Discovering your passion is an adventure in itself!

I’m sure that at least once till date, you would have heard someone say to you, "Hey, you should follow your passion". But why should anyone make an effort to figure this aspect out? From my two decade long corporate career, coupled with my role as an author and a success and leadership coach, I’ve come to realise that discovering your passion and claiming something you love to do has an amazing effect on your entire life. It helps us find more meaning to an otherwise robotic life and often helps us have more meaningful careers. This topic is thus relevant not just for those who have recently embarked upon their careers but also for those who may be feeling ‘stuck’ in jobs that they don't enjoy. It's all too easy to fall into a routine that leaves you bored or unfulfilled: you want to make the switch but you're not sure what to do. 

 At the start, let me tell you that you ought to start with the right perspective and believe that you can do what you love, with your life. If you’re convinced that finding your passion is hard, or that it’s not going to happen for you, you’ll remain closed to possibilities. You’ll block the little nudges, pulls, and signals that guide us all. 

 Inspiration may strike some people in an instant. Suddenly, they know what they should be doing with their lives. For others, it takes work. So let’s follow three simple steps to get closer to discovering our passion. 

 Start by asking yourself, "What would I spend my time doing if I had complete financial abundance to do anything?" Hunter S. Thompson, a journalist and novelist, once said: "Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.”  “If you can't imagine not doing something, it's a passion. It doesn't always have to be a moneymaker. You could always make money some way and still be able to make time for what you really love to do." 

 Remember what you loved doing as a child?  If you scan the landscape of your life, you’ll notice certain experiences peak up. It’s so valuable to delve into these “peak moments” and extract the key ingredients. Try to remember the activities that you enjoyed during your childhood, before the pressure to study the right subjects or get a good job began to mount. Can you recollect memories of experiences which truly made you joyful and happy? Would you enjoy those activities now? Use these memories to help you find your true passion as an adult- these are the things which will continue to make you happy. Perhaps you still have hobbies now. Could you expand on them so they take more of a centre stage in your life?

 However, when you look at all the activities or experiences from the past that matter to you even as of today, they might at first seem entirely disconnected. This is the time to look beyond those experiences and seek an umbrella for those experiences to fit beneath. Was there any common pattern in those experiences? It is important that you connect the common theme running across different phases of your life and you will certainly move a step closer to discovering your passion. 

 Last but not the least, can you think of activities that you are really good at doing without even being trained to do that? What are you good at or have a natural aptitude for? I’m talking about the things you have a knack for? Now imagine what could happen if you were to be given a chance to get trained in areas you are already good at. These are skills which are inherently part of who you are, they come from within and more often than not are the areas you are meant to excel in. You may choose to convert these skills or activities into a vocation or profession- the choice is yours.

 I do believe it’s critically important to discover and engage in things that light you up, but it’s just as important to cultivate an un-serious child-like attitude of play, wonder and adventure. When you deliberately open yourself to noticing things you might enjoy doing, don’t be afraid of getting it wrong. It’s all an adventure, you’re learning and growing as you go. 

 And when you find your passion, be assured: It’ll always guide you right. It’s really magical.