When you ask someone or when you are asked, “What’s your passion?” Admit it, it is triggering and upsetting, as it is almost like if you had to come out with a compelling answer that can get a “wow” for a response.
Yes, passion has become a dangerously limiting idea at the heart of everything we believe in, about our career, success and life. We have over-indulged in the idea of passion. As if you had this one destined passion, and your mission is to find it, and if you do that, you will find purpose and happiness and everything will just meticulously fall into place, if you don’t, basically you’re doomed for the rest of your life, which is not true at all.
The problem is, a lot of people have no idea at all what they are passionate about.
Passion is not a plan, it is a feeling, and feelings change. You can love coffee or someone one day and not passionate about them the next (It is sad I know). The point is passion can’t be searched, and you are certainly not born with it, it can only be developed.
I read an article, “Screw Finding Your Passion” by Mark Manson the other day, it goes: Remember back when you were just a kid? You never thought to yourself, “What are the relative merits of learning baseball versus football?” You just ran around and played baseball and football. There was no bullshit. If you liked something, you just did it.
So for those who are agonizing about finding their passion or not knowing what they are passionate about. Don’t look further, you have already found your passion, it is right in front of you, you’re just ignoring it. Stop and think for a second, what do you do with your time every day? You might argue that classes or work dominates most of your time. If they are not your passion, then what do you do in your free time? Obviously, you are doing something, or talking about something. You might be playing guitar, watching cooking tutorial in YouTube or discussing rumours about iPhone7 with your friends.
It’s right there in front of you, you’re just avoiding it. Did Justin Bieber knew that he will be discovered by Usher and made “Sorry” a hits? Did Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg a.k.a PewDiePie (Most Subscribers on YoutTube) know he will make millions by sharing horror video game gameplays in YouTube? You already know where this is going.
But who to says you need to make millions out of your passion, even if you are really good in it? And who to say you must make passion a career? I bet you a million dollar that someone who clean windows for a living does not do it because they have a passion for clean windows. You see? Having a career that you enjoy and can generate a million dollar at is just too good to be true. It is never about finding your passion, it is about your expectation and ideology towards how a passion should look like.
It is not dreadful to not know where would you end up in the future, in fact it is thrilling. Wouldn’t it be boring to know what you would become exactly in 10 years from now? You don’t create your future first and then live it, you create your future by living the life you have now.
Passion is a feeling, an instinct. If you have to search for a passion, chances are it is not a passion at all.
