Many people struggle to find their passions, whether they’re just beginning their careers or have been working for years. It can be an issue trying to decipher what exactly it is you should be doing with your life. When defining passion you can depend on a textbook definition or your personal thoughts.
Passion is an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. Think about what makes you excited. It can be extremely easy to fall into the mundane routine of work and home and lack any enjoyment about what you do every day. Living without a passion can lead to a certain kind of boredom with life that will leave you discouraged and lazy.
1. Ask yourself the right questions
Finding your passion is easy to do when you think about yourself a little deeper. Clear your mind of clutter and negative thoughts so you can allow the personal conversation with yourself to begin. Eliminate anything that is stopping you from continuing your journey of self-discovery. Realize that this is an extended process and you may not figure out your passion immediately. It takes a lot of self-analyzation to find something as important as your passion.
Talk to yourself and ask yourself the right questions to get to the bottom of what it is that you like. Write down your responses to make them tangible. A list of question to ask and answer:
- What would I spend my time doing if I had complete financial ability to do anything?
- What could I do for five years without getting paid?
- What skills come to you naturally?
- What is something that looks really interesting to you that you could find more about?
- What is a common theme in your life?
- What do friends, colleagues, or family usually seek your input for?
- What do you talk about the most?
2. Find out what you hate doing
Make a list of all the things you absolutely hate doing and note why you hate them. This will help you narrow down what is your passion by making sure you know exactly what it isn’t. It’s important to know what makes you uncomfortable, angry or annoyed. While you do this, the way you feel about certain things and even certain people will be revealed.
Pay attention to what irritates you or makes you jealous. This can point out what you actually want in life. Look closely at your emotions and focus on why those negative emotions are so negative. Sometimes the things you hate reflect what you can work on within yourself. It is said that the qualities you may hate in someone else are the ones that you share with them and just didn’t know.
Once you point out what you loathe doing, you’ll find it easier to see what it is that you love. Look at you collections of books, music, and media. There will be a theme there and you can use this to find out what exactly your passion is.
3. List your talents
Come up with a list of your talents. Ask yourself what you’re really good at and what you love to do. Use your list of questions to also help you figure out your talents. Think of what you loved to do as a child and what stuck with you throughout your years. Most likely that love is still there and it will make you happy to be doing something you used to do when you were young.
These talents can be things that you’re an expert at or simply mediocre. If you know how to do something you basically have a start to a talent. Maybe you’re mediocre at playing the guitar, but music has always been your dream. You’d want to practice at your guitar for fun (don’t make it a chore) and create new talent. Capitalize on your hobbies and talents. Consider if you could create a business out of your talents.
4. Don’t be afraid of trying new things
Trying is the start of success and starting to try new things will change the way your life is and how you perceive things. If you’re wanting to try a new hobby or get into a new career path, take initiative. This new career may take a lot of planning and courage, but you’ll be glad you did in the end. Trying new things will spark inspiration and have you creating things you used to or things you didn’t know you could. Be open and honest with yourself.