(how to find your passion) – 5 min read
“How To Find The Passion You Thought You Never Had”
Introduction
Passion is the thing that they always tell us about in school. It’s the thing that’s responsible for giving us the motivation we need to work and continue working for the rest of our lives.
Everyone around us tell us that if we do something that doesn’t align with our passion, we won’t be happy. In order to be happy, and to work with joy for the rest of our lives, no matter what it is, we have to have a reason to do it.
And, there’s some truth to it.
The problem, however, is that finding a passion is hard and can take people almost their whole lives leading up to the start of college or end of high school to discover it.
In this post, I hope to make that discovery a little bit easier.
Think Back Years Ago
The other day, I saw a video that mentioned a brief note for those who wanted to find their passions in life. And, the advice was really straightforward.
As we grow up, we grow around people with different aspirations and interests. They end up influencing what we think, based on how enjoyable they seem to them, how much it pays, or its ease of entry. It’s not our faults that we end up with so many choices to choose from.
When you were a kid, maybe you wanted to be a firefighter. But once you got into middle and high school, maybe your interests shifted towards professional football, film, content creation (especially with the craze surrounding a career on YouTube that existed years ago).
I sure remember that happening to me when I was much younger. I was interested in so many different fields, but as I grew, I fell in love with different passions and liked and disliked new things. That’s how passions work really. And even as you get even older, it doesn’t really change. You think you’re really interested in a career path, just to find out (after actually getting a firsthand look into the field or figuring out its contents) that it’s not actually as enjoyable as you once thought.
The point is that passions and interests change as we get older.
Embrace Change (is it really passion?)
The best piece of advice you can get is that there is virtually nothing you can do (or literally nothing) to negate change. It’s apart of growing. Passions come and go just like that.
And that’s where my first piece of advice comes in. Or, you could say my first “tip”.
That being: Out of all the options, cross out the ones that you know aren’t for you. You might be interested (right now) in a handful of options, some with more emphasis than others, and with no clear idea of what to choose.
Personal, Real-World Experience
In which case, it’s actually a pretty simple fix. A few years ago, I was interested in cybersecurity, and even potentially being an expert in the field. It just spoke to me (or at least I thought it did).
It was, and still is, a growing field. There were only a few courses on it, teaching the fundamentals of security, the basics of different coding languages necessary for it (Python, SQL, and some other that I forgot). I ended up finding out that it wasn’t for me. Although I originally figured it was, it didn’t take me long to figure out that it wasn’t.
I spent a full week learning more about cybersecurity, and came to the final conclusion that it wasn’t for me.
The entire time that I spent learning felt like work. It felt like forced labor that I had to do. For me, that wasn’t something that interested me. For me, a suitable career is something that, despite being work, doesn’t feel like it. In my personal opinion, that’s what passion is. Even if you didn’t get paid all that well, you would still do it everyday, working to make a difference in the field, because of how much joy it brings you. Working with passion means more than not working alongside it.
It’s almost like a sort of team-up. With passion, you become stronger. But without it, you work at a fraction of your true raw power.
How To Do What I Did (but better)
If there is a particular field that interests you, I seriously recommend that you do some serious digging. Sure, the first thing would be finding how much it pays, the certifications or requirements necessary for a career in it, you get the point.
In almost all cases, this research won’t be anywhere near enough to be conclusive. More research is, without a doubt, required. And by that point, I recommend you enroll for a few courses. Please note however that this doesn’t work for everything. For example, you can’t -shouldn’t- expect to find a digital course on law and justice, when a college degree is required for it.
However, you can always do more digging. In that case, I suggest you do some deep research on X field, prioritizing the discovery of any potential negatives. When I say that, I am referring to the “cons” that people who are also jumping into the field won’t know.
For example, if front-end software development is an interest of yours, then sure, the first thing that might catch your eyes is the average salary, demand, and the fact that it doesn’t particularly require a degree. You just need to learn, and have proof to back it up. However, if you did more digging, or watched videos of other people’s personal experiences, you’ll probably end up discovering its inhumanely long work hours at some companies, low social setting, and unrealistic “work experience” requirements. How am I supposed to get work experience without a job?
