steps template.
Let’s compare two situations:
You have a job that you don’t wish to do. You lack motivation and find it dull and repetitive. You wish to look for a new job as the current one makes you unhappy. You are not able to do justice to your full potential.
Imagine this instead:
You get up early, jump out of bed, excited to go to work. You might put in more hours than the average person, but it doesn’t seem difficult to you, because your work hours just zoom right by.
You are often in that state of mind. losing yourself in the task at hand. Work is not work as many people refer to it, but something that is fun and interesting and exciting. It’s not a “job” but a passion that leads to a fulfilling life.
Now answer which job you wish to be in…undoubtedly, you’ll say the second one.
However, if you dare to ask “how do I find my passion,” imagine the possibilities, and actually search for what you love, it is not only a possibility but a probability.
Step 1: Begin with the right perspective
You must believe that you can find it. If you’re convinced that finding your passion is hard, or that it’s not going to happen for you, you’ll remain closed to possibilities. You’ll block the little nudges, pulls, and signals that guide us. If you don’t have belief that the kind of fun job that we discussed earlier exists then, how can you expect to find it.
Step 2: Is There Something You Already Love Doing?
What is your passion in life? Do you have a hobby or something you loved doing as a child, but never considered it as a possibility for a job? Try to scan the landscape of your life. You’ll notice some experiences peak above the horizon. Just go deep into them and extract the key points.
For example, One of my favourite internships involved teaching programming to young students. On retrospection, I might assume that I liked teaching or young students or programming. But when I dived deeper it became clear that I liked being a leader within a community and teaching that community something of great value to them. That’s exactly what I do now in my work.
If there’s already something you love doing, you’re ahead of the game. Now you just need to research the possibilities of making money from it.
Step 3: Who am I?
This is one of those fundamental questions that philosophers have been asking themselves for centuries. Nevertheless it is one you need to make an attempt at answering if you want to enjoy work. To set about this task you need to break things down a little. We all have:
Skills: These are the things that we have learned to do.
Attitudes: These can be derived from life experiences.
Values: They may be one of the most important part but can develop and change with time.
Abilities: They are natural talents we possess without having to learn them.
Experience: It includes past work and all kinds of achievements: big or small.
Step 4: Brainstorm
If nothing comes to mind right away as you’re asking how to find my passion, get out a sheet of paper and start writing down ideas. This doesn’t need to be an organized list. It can simply be a paper full of random notes or even doodles. All of this will eventually come in handy later.
It might be that, through this exploration, you fall head over heels in love with an activity that engrosses you—something that lights you up and makes your heart sing. But now you have to ask yourself the next question: Who would benefit from (and pay for) this?
Step 5: Ask Around
So do your research. There are likely people you admire in life, and there are things about them that you would like to replicate in yourself. Go to them if possible, and pick their brain. See how they landed where they currently are and whether they feel they’ve discovered their passion.
The more possibilities you find, the more likely your chances of learning how to find your passion in the long run. This may mean that you spend time talking to friends and family, co-workers, or even acquaintances in your free time.
Step 6: Break Down Your Fears
When you seek your passion, there’ll be parts of you that go into rebellion. We all have fears around failure, success, visibility and vulnerability-that speak in sensible voices instructing us that we mustn’t do what we love.
If you let these voices win, your passion will always remain out of your reach. Instead evaluate the fears under those reasonable voices. Uncover the years of conditioning given to you from parents, society and peers and reassure yourself that you are moving in the right direction. Try to figure out logical and practical reasons to remove those fears from your mind.
For example if you don’t have enough money to pursue your passion, saving up before you jump into it would be a better idea.
Step 7: Give It a Try First
It’s best to actually test your idea before jumping into it as a career as you’re wondering how to find your passion. Do it as a hobby or side job at first, so that you can see if it’s really your true calling.
You may be passionate about it for a few days, but where the rubber meets the road is whether you’re passionate about it for at least a few months.
If you pass this test, you have probably found it.
Step 8: Do as Much Research as Possible
Know as much about your passion as possible. If this has been a passion for a while, you may have already been doing this. At any rate, do even more research. Read every website possible on the topic, and buy the best books available to live a more fulfilling life.
Find other people, either in your area or on the Internet, who do what you want to do for a living, and quiz them about the profession.
How much do they make, and what training and education did they need? What skills are necessary, and how did they get their start? What recommendations do they have?
Often, you’ll find that people are more than willing to give advice.
Step 9: Practice, and Practice, and Practice Some More
If you’re getting close to learning how to know your passion, don’t go into it with an amateur skill level. If you want to make money—to be a professional—you need to have professional skills.
Get very good at your future career, and you will make money at it. Practice for hours on end and learn how to focus; if it’s something you love, the practice should be something you want to do and life fulfilling.
Step 10: Never Quit Trying
It’s possible that you won’t be able to find your passion at first. However, if you give up after a few days, you’re sure to fail. Keep trying. for months on end if necessary and you’ll find it eventually.
Perhaps you thought you found your passion but discovered several months on that it wasn’t for you. Start over again and find a new passion. There may be more than one passion in your lifetime, so explore all the possibilities.
Success doesn’t come easy, so giving up early is a sure way to fail.
These were the 10 steps that can help you know your passion. In addition to the suggestions above, be aware of a few things that can hold you back from living your passion:
Negative Thoughts Can Prevent You From Finding Your Passion in Life
Our thoughts are outside of our control. They come and go on their own accord. We don’t choose them but rather, they choose us.
However, what is within our control is how we respond to them. We can allow them to influence us, or we can just watch them go by.
It’s all too easy to find excuses why we can’t do something or complain about what we don’t enjoy, but learning how to find your passion in life and fulfill purpose takes courage—and just a little bit of self-love.
Comfort Is the Enemy of Passion
Comfort can prevent you from finding your passion in life just as contentment breeds complacency.
‘Work’ is always going to account for a huge proportion of our lives and unless we continuously make conscious choices, we are leaving our destiny to chance. Decisions we take in our twenties typically tend to map out future decades.
This is the time to be very conscious and aware, to listen to our inner voice, watch our thoughts, and decide where to focus our attention.
These are the best tips on how to discover your passion. Don’t forget that all of this will be a lot of work, but it will be the best investment you’ve ever made. Put in the time to learn how to find your passion, and you will find that your days are more fulfilling and produce more happiness and well-being in the long term.
I hope you find this blog useful. Please share a 5-star review and share your learnings below.
do it for a living. Learning how to find your passion may not be as easy as it sounds, but it’s well worth the effort.
However, if you dare to ask “how do I find my passion,” imagine the possibilities, and actually search for what you love, it is not only a possibility but a probability.
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