It’s grad season and that means more people are entering the workforce for decades to come. Thankfully, the economy is doing well so finding a job in your chosen career is easier than it has been in a generation. That’s fantastic news! When there are more jobs than applicants you have more choice and more opportunity to find your passion.
We’ve all heard the saying – Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life – while that might not be completely accurate, it’s a lot more fun to do a job you enjoy and have excitement for than one that feels more like pulling your own teeth. It’s important to find our passion and choose a career that brings us closer to the things for which we have enthusiasm, because you’re going to be doing it for a long time. You may as well enjoy it.
So what if you don’t know what your passion is? How can you make a career, a lucrative career, out of something you aren’t sure of yet?
That’s a good question. There are a few things to consider that should lead you to a clearer understanding of what makes you passionate. And, it’s perfectly okay when those things change. That’s the other great thing about a robust economy, you have the freedom to try new things much easier than the generations before you.
Find your Passion
What Makes you Happy?
On some level you probably have a good idea what your passion is because you know what makes you happy. You may not think you can make a living doing the thing that makes you happy, but you’d be surprised to learn with a little creativity, anything is possible. Let’s say you love dogs. They make you extremely happy. When you see a dog walking down the street with his owner you get excited and stop to pet the dog – and may be chat with his human. You could become a dog walker, a veterinarian, you could start a cottage business making boutique collars for dogs. There are so many things you can do with the thing that makes you happy.
What are you good at?
Let’s say you’ve decided to open a boutique for dogs. You make the most adorable collars and leashes and even found a delicious dog treat recipe that you can sell in your shop. The problem is you aren’t very good at the business end of things like payroll, purchasing, invoicing etc. You could learn the skills needed such as basic accounting, and do those things yourself. Those tasks might take up a lot of time and that would take you away from doing the part of the business that you love – making collars and dog treats – why not hire someone to do the things you aren’t passionate about or even particularly good at? By identifying your strengths and weaknesses, you can save yourself a lot of frustration and stress. Do what you love and outsource the things you don’t.
Education
You may love dogs, and love the idea of a boutique store to serve neighborhood dogs, but what if you don’t know how to make collars or dog treats? Then you’ll have to go back to school and learn those things. You don’t necessarily have to go back to school, you can learn just about anything online these days, but you will need to continue your education if you are going to follow your passion. Everything changes and that means you’ll need to stay current in your chosen field to stay relevant. If it’s your passion, it’s going to be easy to learn something new because you’re already in love with it.
Set Goals
While I don’t think you should give up on a goal because of a timeline, it’s good to set goals so you can stay on track to achieving them. Setting goals also helps to break things down to their most basic subset which makes achieving the goal easier. If you don’t know how to make collars, but very much want to you could set a goal of learning the different ways to make dog collars. There’s macrame, knitting, leather, canvas, knots – all kinds of different methods. The goal is to learn which one you like best and how to master it. Once you’ve learned how you can set another goal to increase you skills in your chosen field.
Finding your passion shouldn’t be a difficult thing to do. We all know, deep down inside, what makes us most interested. The key is to find a way to harness that passion and turn it into a career that can sustain you over time. With a little creativity and commitment you can turn any passion into a lifelong career.