That’s your job to figure out unfortunately.
A second option
If you feel that simply enrolling for some online course isn’t enough, then maybe an internship might work for you. Some pay, while offering a direct look into the daily life of someone in the field. Unlike a course (whether physical or digital) or some YouTube video, it will give you an actual look into what the work-life is really like. That’s advice that no one can give you; because, at the end of the day, what matters is your opinion. If you don’t like working in it for a week, what makes you think that you can do it for the rest of your life?
I’ve seen several people do this themselves; and what’s good is that if you’re still in high school, it will also look good on your college application.
My 2nd Tip
This tip is for the people who have zero idea what they want to pursue. If you’re currently in a position right now where you have no career ideas, or rather have too many options, then this might be for you.
Think back to your early childhood. This means your elementary school years, back before puberty hit you.
What was something, or what were some things that interested you? Did you have a thing for drama class, or dance class, or for speaking in front of crowds, for performing, for writing, for solving problems? … The list goes on.
Something I learned recently is that when we’re young, we tend to pick up on things that interest you. When I say this I don’t mean the career interest you had when you were 5. No, not that. Just because I wanted to become a firefighter when I was 4 years old doesn’t mean that that’s the path I want to follow today. Absolutely not. Things change.
What doesn’t change however is our interest and love for small, particular things. Maybe you had a feeling for nature, taking care of animals, or creating music. It could be absolutely anything. These interests that we develop when we’re young usually stay with us for years, and don’t leave us. It only seems to disappear once we resort to other fields, change our attitude, and narrow down on another interest.
Example
Imagine a person (we’ll call him “Marcus”) leaving for college in just the next few months. They’ve decided to stick with a career in video production, but it’s taken him years to get to this point.
Earlier, when he first started kindergarten, he fell in love with the idea of becoming a police officer. Their way of handling situations, no matter the danger or risk posed on their life, and because of their shiny gold badge. It looked awesome to Marcus. He was fascinated with the idea, but never obsessed himself with the idea. After all, he was too busy waiting to get home after a long day to play with his marvel toys. He already works far too hard at school.
As he gets older, he completely forgets that he had originally wanted to become a police officer. Now, in later-elementary school, with the rise of popular media platforms YouTube and Twitch, he wants to pursue content creation and streaming. For him, it seems like a very easy field to get into and pursue. However, after posting content that takes him several hours per day to edit, and streaming for hours non-stop for multiple months -and not getting any views- he gives up.
He realizes that content creation was dumb and a pointless idea. After all, it took far too much time and effort, and soon enough, he would get into middle school. There, he’d be given far more work and have to pull himself up without being “spoon-fed” by his teachers.
Example (cont.)
In middle school, he learns about music production, and is fascinated with it too. He learns about band, and joining a group and playing an instrument; so, he does. However, there’s one small problem: he sucks at playing any kind of instrument. And when he promises to go home and practice.
He never practices. He always forgets last-minute. And so, he abandons playing an instrument altogether.
Next thing you know, he’s in high school. There, he no longer has any idea who he wants to be. Along Marcus’s high school career, he picks up on a few interests, but ultimately abandons them all too. In the beginning, he was interested in serving as an important figure in the justice system; then he transitioned towards content creation and music production; then a million other tiny things that never stuck long enough to be memorable.
In a few months, he’ll be off to college. Life has gone by so quickly, and unfortunately, he never took good advantage of it. He has zero idea what he might want to pursue. He’s lost.
What would you do in this situation?
A Piece Of Advice You Shouldn’t Follow
Online, I used to (back when I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet either) see people say that it was okay to be undecided on a career path. But, I look at it now, and I don’t think I can say the same thing.
The career you choose will stay with you for the rest of your life. If you spend years of your life deciding on a career, and still can’t make a decision, you have a greater problem. In that case, you have to prioritize something hidden that you aren’t emphasizing.
