Here is a quote – Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks.
—Yo-Yo Ma
Finding your passion is like discovering ‘you’. No two individuals have the same life purpose; hence, no two individuals use the same ways to find their passion.
Just because you love to sing does not mean that your passion is singing. If you actually look forward to building a career in singing and cannot think of any other avenue to explore, then it’s a passion for sure. Finding passion requires a certain level of perseverance, tactics, and determination on the part of an individual. Then again, one needs not to confuse their hobbies and interests with passion, as they could be different.
How to define your passion
If you keep listening to what the world thinks of you, you will develop a habit of considering others’ opinion before what you have in your mind. Such an attitude does not allow your inborn abilities to come to the fore. While one should definitely care about others’ honest opinions and constructive feedback, it would be a downright suppression of your view of the world if you never gather the courage to speak your mind. In such a scenario, your passion takes a back seat, which makes you more timid, afraid and diffident than you were before. You should break those shackles, allow your soul to guide you, and hear the voice of your conscience. Once you can listen to those voices coming from within, you are actually getting closer to your passion.
Define your core interests first – activities, relationships, work and so on
We cannot be good at everything. Hence, if we wish to entertain even the remotest idea of attaining excellence, we need to define our core interests first. Prioritizing interests that are in tune with our diverse passions is necessary to define what we want most. For example, anyone who loves socializing with others has a healthy relationship as their biggest motivator. Similarly, someone who is a workaholic will definitely be passionate about professional growth. You need not struggle to define your passion. You just have to be aware of what you truly enjoy doing.
Introspect and observe your natural abilities, skills, and talents
Introspection allows you to meditate and listen to yourself while quieting outside voices. It slows your thoughts, helps you in analyzing your strengths and visualizing the best version of your personality. You can now focus on things, people, activities or memories that make you happy.
Try to figure out what makes your best moments different from those that you do not want to live again. That particular moment probably made you feel the best about yourself because your heart and mind were reciprocating perfectly to your passion. If you want to relive those moments for the rest of your life, what you simply need to do is discover the passion that helped you make the most of those memorable moments.
Understand the change you want to see in the world
Every individual is here for a reason. Each one of us has something great to offer to the world. To find that out, all we need to do is to listen to our conscience and follow our passion. We need to own our uniqueness and set our life purpose accordingly.
Ask yourself which changes you would like to make for the betterment of society or the world. I am sure you will come up with a plethora of suggestions for doable tasks that require your attention. Just believe in yourself, and you will realize that even those small steps taken in the right direction can produce great results.
Define your desired tone, your authentic voice
It does not matter whether you are quiet, witty, reserved, bold or overtly passionate unless you convert your words into action. Reticence or a quiet nature does not imply a lack of confidence; instead, this soft tone is loud and impressive enough to voice powerful ideas that could change the world if implemented in the right way. One who speaks less and communicates with select people only is very specific about their plans and the execution of those plans. It would be incorrect to say that reticent folks lack passion; instead, action replaces words for them.
You just have to be sure about your tone and attitude if you seriously intend to justify your purpose with corresponding efforts. A witty individual easily becomes the center of attraction among people. Since such a person never lacks the confidence required to voice their opinion effectively, when it comes to responding to their inner voice, they can actually allow others to hear it quite audibly. Nonetheless, you are definitely on the wrong page if you think a witty or eloquent person is more qualified or capable of converting their passion into their life purpose when compared to the reticent lot.
Be realistic when trying to find your true calling
Passions that have nothing to do with your skills, talents, and capabilities are downright unrealistic. If you hate biology, your passion for becoming a doctor is nothing but a longing for something that you can never achieve. Had you stuck to your passion to become a wildlife photographer, you would have definitely become one, for you always loved visiting zoos, seeing wild animals in their natural abodes, and watching wildlife on television. So, be realistic and aim to fructify a passion that does justice to your skills.
Keep note of all the things that ignite your passion
Influenced – inspired, rather – by print, electronic and digital media, people nowadays have all sorts of options to distract them from their focus on their core passions. They can utilize these modes of information to learn a thing or two about their true identity. Children, especially, aim to follow in the footsteps of the people they watch or read about and thus, develop different passions. At the end of it all, what we actually need is just a cue, which we can always find in our childhood memories.
What brings a smile to your face?
If you had been fooling yourself and believing that passion was all about careers and money, you definitely need to change your thinking. Rather than about fulfilling your worldly and material wishes, it’s more about finding your authentic self. Unless you locate things that bring a smile to your face and ideas whose fruition would make you happy, you’ll keep defining your passion wrongly. So be passionate about doing things that make you feel good about yourself. Their successful completion will provide you with a feeling of completeness and happiness as well.
