looking to find your passion?

Looking To Find Your Passion? Here's How To Recognize The Real Thing

Until fairly recently in human history, people ended up doing the jobs their parents did.  Mom and dad were farmers? You’ll be a farmer.  Dad was a stonemason? Here’s your chisel.  Mom was a weaver? Hope you can work a loom. The idea that having a ‘passion’ for something would be a reasonable justification for making a career out of it is a recent human invention, and it’s only been in the past few generations that anyone but the very rich and privileged have had the luxury of considering ‘passion’ as a factor in career selection.

However, now that we’ve started down this ‘passion’ path, I suggest we keep going: quite a body of data is developing that shows the efficacy of passion.  In fact, it seems that when people are personally invested in their work; when it fulfills a sense of personal purpose; when they enjoy doing it – those people are much more likely to be both highly productive and to continue to get better and better at what they do. And, as a side benefit, they report higher levels of satisfaction and lower levels of stress.

So, if it’s beneficial on a bunch of levels to feel passionate about your work, how do you find that passion? A few years ago, I read a really useful and thought-provoking article on Amex Open Forum, The 3 Biggest Things Entrepreneurs Mistake for Their Passion.  In it, Mike Michalowicz  notes that entrepreneurs often mistake the enjoyment of a hobby, the idea of a ‘hot trend,’ or the possibility of a quick financial gain for ‘passion.’ I’ve seen repeated examples of all three (and seen all three fail to translate into a good foundation for starting a business).  And these ‘misunderstandings of passion’ don’t just happen for entrepreneurs; I’ve seen lots of employees do the same thing: take a job that allow them to focus on something they enjoy as a hobby; or go to work for a company because it seems cool or sexy to them; or go for something that holds out the hope of making a lot of money quickly (sales, or telemarketing, or ‘work at home and make $2,000 a week…’)  While these things may seem attractive in theory, too often they turn out to be the work equivalent of eating a lot of sugar: an immediate high followed by a crash.

And there’s one more ‘passion mistake’ I’d add – again, it applies to both entrepreneurs and employees: mistaking ‘the obvious thing’ for passion. For entrepreneurs, the obvious thing is usually rapid growth: “Of course I want to grow my business 50% this year – that’s what all entrepreneurs are passionate about.” For employees, it’s usually the next step up the corporate ladder: “Of course I want to move from director to vice president – that’s what all dedicated professionals are passionate about.”

Unfortunately, the ‘of course’ thing is very often not the thing that will work best for you. I’ve seen many people made very unhappy by doing things they thought they should want to do, rather than the things they truly felt drawn to doing.

So, how do you avoid being taken in by these passion fake-outs?  The issue is made even more complicated by the fact that these motivations aren’t fake for everyone: some people’s hobbies are their passions; some people are passionate about something that happens to be the obvious thing.  Given that, how do you discover the work that truly challenges and inspires you, work that makes you look forward to getting up in the morning? Over the years, I’ve spoken to hundreds of people – especially young, smart, ambitious people – who’ve asked me about how to ‘find their passion.’ The advice I’ve given, over and over, is simple: get curious and explore.  Then notice your own reaction.

This simple approach works, no matter what you’re considering.  Let’s say, for instance, that someone who’s looking to make a career change really loves children. He not only loves spending time with his own kids, but he really enjoys being the parent when a bunch of kids get together: helping them have a great time while still keeping them reasonably in line. (This is the ‘hobby’ route.)  So he starts wondering if maybe he could run after-school programs.  Or let’s take an employee situation: someone who’s the head of marketing for a small furniture company who thinks she might want to be the GM when the current GM retires. (This is the ‘obvious thing’ route.)

Time for both of them to get curious and explore. Curiosity (which I talk about fairly often) is a wonderful thing.  It’s that feeling of “I really want to find out more about this.”  It’s like a mental and emotional itch to understand that you just have to scratch.  If our hypothetical man and woman allowed themselves to get curious about their areas of possible passion, they’d have three main avenues of exploration to satisfy that curiosity: information, people and situations.

Information -  This is a good first place to go when getting curious about a possible passion. Our after-school guy could look online to find out what starting an after-school program actually entails.  He could explore the legal requirements and financial implications and any training needed. He could probably find an online forum for people who run after-school programs and get a sense of what they’re saying about it. The most important thing, though, is for him to notice his own reaction as he starts to look into this.  Is it intriguing? Does he want to find out more?  Does he find himself spending free time checking out related websites, or does he have to remind himself he’s supposed to be looking into this?

People - If, after exploring something on an informational level, it’s still ‘pulling’ you – you still feel curious and interested – a good next step is to find some people who are actually doing the thing, and pick their brains.  Our wants-to-be-the-boss woman could find a couple of people who have recently made the leap from functional exec to running a business and invite them out for coffee or a meal (her treat, of course) to pick their brains about what it’s like.  She could use her curiosity to really delve into what they enjoy and don’t, how they got ready to take on the job, what they wish they’d known when they started – any question that occurs to her, really.  People generally like talking about themselves, so she’ll probably be able to get lots of good intel.  And again, as she’s listening, the key thing is for her to note her own reactions.  Is she engaged – or bored?  Is she thinking “That sounds great,” or “That doesn’t seem like something I’d like.”  Especially in an ‘obvious thing’ scenario like hers, it’s important to be a fair witness – to note your actual reactions, vs. covering them up with oughts and shoulds.

Situations - Finally, if you’re still feeling pulled after all this (and especially if you find yourself even more intrigued), it’s time to figure out a flight simulator. That is, find a way to do a little bit of the thing you’re considering and see how that feels. You can usually get a taste of something you’re considering pursuing while still in your current situation.  For instance, the after-school guy could volunteer at a weekend recreation program for school kids.  The CEO hopeful could sign up for a one-year stint as head of a local charity of which she’s currently a member. This is the very best way I know of to separate the wheat of passion from the chaff of idle curiosity and wishful thinking.  If, after a few months she finds herself thinking about how to improve the committee meetings for her charity while she’s driving to work, or he finds himself designing a new field trip for the kids while he’s eating lunch…it may be a true passion.

As  Mike Michalowicz points out in his Open Forum article, “You know you have passion for a business idea when it feels like your life’s calling, and it would help you fulfill your purpose on this planet.”  If you’ve explored a passion possibility in the three ways I’ve suggested above, and it’s calling to you more than ever – keep pursuing it. You may have found the thing that will keep you engaged and growing for the rest of your work life.