How To Know Your Passion

Let’s look at it from another angle – what are you truly passionate about? What makes your eyes light up, what puts a smile on your face, what is important to you?

It's not what you do, it's why you do it

So how do you know if you're passionate about something -- other than by trying to do it and seeing if you feel excited or not?

The way to find out is to ask yourself why you want to be involved in this thing - why you think it matters to you. Most of us have had experiences where we engaged in an activity because someone else made us feel motivated to be part of it, or because they paid attention to us, or because of who you are around them. Sometimes it's just because you like doing things, you enjoy being having fun, you believe in the value of the activity, etc.

But beyond that, there’s always something deeper going on. Something internal that drives you to keep coming back to the activity over and over again. It may be hard to identify exactly what that is, but chances are very good that it has something to do with helping you define who you are as a person.

By engaging in activities that make you happy, that strengthen your relationships, and that teach you new things, you’re developing as a person.

You must do research

It is very important to know what skills you have and what things you are good at before deciding if there’s one thing you want to pursue. If you don’t, then you could spend your life trying to find something that doesn’t exist – like being famous!

It sounds crazy I tell ya but it happens every day. People who can’t figure out what they love so they keep changing jobs or field of study until they find something that makes them feel happy. This can go on for years!

The problem with this approach is twofold: 1) It can waste lots of time and 2) It may not be honest about how you really feel about certain things.

We all need different levels of motivation at various times in our lives. Some people are motivated by money, while others are inspired by helping other people. What works for one person might not work for another.

Finding your passion means finding something that gives you an emotional high and also helps you achieve other goals in your life. It is probably best to look within yourself first to see what types of activities make you excited and what kind of rewards they give you.

You will never know if you have found your passion if you don’t try it out at least once.

Your passion should be consistent

Even if you don’t feel like doing something, do it anyway. If you love to swim, then even though you haven’t felt like swimming for a week, you should because it is good for your health.

If you really want to pursue your dream career, you have to believe in yourself and invest in training or education opportunities that can help you reach your goal.

And while it may not seem like a lot of effort at first, I’m sure you will find that it comes back around when you feel tired or hungry – which happens sometimes even more than once a day during those times when you truly invested in your dreams.

Your passion should be consistently present so that you can easily identify it when you need it.

Your passion should be realistic

It’s easy to get excited about things that aren’t real priorities in your life, at least not yet. You may want to study marketing or psychology, but you won’t unless you prioritize education over money. You might want to work in fashion design, but if you don’t have enough money saved up for clothes, then that won’t happen.

Your dream job isn’t going to exist unless you make it real by educating yourself and saving some money. The same goes for your dreams of pursuing your passions.

You can’t know whether you feel passionate about something until you’ve tried doing it and seeing what happens. If you never actually put in the effort to do it, how could you possibly know?

Running out and buying everything related to your dream career would probably not help, even though this is what many people do before they find their passion. That wouldn’t necessarily show that you don’t like what you are trying it, you just didn’t invest in your goal sufficiently.

Your passion should inspire others

Even if you don’t feel like your career is going anywhere, or you're not sure what you are supposed to be doing next, it's important to know yourself. What kind of work makes you happy? What do you enjoy doing?
What gets you excited?

Your passion shouldn't just make you happy individually, but it also should help you connect with other people. If you can't find your passion, then it'll be hard to motivate yourself and others. You will lose interest in certain things, and people around you will start to notice.

It'll be like there's a hole inside you that no one knows about. And unless you care about something, you won't want to pursue it.

You should follow your passion

We’ve already discussed how to know if you are living your life in accordance with your dreams and desires, but now we're going deeper. What is your PASSION? What makes you happy? What do you enjoy doing? What elicits emotions in you?

Your passion can be anything – it can be creating new things, reading books or magazines, listening to music, talking about politics or sports, spending time with friends, traveling, studying something new, interacting with people of all ages, and so on. It could even be working towards a goal that you have been thinking about for years.

It’s important to remember that not everyone will agree that your passion is the same as theirs. That's okay! As long as you are enjoying what you are doing, that’s the most important thing.

And don't worry, it'll change over time. I bet after reading this article yours has changed.

You should take baby steps

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you think about what you want your life to be, but instead of jumping in with both feet, try doing something small that makes you feel passionate.

My favorite way to learn anything is by watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts. I learned how to sew from sewing tutorials on YouTube. I listened to lots of fashion podcasting while I was trying to figure out what clothes were trendy and which styles were popular now.

You should get a job that you enjoy

Now, this doesn’t mean dropping what you are doing now and finding yourself in a workplace where they don’t give you their pizza every night.

It also doesn’t mean staying in your current position because you don’t want to make changes or feel like you're not good enough for something else.

Finding your passion is about changing jobs and positions, but only if it is something that can easily be done without too much effort.

You should try to make it your career

After you find what you are passionate about, the next step is to determine if it’s worthwhile investing time in it. This means considering whether this thing is worth more than just a few hours of your time every week or month.

It must be something that makes you feel good and brings you some sort of reward. It can be anything from earning money being involved in this activity, to feeling happier when you do it, to experiencing other things because you're spending so much time on it.

If none of these apply to this thing, then maybe you need to look at it slightly harder. Or perhaps see if there's someone around who knows how to work on the things you're interested in.