What makes you lose track of time?
When doing things that you have your soul and mind in, you cannot afford to put in anything less than your fullest efforts. You don’t keep track of time doing things you are passionate about. After all, passion is an undying urge or quest to achieve, which does not allow you to rest until you reach your destination. Hence, you always feel you have just started, even after you’ve spent hours. Do you remember any activity where you preferred focusing on the activity itself, instead of worrying about the time spent on it?
What do you daydream about?
Your passion lies in things and desirable achievements that you wish to realize at any cost. When you think beyond your job or petty tasks at hand, you are actually heading to a subconscious state of mind that understands your passion. Now, what you simply need to do is write down those thoughts, ideas, and actions (passions) that call for realization. A great daydreamer actually knows their passion, even when they don’t make any effort to achieve it. So the more you dream about achievable ideas, the greater are your chances of achieving them.
What would you love doing without getting paid?
Passion for an object of desire is beyond monetary gains and remuneration; instead, it’s a selfless pursuit of things, activities, and ideas that one would love doing without expecting anything in return. Passion readies you from within to chase it until you can lay your hands on it. Any idea or activity that you ache for defines your passion.
What would you regret not doing if you don’t have your financial concerns?
Each one of us has certain concerns to address before we can finally live our passion and chase our dreams. Anything that you would love doing for sure if your financial concerns stop bothering you is what you are passionate about. Find it and invest a part of your time, efforts and resources to achieve it.
Now, when you are done with the probing part of finding your passion, you should have a full list of potential passions. Try prioritizing them – the one that finds mention on the top of your list is the passion that will bring joy, peace, fulfillment, and satisfaction to you. Anything that makes you feel alive is worth devoting time to. Thus, self-analysis and probing are the keys to finding your passion, which will eventually guide your way to happiness.
Traveling might help you find your passion
Providing you opportunities to meet people, a vacation enlightens you from within, thus helping you make a living out of your efforts. You don’t care about making a living and hence, focus on making the most of the traveling opportunity.
Passionate travelers will understand the significance of deserved break during their journey. While on alien shores, they find time to reflect on their priorities. You can utilize this break to find your passions and do things that you never thought you would find time to do. You will further come to know that your passion was lying just around the corner, but you never got time to locate it. With your stresses taking a back seat, new ideas will start pouring in to make the passion-finding process easier than you would have thought.
Try new things to find what excites you most
Any thinking soul would agree that life is a never-ending exploration of things that we’ve never done before. As we move forward, we open new doors – new opportunities to learn new things, experiences, and observations – for us. Things that excite us the most come at a price; thus, be prepared to shun your fears and tread with confidence to do what you always planned to do. Allow the curious side of your persona to do all the talking while it sets the ball rolling for you and suggests unexplored avenues that call for your attention.
When doing new things, one needs to foresee or anticipate the risks involved so that appropriate action can be taken to offset and meet these challenges.
Consider joining a new course
Passion necessitates exploring new avenues, pushing your limits, getting better with each passing day, accepting challenges, failing, succeeding, and of course, learning new things. Anything that you have been planning to learn needs to be done now, as you will never find the perfect moment to make it happen if you miss this opportunity to learn a new thing. Join a new course to brush up on your skills and take your expertise to a new level. There’s nothing wrong with asking professionals for their help and assistance. Just gather some courage and set out on a new journey.
Learn how others realized their passion
Finding your passion is not always a herculean task for everyone. Sometimes, it’s as simple as asking others about their passions and learning how they realized them eventually. You could ask your parents, family members, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or even someone you found last night, on the street, about their passions. Ask whether they are going ahead with their decision to find new footings for themselves or whether they prefer taking life as it comes. Again, you need to be very specific with your observations. Scrutinize your observations to find things that inspire you to find your passion; at the same time, try to stay immune to unconstructive thoughts that may pop up every now and then.
Why does passion matter?
A passionate soul can strongly negate the obstacles that could force a less determined person to abandon or postpone their goals. Passion helps in taking good decisions, sticking to your life purpose and eventually, in committing your body, mind, and soul to get closer to, and eventually realizing, your goals.
On the other hand, when you cannot associate your passion with the task, objective or goal at hand, chances are that your efforts will lack commitment and zeal to excel. Passion acts as a booster to your desires, which shape your future course of action towards the achievement of your goals.
