Want a Fulfilling Career? Stop Following your Passion.

Perhaps you’ve just been made redundant and no longer have a concrete idea what it is you want to do in life. Maybe you’ve just graduated with a great degree that as yet has no easily decipherable end goal. Or possibly you are one of the millions of people who simply does not know what they want to do right now. 

I imagine that we’ve all been in a similar scenario at some point in our life: casually sitting at the breakfast table/in the beer garden/in a restaurant with friends or family, talking about possible career options when we hear those highly pressurised five words… “What are you passionate about?” You’re told these five words hold the key to a successful career and life purpose.

But what if it’s the wrong question altogether?

Surely there’s something dangerously limiting about the idea that in life you must have one singular passion and then make it your job to pursue it to the exclusion of all else? Careers advice in school followed this same predictable line. What are your interests? What are your passions? Take a look at those things and then look at the careers that fit them best. Choose that career path and you’ll have a successful, fulfilling career. At least that’s what we’re told. 

This week I watched two poignant TED Talks that looked to completely blow the aforementioned career advice out of the water. They even went as far as to say that for some - like those who are naturally extrovert, loud and persuasive - following a career in sales (which should in theory be right up their street) may result in the individual being more likely to burn out and even die young. Both things which I’m sure you’d agree couldn’t be further from the definition of a fulfilling career. 

One Tedster, Terri Trespicio (in her talk ‘Stop Searching for your Passion’) turns the ubiquitous “find your passion” message on its ear. In her talk, she speaks honestly about her layoff from her glamorous career as a radio host and magazine editor at Martha Stewart. She remembers without embarrassment that on the long elevator journey down from her office, she cried. That despite knowing the relationship was over, she felt like every floor was taking her further away from what she had been; the person with the cool job to talk about at parties. She admits to having no idea what she wanted to do, and commented that the pressure to know exactly where her life should take her is something that had been mounting since very early on.

This forceful imperative to choose your passion can be stressful. So many people are frightened that they’ll choose the ‘wrong’ job and end up in the ‘wrong’ career and never feel fulfilled or, yes, passionate. But as Terri rightly said, passion is not a plan, it’s a feeling – and as we all know, feelings have a tendency to change. So is it realistic to pin your every effort on a career just because you currently have an interest in something to do with it? 

Terri noted that it was her mother who eventually gave her the wake up call she needed. After temping for some time and constantly turning down permanent jobs for the fear they would be the ‘wrong’ ones, her mother had enough of the tearful phone calls every night and said, “You think you’ll get stuck, but you’re stuck now. You don’t create your life first and then live it, you create it by living it.”

Not everything you do can fit into a passion vertical, and just because you might not have the most flamboyant answer to ‘what are you passionate about’ doesn’t mean you’re not ambitious or interesting. Perhaps we’re better to just start doing. As the TED Talk says, ‘Passion is something that ignites when you start rubbing sticks together. Passion is not a sport, a job or a hobby – it is the full force of your attention that you give what’s right in front of you.’ 

Terri makes two very valid points. One: if you have tunnel vision for a ‘perfect’ career path, you’re likely to miss it completely. Two: if there are things you know you want to do, for instance write a book or start a business, you should just do it. If you sit around waiting for passion to arrive, you’re likely to be waiting a long time. 

She ends by saying, “To live a life full of meaning and value, you don’t follow your passion, your passion follows you.” 

The blunt truth is that we have 80,000 hours. 80,000 hours is the length, on average, of the number of hours in our working lives. So how should we choose how to spend these hours?

There are far better questions to ask yourself (or be asked by a coach), no matter how far into the 80,000 hours you are. What are you values? Your motivations? Your needs? What purpose do you seek? What needs to change?

David McClelland’s 1961 description of motivational needs – achievement, power and affiliation – still ring true today. Although passion is inherent within this assessment, I believe it is too simplistic to offer career advice to simply “follow your passion”. Do you agree? Did you follow you passion? Or did you start a career for other reasons and found passion within it and now are thriving? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Mark.