Are you having trouble finding your passion?
Like so many people, maybe you feel stuck and unsure how to move forward in your life because you just don’t know what your true passion is. (Or if you even have one.) And until you find that, you’re worried that any move you make will be the wrong one.
So, perhaps you’re stuck in a job you hate, but you stay because you just don’t know what your passion is and where you might end up if you make a move. So afraid of ending up even further away from where you’re supposed to be, you stay put.
Does that sound familiar?
If you’re pulling your hair out and saying “Yes, I can’t find my passion!” Here’s my advice: Stop.
First, there are some ways to go about looking for your passion, and you can start with those resources here.
But it’s time we all gained some perspective on this passion thing.
Trouble Finding Your Passion? Give Up
I get so many emails from so many of you that have gotten so twisted and tortured about passion. It should be an amazing thing in our lives, but it’s gotten to be like a unicorn to a little girl. You really want it, but you just can’t have one. (pleeeeeeessssssse?????) Sorry. No.
So is it time to give up on passion?
Maybe.
Here’s how you know when it’s time:
It’s time to give up on passion when you’re so busy focusing on one perfect passion and worrying that you’re missing the mark, that you forget to enjoy your life.
Because that, my friends, is a huge mistake.
It’s one you can’t recover from. You’ll never get that time back. (Which you already know.)
And staying planted in the land of not-passion will never, ever get you one inch closer to the land of passion (which you already know, even if you didn’t realize it until just now.)
So what are you to do?
Stop worrying about your passion. Right now.Maybe that’s something you never thought you’d hear me say.
But instead, move in the right direction. Even if you don’t know what your passion is, you can know if you’re moving closer or further away from what you love.
Because the truth is, no matter what, you’re not going to wake up tomorrow and have a perfect life doing exactly what you’re passionate about doing.
I wish I could make it happen for you, but it doesn’t look like you have enough clarity right now to have that be in the cards. And until you know exactly what that perfect thing is, chances are it’s not going to just appear in your life. (Actually, even if you knew exactly what it was, it wouldn’t just appear. Chances are it would take a heck of a lot of work. So relax, you’d have some work ahead of you either way. It’s all a learning experience for all of us!!)
You’ve got to move towards what you like. See what’s next. And the only way to do that is to make baby steps and then make adjustments along the way. A little more of this, a little less of that. Like my Italian grandma’s cooking. By taste, not by recipe.
Hey – I know it’s not easy. I get it that choices come with consequences, and choosing one thing sometimes means not choosing something else or setting other things in motion. That’s why baby steps are key, as is feeling your way forward. You constantly have to be asking yourself if you are enjoying what you’re doing. “Do I like this?” “Am I feeling excited?” “Enthusiastic?” – Passionate, even? Because if you forget and check out – put life on auto-pilot for days, weeks, decades, you might just wake up and realize that you don’t like where you are at all, you have no clue how you got here, and you have no idea how to get back to where you’re going (if you even know where that is.)
Do yourself a favor. If you’re struggling to find passion on your internal map, throw it away and follow your internal GPS instead. It’s far more reliable, and you can get going today.
So tell me in the comments below, what do you think? Does this sound right? Wrong? Scary-as-hell? I’d love to hear your take.