What to Do With Your Passions

“Follow your passion.” It’s a sentiment that gets thrown around often in inspirational speeches, friendly advice and social media posts. Intuitively, we know we ought to pay attention, but the competing instinct of sensibility disguised as maturity threatens passion in its tracks. Chip Heath and Dan Heath refer to it as the “soul-sucking force of reasonableness.”

But passion doesn’t care about reason. Do you know why? Passion comes from the heart, not the head. It’s meant to be explored, not ignored.

Passion comes from the heart, not the head. It's mean to be explored, not ignored.

In an iconic commencement speech in 2014, Jim Carrey shared a lesson learned from observing the career choices of his father. “So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect… I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which is that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

The goal for every passion shouldn’t be a full-time career opportunity. (Otherwise we’d be forced to limit the things we’re passionate about.) But neither is contemplating our areas of passion a form of immaturity. Passion is a gift that can and should help inform both our career and involvement decisions.

If identifying areas of passion is difficult for you, consider some of the following questions:

• What excites you?
• What are you intensely interested in?
• What activities cause you to lose track of time?
• What could you talk about for hours?
• What do you lose sleep over, for better and worse?

The bottom line is that it’s hard to make a difference doing something we’re not passionate about. Lean into your areas of passion, not away, because passion is connected to your identity.

This post is excerpted from Nathan's new book for young professionals Stand Out!

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About Nathan

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership and young professional expert and serves as a consultant, coach and speaker for corporate audiences. He’s worked in a staff or consulting role with several Fortune 500 companies and large public service organizations, including Accenture, MASCO, FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency, among others. Nathan is also a military veteran, having served with the Army Special Operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In addition to corporate work, Nathan is also author of Ignite Your Leadership Expertise and the upcoming book Stand Out! Nathan’s articles and resources are posted on his website NathanMagnuson.com and in various leadership publications.

You can follow Nathan on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or on his website.

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