What are you really passionate about? On the surface, this may sound like a relatively simple question, but the truth is, it’s not. Unfortunately, there is no solid formula on how to find your passion. So, while some people may seem to know what they are passionate about right from birth, others have to search for it until their final breath.
Who wouldn’t love to spend their days doing something they absolutely love? However, finding the direction that you should head can be a bit challenging. And worse, with every passing year, it becomes even more challenging to find your passion. That said, in this article, we will discuss reasons why finding your passion gets more challenging with every passing year. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill
⏱ 13 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
Other People Putting Expectations on You
When you concentrate on what other people expect of you, chances are, you are less likely to succeed in pursuing your passion. That’s because people’s expectations will continue to grow over time, and eventually, you won’t be able to achieve what they want you to. Moreover, expectations are difficult to overcome. Typically, pleasing others is like chasing a moving target.
Social pressure is deceiving, and you will end up becoming prey without knowing it. Before you realize it, you’ve lost control of your life and are stuck in a loop of wanting what other people have. That will make it even harder for you to achieve your passion because you’re too busy wishing you were someone else.
The grass will always seem greener on the other side; hence you’ll never appreciate what you have. To regain passion for the life you want, you will have to recover ownership of your choices. Otherwise, you may never break free of this vicious cycle, which will make it harder than ever to achieve and appreciate your passion.
Expectations from other people are not always a bad thing, as they can encourage and help you strive to be better. However, sometimes these expectations can drive you away from your own life goals. If you look around you right now, you will notice there are so many 18-year-old kids in universities, which isn’t what they wanted. They enrolled because that’s what an intelligent 18-year-old kid is supposed to do. Often, we tend to internalize other people’s expectations of us, and we believe them. That fools us into thinking that we are, indeed, doing what we are passionate about.
In the end, because we don’t want to accept that we wasted many years pursuing something we weren’t passionate about, we try to convince ourselves that it was the right thing to do. The problem is with every passing year, it becomes harder to find your passion, as you have already convinced yourself that what you spend the most time doing is indeed your passion.
Thinking What You are Good at is What You are Passionate About
Often, it takes time to get good at something. And for that reason, we are afraid to admit that it’s not what we are passionate about. But, on the same note, people have a logical fallacy that drives them to think that if people are good at what they are passionate about, they are passionate about something because they are good at it.
If you are good at something you are passionate about, you are lucky. But it doesn’t always work out that way. For example, you wouldn’t be surprised to find many doctors, lawyers, and engineers aren’t passionate about what they do. So, if you convince yourself that you are passionate about something just because you are good at it, it will only get harder to find your passion every passing year.
You are not patient enough to live life moment by moment
When we are focused on finding our passion, we tend to become impatient. This tendency makes it more difficult to find what you are passionate about. Instead of finding your passion, you’ll end up in an endless circle of working on your goals.
Unfortunately, over time, it gets even harder to find your goals. Eliminating non-essential possessions and ambitions will free you from the many emotions associated with the past. Living in the present means, you stop worrying about what happened in the past and fearing what will happen in the future.
Therefore, you are patient enough to live in the moment by savoring every event. Undoubtedly, choosing to live in the past or the future robs you of the fun of living in. The most important part about finding what you are passionate about is concentrating on what is present.
Focusing on what’s fun and not what you care about
One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to pursuing your passion is focusing on what is fun. Growing up, most of the advice we were given focuses on what we love, which isn’t necessarily the same as chasing your passion. Your passion is focusing on what you care about.
The distinction between the two is subtle but quite meaningful. That’s because focusing on what you love will associate your passion with what makes you happy. However, your passion should also be in line with your values and their impact on your life.
Research shows that those who pursued their passion because it brings them joy are less likely to succeed, and the journey becomes more complicated over time. These people are also more likely to quit their job within the first nine months. On the other hand, people who pursued their passion because it follows their values were focused on the things they cared about. That gave them a higher chance of success when it comes to pursuing their passion.
So, why are you likely to be successful when you pursue what you care about? This belief helps you weather the challenges that are associated with pursuing your passion. The combination of passion and perseverance in your work makes it easier to achieve what you set out to do. The reality is passion reduces over time. Therefore, if you only focused on what makes you happy, you might not stick around to the end.
You Put So Much Pressure on Finding Your Passion that You Chase Every Idea Out There
We face so much stress in our daily lives. And when we put more pressure on ourselves, we may quickly reach a breaking point. One of the reasons it becomes harder every year to find your passion is that you are already putting too much pressure on yourself. Sometimes you may even do this without realizing it. The first step to finding your path is realizing when you are too hard on yourself.
You need to understand that you can still achieve all the dreams you have without having to beat yourself up along the way. If you find yourself holding on too hard to the fact that you’ve not figured things out yet, take a step back and appreciate how far you’ve already come. Also, stop jumping onto every idea that your friends and family mention just because you think they are doing better than you. Identify your goals and work towards them; otherwise, when you become a jack-of-all-trades, it will be harder to discover what your passion really is.
Comparing Yourself to Everyone Else Who Seems to Have Found Their Calling
Sometimes, trying to chase your passion strips the joy from your life. Especially when you start comparing yourself with everyone around you who seems to have already found their calling, the weight of everything gets too heavy. Sometimes, you will even start to question everything in your life, including things you are genuinely enjoying. This often takes you out of the happiness that you were feeling.
Once you start doubting yourself because everyone else seems to have already found their calling, that’s the easiest way to suck out all the happiness in your life. Comparing yourself to others may leave you feeling as if you are not on the right track when you are. It’s okay to draw inspiration from others who seem like they have everything figured out. But don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
In Summary
We all want to follow our passion, but we often don’t know what we need to do. And unfortunately, things only get more complicated over time. Following your dreams and passion can make you happier, and it will surely help you persevere in the face of adversity.
However, there is no assurance of success, let alone Oprah-level accomplishment. So, identify your passion, but don’t lose sight of what’s most important, and don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t lead to fame and money. After all, there’s no evidence that people should commit their entire life to pursue a single goal in order to become successful.
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