How To Identify & Pursue Your Passions | Fusion - WeRIndia

Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

It’s great advice, but it’s not always that simple—it can be difficult to figure out what you love and how to parlay that into a viable business or job.

Once you have a solid idea of what you love doing, it can still be a big leap to turn that passion into a viable career.

So here’s a step-by-step plan for pinpointing your passions—and four ways to help you start turning them into your career.

1. Remember What You Loved as a Child

Often, our truest passions emerge in childhood, only to be squelched by real life pressures. So think about what you loved long before you had to worry about your career. Writing? Science experiments? Taking care of people? Getting back in touch with those instincts is an important step in finding your passion.

2. Eliminate Money from the Equation

If money were no object, what would you do? Would you travel? Spend all of your time with your children? Would you start a charitable organization to help abused women? Of course money can’t be ignored, but don’t let financial pressures dictate your choices.

Your career should ultimately lead to financial security, but if financial security is the defining motivator, it’s unlikely you’ll end up doing what you love.

3. Ask Your Friends for Feedback

Sometimes you’re just not the best judge of what makes you happy. Ask the people who know you intimately when you seem the happiest and what you do the most enthusiastically. Their answers may surprise you.

4. Identify your Professional Hero

Of everyone you know, either personally or in your extended frame of reference (from your dermatologist to Oprah), whose career would you most want to emulate?

Reach out to her to learn more about how she got to where she is, or, if that’s not possible, read everything you can about her career and life.

5. Think of What You Enjoy That You Also Do Well

After you’ve done these exercises, think about what you’ve learned. Focus on the things that you both enjoy and do well—whether you have a way with animals, make a killer lemon tart, or are crazy for origami—and write them down.

Then, narrow the list to the top three or four things. Keep it handy, review it often, and use it as your jumping-off point when you’re plotting your career move.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://unsplash.com/photos/6dmx8YnkPGo