What If I Don’t Have A Passion In Life? Am I Destined For A Dead-end Career?

Posted: February 1, 2016

Not found your passion in life yet? A passion you can turn into a career and enjoy your work while earning? Do not fret.

There is often a lot of discussion around topics like – what is your purpose in life or passion in life? This is important, as most successful people in this world have achieved happiness/satisfaction from their passion and hence made it to the top.

What if people are not sure what is their passion in life is, but are still living a happily/fulfilling life? Frankly, I don’t know the answer either. After watching Steve Jobs’ keynote address at the Stanford University commencement the phrases ‘Stay Hungry, Stay foolish’ and ‘Don’t settle, keep looking’ keep haunting me.

What if I never find what I’m truly passionate about? I had great education, upbringing, moved to a foreign land and have lived here over a decade wearing several hats, but I’m still not sure which hat I want to wear for keeps.

I still haven’t found my passion.

Some positives even if you have not found your passion

• First of all, your world is not going to fall apart. Trust me, there are different kinds of people in this world. Living a life of fun, just doing a regular job, can bring you immense happiness. Not just finding your passion and following it.

• But in case, you are someone who really wants to delve deep and get close to yourself and wants to know, what you really want in life, go ahead for sure and no force in the world can stop you. If you are confused, it’s completely understandable. Keep looking and surely you will pinpoint one.

• The other way around can be to go about your regular job which you ‘kinda like but are not absolutely passionate about’, and nurture some hobbies which you enjoy during your free time. It is not always necessary and sometimes demotivating to move on thinking all the time, “Is this my passion?” Trust me, it’s the worst feeling ever.

• There are some people with many interests, who love doing different things and don’t have a true calling, but there’s nothing wrong in it. They get often stumped at the question “What are you really passionate about, or what do you want to see yourself as?” Frankly, a lot of people want to see themselves as different entities at different stages in life. There’s not one thing they want to be.

• Try to build a career which would enable you to wear multiple hats which you enjoy. It would help you to enjoy multiple things.

And now the negatives…

• Most of the time, people who aren’t able to nail down what they want in life, face depression and confusion, lost because they aren’t dedicated to any single line of action and wandering around multiple things. The feeling is completely understandable but trust me, there is nothing abnormal about it. Liking various things, and not one, can be the way of life for many.

• Another big challenge is that it might be difficult to concentrate on your daily job when you like various different things and not just “The One”. So you’ve got to figure a way around this. You could set yourself the time that you would complete some of your responsibilities, and then explore other options.

People who have ‘nailed’ it

• Some of you who have an idea what your passion might be, dig in. It might require sacrifice on your end or your entire family’s in the beginning, but in my opinion it’s worth it. In the long run, even if you realize that it had been the wrong call, it would have given you immense pleasure that at least, you took up the challenge and went forward with it.

• Some of you have already pinned it and you are living a life of your dreams. You can share your stories as to how you figured it out and the whole journey you took to feel what you are feeling today. Maybe inspire others.

Tips to figure out your passion

• Whatever you do be it reading, writing (fiction, non-fiction), swimming, dancing, coding…try to find a pattern and the time you are taking to do it. Are you enjoying it or does it seem like a drag and you want it to end immediately? Then write it down. Soon you will shortlist stuff which you are enjoying and some you are not so much into.

• But that doesn’t pinpoint your passion. Keep doing those things that you kind of liked over the others. You might find yourself preferring some over the others. Keeping a watch on yourself is a very big way to find what you love doing.

• Try to read life journeys of people you admire and people who made it big in their lives. For me people like Steve Jobs, Khaled Hosseni, Shah Rukh Khan reassure that yes, you should believe and then trust your gut and move forward. If you truly love it, one by one you’ll overcome every obstacle that might come your way and you’d win over all.

Steve Jobs wanted to make lives easier through technology. His dream was, everyone from a toddler to a grandmother should be able to use the device he designed, and yes, his dream came true. Every toddler to grandparents can use an apple product with super ease.

Khaled Hosseini chronicled stories set in Afghanistan where he spent his childhood, and soon he found his passion narrating lives to his readers.

Shah Rukh Khan always wanted to act and simply believed he can do it and overcame all the challenges came his way to becoming the “Bollywood Badshah”.

In a nutshell, there is no magic. You and only you, have got to figure it out and carve the path you want for yourself. Be it passion figured out or not, you must be happy with what you decided to go with for yourself. What I truly believe is, passion will definitely find its way to you, and I guess it’s worth waiting for to some of us who haven’t figured it out yet. A true love for anything in the world for which, we are truly ready to suffer to get more of it.

Here’s a video you might find inspiring

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