Why turning your passion into your career is overrated

I’m 18 months older than my brother. Save for the occasional bust up when we were teenagers we’ve been best friends for over 30 years (I think so anyway).

I am in constant awe of his approach to work. He graduated from university with a 1st in Interior Architecture in 2011, was headhunted to work for leading design firms for a number of years and then made the incredibly brave decision to change course and start working as a freelance artist back in 2015.

I am beyond proud of everything he has achieved.

So, why am I telling you this? Well, it’s because what I’m about to say next might sound like I don’t really mean it ??

I spent a long time, multiple years in fact, being jealous of him.

No it's not the fact he can grow a better beard than me OR that he doesn't put on weight whilst I'm slowly turning into a potato.

It's because he is one of the very few people I know who has genuinely turned his passion into his career.

I didn’t go to university. I spent the best part of 8 years as a struggling Personal Trainer before chucking it all in, buggering off on what I thought would be a life changing trip round the world only to return home 6 months later broke, single and pondering what the hell I was going to do next.

What I actually did next still surprises some people today, especially when they learn that I worked as a scaffolder for almost a year before being offered a job in…drum roll please ??… yep you guessed it, recruitment.

Beyond the chance to sit in a nice warm office at a time when I was working outside in the middle of winter I can’t tell you why I said yes.

Did I really want to BE a recruiter? For a number of years the answer was a resounding NO.

I grappled with my reluctance to embrace what I did for a living for a long time, all the while watching my little brother getting closer to where he wanted to go, until I read some incredibly powerful writing by people opposing the myth that we should all be attempting to turn our passions into our jobs.

As well as learning to accept this I started to revise the following statement.

“Hi, my name is John and I am a recruiter”

Into this.

“Hi, my name is John and I work in recruitment”

If you’re having a crisis of conscience about the job you’re in at the moment I urge you to do the same.  

When you change the narrative you quickly realise that you are not defined by what you do for a living.

Whilst this won’t be a revelation for some of you perhaps you needed reminding and for those that it is, may the truth set you free ??

The fallacy that our careers have to be rooted in something we’re deeply passionate about can often make us deeply unhappy. I’m passionate about plenty of things. Writing, gardening, cooking. But a career change isn’t on the cards anytime soon. And that's OK.

Call it growing up, becoming wiser, acceptance (who said denial ??) but I’m not jealous of my brother anymore. Not VERY jealous anyway. The realisation that we don’t have to turn our passion into a career or even be particularly passionate about what we do for a career is incredibly liberating with the addition of one important caveat which I'll pose as a question.

"Does your job afford you the freedom, flexibility and means to spend time doing the things you ARE passionate about?"

If the answer is no, then it might be time to do something about it...