The worst thing imaginable is leaving for college, or being in the final phases of your high school career, just to not know what you want to do. It’s a waste of money and a waste of your time. I’m by no means saying to rush your decision however, rather, I’m saying to maybe pick up the pace a little bit.
How To Make A Decision On A Passion
This ties into what I went into earlier. You need to think about your early childhood years, and just think for a moment. What was something that stuck to you, and got ahold of your interest for months or even years? For some of you, maybe it wasn’t even a time period, but rather a moment.
Albert Einstein for example, when he was younger, was given a compass as a young child. It’s obvious how a compass works today, and how it worked then. For any ordinary person, it would just be another piece of technology that just “works”. However, for Einstein, it was different.
The fact that there was invisible forces that covered the Earth 24/7, and was responsible for making the arrows on the compass face in the directions North, South, West, and East, was astonishing to him. It was astounding how it was possible. If you really think about it, you can say that for a lot of things today too. It was because of this compass that his father gave to him when he was younger that he found what he was passionate in, and made as significant of discoveries in the history of science.
There’s a possibility that something similar happened to you too. And it doesn’t need to have happened when you were a child either. If there’s been a moment (which you’ll likely remember) in the past few years where you just stopped and were amazed by anything at all, maybe that’s a potential career to pursue.
A Few Ideas
- Amazed with the way scientists develop real-world medicines, perform test trials, conduct lengthy but productive research; all in order to create medicines and treatments for the world’s deadliest and most harmful diseases and infections.
- Fascinated with the routine followed by a navy seal, and how they always beat themselves until they no longer can continue fighting – but proceed even if they feel sick, weak, and on their last drop of energy. Influencers like David Goggins, or people that have visited your school may have reinforced this too. Maybe one day, when you were out on the street, or in a cafe, you met a navy seal in the flesh. You saw their towering stature, and fearless energy by as they sat down and drank their coffee. You wonder if maybe some day, you too can be apart of the army, or fight for your home country. Defending it, and gaining your country’s respect means everything to you.
- Astonished with a career in politics, and making the world’s most important decisions. Maybe you want power, and want control, but above all, you want to make the world a better, safer place. You want people to love leaving for work everyday, no matter how early it is, or how poor sleep you got; you want people to look at the world and be thankful for what they have, relative to what they had yesterday. The most important decisions made in the world will eventually be made by you; not just by you, but influenced as a result of your input. You want to have a voice; a voice loud enough to emphasize the quiet voices of those that won’t be heard either.
You have your own story. You just need to dig up what’ll start it all.
Example (cont.)
Marcus is now off to college. And he’s in a much better place since you’ve seen him only 3 months ago. Since then, everything’s changed.
He now has centered his focus on a career in media production, specifically with the production of videos for some of the largest corporations in his country.
When he was younger, he loved creating videos. He gave up on it when he was younger, but nonetheless he loved it. And to tell you the truth, he never stopped loving it. Every time he would watch a video from the day on, especially in the past year, he always thought to himself: “what if I never gave up?”
What if he just persevered, and worked his way through the tough challenges despite not seeing any growth? The most successful of people have to wait years in order to see any form of success, and continue on waiting in order to see their empire keep on growing. Most people can’t wait that long. Marcus was one of those people. Despite having a love for content creation, and just seeing the wide selection of videos that always existed, and how much influence these people had; he craved that same feeling.
He wanted to be loved too, but especially, he wanted to have the motivation necessary to work every single day even if it meant waking up at 5 AM on the dot, and spending 12 hours a day filming and editing videos himself in his tiny apartment room. Waking up to an audience, to people that loved seeing his work, to coworkers that can’t wait to get started on the next project, meant everything.
That’s how he made his decision.
Conclusion
It’s now your turn to make a decision. Take a look at the passions that you’ve developed along the course of your entire life, and choose one that means the most to you. It will take plenty of trial and error, and for many of you, it will take months to find the right one. But, once you do, it will change everything for you. It was never about making money, and being the most successful, but being happy and discovering the purpose that you were always destined to fulfill from day one.
