Want to Find Your Passion? Follow These Steps
In your own life, you’ve been leaving behind a trail of pebbles all along as well. Do you ever catch yourself thinking, “I don’t know what to do with my life!”? There is a way to find your passion.
And what do we do in response? We just go about performing mundane tasks day-by-day, thinking that maybe a fantastic idea will sprout out of the ground and give us a sense of direction. Someday, we’ll just figure it all out. Of course, this rarely (if ever) happens.
And the worst part is, before we know it, years have gone by. Instead of just coasting, look for the pebbles in your life. Chances are, you’ll be able to find some things in your past experiences that provide direction for the future. For example, maybe when you look back you notice that you spend a lot of free time looking at books on building design. Maybe architecture is a big interest in your life.
And no, it doesn’t mean you have to run off and suddenly become an architect! What it does mean is that this is something worth investigating. You could enroll in an introductory class on architecture, or talk to architects about their experiences. Why not do both?
If there’s something that you’re interested in, look into it more. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) jump something right away. Investigate a bit more into the pebbles to see how far along you should follow them.
Your Pebbles Are A Reflection Of You
Pebbles can also relate to the way you act. Over time, these tendencies come out over and over again. It’s interesting how people can observe things about us that would never have occurred in our heads. They take notice of something and then might make a comment in passing:
“You’re really good at connecting with people.”
“You always seem to read what I’m thinking!”
“Whoa, have you ever thought of doing ____?”
When various people make comments like this, there’s something going on. Listen when this happens. Looking forward, it seems difficult to figure out what we should be doing, or whether we’re making the right decisions. But when we pursue something that almost comes naturally, it almost seems blindingly obvious. As Steve Jobs once said, “You can only connect the dots looking backward.”
In a world of choices, there are so many possibilities out there and we’re forced to choose without ever finding your passion. As a result, we find ourselves hopping from one thing to another. Other times, external pressures or current trends cause us to make decisions that we normally wouldn’t have done. After all, if your friends are doing something, it’s easier to follow along right?
Sometimes, we have interests, passions, or skills that we don’t even realize. Someone might say, “How’d you do that?” And we might shrug, figuring that if we can do something, it must come easily to everyone else. If you have people come to you for help on something or are surprised that something you can do so well, pay attention. You could learn something about yourself that everyone already knew.
