‘Follow your passion’ is a misunderstood piece of advice.
It is misunderstood because the word passion is misunderstood.
People do not find their passion magically.
Your passion does not appear in your mind, fully formed and ready to be actioned upon.
Instead, you identify your passion using a series of micro-experiments.
You try different things, take wholehearted action on them, and then evaluate the results.
- Overall, do you feel happy doing it?
- Are you able to learn and grow?
- Are you able to produce meaningful results?
- Are people willing to pay you for the output?
If the answer to these 4 questions is YES, then the area can be explored further as a passion.
But you shouldn’t stop there.
This process needs to be continued again and again, across different domains so you can keep on sharpening your saw, and find that one passion that you enjoy the most and which pays you the most.
Note: We are only talking about passion in the context of careers here.
