You’ve made lists. You’ve asked your friends for advice. You’ve tried journaling and you’ve analyzed every thought you’ve ever had. Yet, you’re still asking yourself, “what is my passion?”
That’s because passion comes from the heart, not the head. Chances are, you already know what your passion is. You just need to connect with it.
1. SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE
For many, living a life of passion feels unrealistic. Because they feel this way, some people aren’t optimistic about changing. If you enter the journey to discover your passion with this mindset, you’re setting yourself up for failure. The only way to succeed in finding your passion for life is to shift your mindset to one of positivity and possibility.
2. DISCOVER YOUR TOP HUMAN NEED
As human beings, we all have Six Human Needs: certainty, significance, variety, love/connection, growth and contribution. Life is a delicate balance between these, but we all have one top need that is most essential to our happiness. Discovering your driving force can give you a window into how to find your passion for life by showing you what you need most to feel fulfilled.
3. LOOK AT WHAT YOU LOVE
Look at your bookshelf, favorite movies or the last play you saw – is there a common theme? Think about your favorite summer job or the last time you got so caught up in a project, you completely lost track of time. Think about what you loved to do as a child – drawing, writing, dancing. So often, we give up our passions when we become adults because we think we have to grow into something we aren’t. This isn’t true. Tap into the activities and topics that used to fill you up when you were younger.
4. NOTICE WHERE YOU SPEND YOUR FREE TIME
Your hobbies aren’t necessarily the same as your true passion, but they can provide a hint. If you spend a lot of your free time reading, your passion could involve writing, teaching or research – anything that feeds your mind the way reading does. If you enjoy fixing things around the house, your passion likely involves creating and building. If you enjoy dancing or exercising, you are probably drawn to movement and expression. Think deeper about your extracurriculars and you could uncover your passion.
Source: tonyrobbins.com©
But what if I don’t have one single passion?”
This is a really good question!
Some people feel the call of creativity to become artists or writers. Others are simply born to become astronauts or librarians. But there isn’t always one solitary beacon of passion guiding our lives.
In fact, if you’re like most people, you may have held a lot of jobs in your lifetime, and your professional CV might look very different than how you spend your down time. Perhaps you’re a CEO of an energy company who likes to oil paint in her spare time (financial/admin/technical/creative), or a lobbyist who enjoys running marathons (enterprising/people service/mechanical).
Many Roads can Lead to a Passion
You don’t have to be driven by one singular, solitary purpose to be successful and happy in your work. You simply need to find a career path that feels right, and that you are good at.
In recruitment, we call this job fit. One way we measure job fit is by looking at a person’s interests and how well they align with the requirements of a particular job. Strong interest matches show how motivated individuals will be to perform different tasks, and how much enjoyment they may find in a particular role.
Assess Yourself
Assess six possible interests. Obviously, the list is not exhaustive, and because interests can be satisfied outside of work similar to the examples above, the interests list makes for a lower percentage of the overall job fit score and might lead to a passion of sorts. The list includes:
- Mechanical: the enjoyment of building or repairing things and working with machinery or tools. Individuals with this interest enjoy being outdoors, using their hands, and/or breaking a sweat.
- People Service: the enjoyment of collaboration, compromise, and helping others. A strong sense of empathy and support and a knack for bringing people together.
- Technical: enjoyment of learning technical material, interpreting complex information, and solving abstract problems. Individuals with this interest may enjoy working with numbers, data, and computer programs.
- Enterprising: the enjoyment of leadership, presenting ideas, and persuading others. Individuals with this interest may desire responsibility, and exercise initiative, ambition, and resourcefulness.
- Creative: enjoyment of imaginative and artistic activities. It involves artistic expression, emphasis on aesthetics, and novel ways of solving problems, producing ideas, and designing new things.
- Financial/Admin: enjoyment of working with numbers, organizing information, and office routines such as record keeping and completing paperwork. It can indicate an eye for detail and a desire for accuracy.
Finding a job that leads to genuine passion or fulfillment starts first with understanding yourself. What do you think your personal top three interests are from the list above? Once this is understood you can begin thinking strategically about finding a role where work doesn’t feel like work. It feels more like a calling.
