Louis Fameli

What to do when you can’t find your passion

There are a lot of articles on the web about finding your passion. While there are many good points and worthy pieces of advice given in these articles, I thought about taking a different approach to the topic.

 

The concept of finding your passion is, overall, a fairly simple one. You know, or learn, about what makes you happy and find a role, hobby or pastime that lets you fulfil it. What about if you don’t know or can’t seem to find your passion, what then?

The first thing to do is not become stressed at the prospect of not knowing your passion. It is out there, and stressing over it will not achieve anything. Plus, if you become too obsessed with finding it, tunnel vision might prevent you from even seeing it is there.

One option, however, is to let it find you.

In terms of career, this involves a little thinking outside the square. For example, consider taking a generalist style role (in your field of choice). This might just be the best thing you do. Why? Because one of the tasks you get assigned in that role might relate to, or even be, your passion.

It could be that taking on an administrative role leads you to think “I really enjoy the event planning part of my job” and from there you can take a course specialising in that area, or perhaps volunteer to plan events for a charity. Taking either of those options, you get the chance to learn new skills and start working directly in an area you find fulfilling.

While this will not necessarily work for everyone, sometimes inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places.

Until next time,
Louis

2 responses to “What to do when you can’t find your passion”

  1. Irene Nicholas Avatar
    Irene Nicholas

    Very true!
    How'd you come about on this wisdom? What was your experience?
    I'm finding a lot of passion while I'm doing certain things and they all seem to have stemmed from an •entire outlook on life•. I found that once I started loving myself more and appreciating what was around me, I loved certain things and activities and was filled with a much greater appreciation and satisfaction for them than when I was unsatisfied with myself.
    I have 3 prospective career choices infront of me in entirely different industries. Sometimes it is a perfect soluteion to keep passions as hobbies.
    You definitely need to have a career which gives you that free feeling though. If your heart's not in it, it's not for you!
    Thanks for the great post!

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  2. LF Avatar
    LF

    Thanks for taking the time to write such a nice comment Irene, I really appreciate it – glad you liked the post!

    I opted to focus on the career aspect for a few reasons, among them setting myself an achievable scope for a blog post, and because I see this type of advice being an area that HR can help people – which is what I one day hope to do!

    As for my experience, this post stemmed from a thought that people can be so focused on finding their perfect career that opportunities to build a fulfilling career, abundant with success, can in fact pass them by.

    I think your comment holds a lot of wisdom itself, our own outlook on life is incredibly important to finding one's passion. Also, as you said, sometimes keeping a passion as a hobby is the best option! As long as you enjoy going to work in the morning, that is one of the most important things.

    Cheers,
    Louis

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