How to Find Your Passion

The pressure to “find your passion” might feel likes it’s at an all time high for you right now. Graduation season is quickly approaching and you may have found that you haven’t had the time with all the years spent in school to discover your passion. How do you even discover a passion? Or something you want to do for the rest of your life?

Maybe you realized that what you thought you wanted to do, you really aren’t as interested in as you thought. Or maybe you just wanted to do it because you felt like you needed to in order to seem successful, make your parent’s proud because it was easy.

Does any of this sound familiar?

I was the latter. I spent nine years following fourth grade wanting to be a doctor. It began as an interest that turned into a mix of wanting to seem accomplished, not knowing what else I should do, and wanting my parent’s to be proud of me.

I spent so much time think that this would be my life plan. I took the necessary steps, excelled in school, and was riddled with excessive anxiety. Excessive anxiety is normal right (spoiler: it’s not). With all this time focused on being a doctor, I had tunnel vision and considered no other path for my life.

How crazy is that?! I could have gone through 8 years of schooling and realized this is not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because I hadn’t ever considered my options.

Your passion doesn’t have to be your job. If you want your means of making money to be your passion, however, this guide is for YOU!

How to Find Your Passion

1. Get Some “Real Life” Experience

Yes, I know you’re living in real life right now. But in order to find out what drives you, put yourself out there and experience new things. Travel, volunteer, meet new and diverse people. If traveling or volunteering isn’t an option, that’s okay! Just try new things. Take a couple classes or workshops, sample different hobbies, visit new coffee shops, do something new or different. If you’ve never tried something, how do you know that isn’t your passion? Something that you’re naturally good at, that you love, and has the potential to make you enough money to sustain yourself.

2. Expand Your Mind

Read and listen to podcasts. A huge tell to what means a lot to you, what you find important, is what you can’t stop learning about. Your mind will naturally gravitate to your interests and what you find to be of importance to you. If you’re still figuring things out, self-development books are a great place to start. If you have yet to read a self-development book, it may seem kind of silly, but they are so helpful and motivating! They make you approach your life in a different way that maybe you had not thought to do before. Try starting out with You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life, I found it to be a great book for those who haven’t previously read a self-development book!

3. Seek out Introspection

Introspection is basically looking into yourself, your thought and emotional processes, and your inner mind workings. It’s like self-reflection, and it can be very helpful for someone trying to find their passion. A great way to seek out introspection is to journal. Not sure what to journal about? Try answering questions like these:

1. What do you love to do now and what did you love to do as a child?
2. Is there anything you’re naturally good at?
3. What do you want your future to look like?
4. When are you happiest?
5. What are your dreams and goals?
6. What has been something that you’ve always wanted to try?

If you’re not wanting to answer guided questions, just decluttering your mind, brainstorming and making lists can help lead you to find what you’re passionate about.

4. Find Your Role Model

Who do you look up to and admire for what they do? Who naturally draws you for following their passion and what did their path look like to get there? I am a firm believer that we can learn great things about ourselves and the processes we go through based on the journey of others. If someone has found their passion, it’s likely that they’ve gone through a lot of trial and error to get where they are today. This has probably cost them time, money, and stress. Why not learn from others? If something just doesn’t work, why waste the time working on it if it doesn’t bring you happiness? Or, for that matter, if something does work, why not take advantage of it?

5. Create

If at this point, you’re still not sure you can find your passion, create it! There is an amazing sense of satisfaction is creating something and putting it out in the world. There are so many different mediums you can go through. Website or app development, writing books, painting portraits, making ceramic bowls, the options are limitless.

Have you ever heard of a passion project? I have multiple- my blog being one of them! If you think maybe, just maybe, that your passion could be something that you could create today, why not do it? Have you ever thought to yourself, one day I’d like to write a book. That can be your passion project if you start! You may find that what you’ve created has been the missing piece to making you feel fulfilled and like you have purpose.

Once You’ve Found Your Passion

A passion is not pre-determined at birth and there is not only one passion for you in this world. Have you found your passion? Once you’ve found your passion and decided that you’ve wanted to pursue this path for your future, you need to support yourself. I’m not suggesting finding a passion just so you can make a lot of money. However, you need to live, right?! Living, unfortunately, costs money! You need food, shelter, the basics.

In my opinion it’s possible to monetize any passion and turn it into something that services or helps others. Something that will keep you feeling fulfilled, but also be able to support yourselves and your family. Are you passionate about watercolor? Sell prints of your artwork on Etsy or work with businesses to put your art on to their products. Become a freelance writer or author if your passion is writing. Passionate about teaching? Become a teacher! It’s that simple in theory, although everyone’s path to reach their goals is different. Just don’t give up and keep working at it! Believe in yourself, your mission, and your happiness.

Have Any Other Ideas on How to Find Your Passion? I’d Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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If You Enjoyed this Post, Be sure to check out some of my other related posts:

1. How to Find Your Inspiration to be Creative
2. 8 Ways to Create the Life You Want
3. 10 Ways to Become a Lifelong Learner
4. 10 Ways to Get Back Your Motivation

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