Following your passion is something that many bloggers seem to swear by. Following your passion can lead to setting goals, reaching them and achieving them. When I read certain posts, I can sense the passion in it because it’s either very witty, funny, sarcastic, honest, heartfelt and/or real.
Last week I made a decision to throw myself into the blogging gig more. Rather than just humming and hawing, only spending time on the blog when I felt like, I decided it was time to get relentless with this. I know I said this before when I went self-hosted several months ago, but this time I mean business.
I feel like I’m almost coming back from a blogging coma. I have to wake up! I am going to try to spend more of what little spare time I have or perhaps I should say dedicate more spare time to the different aspects of blogging.
Quite a few questions and thoughts have been swirling around in my busy brain the past few days. Most of them being about passion.
How does one find their passion?
When does it become your passion?/Do you have to be good at a certain skill to consider it your passion?
How do you know when you’ve found that passion?
Most people spend most of their lives never finding their passion.
And then those thoughts kind of led to an expansion (maybe more like an explosion?) of thoughts. So I figured, why not explode them onto this post.
*BOOM*
How Does One Go About Finding Their Passion?
Although people say things like, “You were made/born to do this” or “It’s in your blood.”, nobody knows what their passion is right from the start. I would think one would have to try a whole bunch of different things and get a feel for what you like (reading) and what you don’t like (cooking). Then perhaps take that list of stuff you do like and try to figure out which one you like the most. And THEN take that thing/skill/ whatever and hit the ground running. You keep on running until you are gasping for air, have that blasted runner’s side stitch and sweating like a mofo.
Or it may have just fallen into your lap by chance. Your parents decided to sign you up for hockey, piano, swimming, drawing (hopefully not all at the same time. At one point, my Saturdays were filled with dance lessons, piano lessons and accelerated math lessons. Yes accelerated math lessons). Then you happened to really really like what you got signed up for. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen with me with any of the things I got signed up for.
When Does It Become Your Passion?
Passion can be defined as: any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate. (according to Dictionary.com). However, in this sense, we’re talking about something you feel passionate towards. It’s almost as if you can’t really “get it” unless you’ve felt it too. It’s about putting the work into it, but it doesn’t feel like work. You want to do it. You’d do it for free, but hey if you can make money from it, even better.
You would do whatever it takes.
No matter what.
You would make the sacrifices that nobody else would.
While you don’t necessarily have to excel at this hobby/skill, these powerful, compelling emotions drive you, push you, challenge you, motivate you. This passion makes you want to excel and makes you want to do frequently to the point that you can/do end up excelling at it.
To me, the equation of success = natural talent + luck + hard work + passion (the feeling).
We can’t all have a natural talent at everything. Neither can we have luck with everything. Without the natural talent and luck, it can get quite frustrating and the easiest thing to do would be to drop it. However, if the last two factors were AMPLIFIED EXPONENTIALLY, then I think success to a certain degree would be within reach.
How Do You Know When You’ve Found That Passion?
Maybe it hits you square in the forehead right away. Or maybe it doesn’t. I didn’t realize travelling was a passion of mine until I traveled to England in my early 20s. I had done some travelling as a kid with my parents, but I wasn’t feeling it yet. I’m always trying to find time to take general interest courses. I LOVE learning new things. I enjoy looking at the continuing education/distance education courses in the college and university brochures. I want to be a well-rounded person. I just wish I had more time to try all these different things.
After showing some of my travel pictures to my colleagues, I was told that I had a natural eye for things or that I should get into photography. I took a photography course in high school and really enjoyed it. Who knows? Perhaps that could be another passion.
Most People Spend Their Lives Having Never Found a Passion
Now that’s a scary thought. I’ve never done this, but try asking your friends and family what their passion(s) is/are. See what kind of answer they come up with and let me know.
You won’t know if it has the potential to become a passion until you try it. Don’t let life become boring and don’t be afraid to try new things.
How do you define passion? Have you found it yet or are you still searching? Please share! 🙂
Note: This is a comment from Tonya @BudgetandtheBeach.
OK hope this posts! It’s so tough because passion doesn’t necessarily mean what you’ll do for a living. My passion is beach volleyball…and well there ya go. Not gonna make a living from it. But other passions can, and I’m finding this whole blogging things has really snuck up on me and here I am 42 and discovering that it JUST might be a passion I CAN make a living from if I really, really want it. I think passions shift and change throughout your life too.
I definitely agree with the passions shifting and changing throughout your life. This may seem odd and I can’t remember how it started but I was obsessed with the surf culture as a young adult. It was on my bucket list to learn how to surf. I finally got the chance to do it out in BC 5 years ago. I found it very hard and at the same time I loved it, but given my current location, it’s not something I can do regularly. I tried it again in Costa Rica and again, found it very hard, but still loved it. I wonder if I grew up on the coast, if it could have been a passion.
I can agree with Tonya’s last statement, passions change often through your life!
Secondly, I wouldn’t say I have found my passion yet, computers though do come quite close; from assembling them, repairing them, programming them and milking the last performance juice from them. Most of it funny enough is self-taught…whenever I see a computer I sorta come alive…lol. And apparently its making me some cash so am not complaining at all 😉
One thing is for sure though, its a combo of many things and lots and lots of hardwork..it never feels like work though.
I’d also say there’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I think, for me at times it feels like work, but it’s work that I want to do, that I’m willing to do.
I work in theatre and you can’t do it without passion. Success is based on a combination of talent and luck which makes it a ridiculously difficult and unpredictable business that beats you down often. But it’s also given me some pretty high highs. At some point though, the roller coaster of my passion will likely become too much and priorities will shift and I’m ok with that.
I think that’s one of the great things about passions, is that they give you that “high”. It’s this incredible feeling that help keeps you going, even when things get rough, or it’s a place of peace, away from the stress of it all.
My sister did a double major in university, with one of them being theatre. (The other being teaching). She definitely has a passion for both.
My passion – music/guitar – found me when I was 14 in the form of a friend showing me how to play the opening riff to Smoke On The Water. And even though he showed it to me wrong, it was enough to make me want to play guitar for life. Which is basically what I do 🙂
Unfortunately, not everyone has a passion and that is fine as well. Although I think at the same time, people repress their passion because they feel it may be a waste of time or not conducive to a steady paycheck to pursue such things. My son for example, says that he does not have a passion for anything, he’s now 25, yet he spends countless hours playing hockey video games. Personally, I see that as his passion and maybe a career in the gaming world would be in order, but he just shrugs and says “nope…I have no passion”. Too bad…but time will tell!
Thanks for a thought invoking post mtb 🙂
Take care and all the best
Lyle
I think artists- musicians, painters/sculptors, singers, dancers, actors, etc are some of the most passionate people. I feel this is because you can really see that music, painting, acting, singing, etc is their passion in the way they express themselves through their art form.
Hopefully your son will find a passion, it’s never too late. 🙂
Thank you so much for your comment!