The one I had when I was a teenager and wanted to be a YA fantasy writer? Or the one I had when I was 6 and wanted to be princess? Or is it the one I had last night when all I really wanted was to road trip in the USA until the end of time?
Take your passion. Make it happen.
It’s even in a god damn 80's pop song, for crying out loud.
I grew up on this shit. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams and all that jazz.
And I get it. You’re supposed to go after what you want. You are not supposed to be paralyzed by fear or feel like you don’t deserve good things in your life.
But what if you just don’t know what your passion is?
Like. I really love eating icecream, but somehow that doesn’t translate to being a passion. I also really love reading fiction. I love shopping for clothes. I love browsing etsy for cute stuff. I love tumbling through tumblr and seeing the beauty of the world from the comfort of my own bed.
But none of these things qualify as being my Passion – with capital P.
So what am I supposed to do?
There are countless posts out there for how to achieve your goals. There are people out there who will give you tools for how to become more productive, how to overcome your tendency to procrastinate, how to network your way to your goals and so on and so forth.
They all seem to take for granted that you have a goal. And I feel like a failure because I can’t even manage to define what my passion is. It’s this first step on a thousand mile journey and I can’t even do that.
I’ve failed before I’ve even begun.
This is depressing.
I googled “how to find your passion in life” and 9,350,000 results appeared. So at least I’m not alone in this quest.
The top three results were about ‘finding’ your passion, insinuating that it was just a matter of uncovering this thing that already exist within.
So apparently there is a passion somewhere inside of me, waiting to burst out, like some sort of alien, and show me the light.
I don’t buy this line of thought. There isn’t a premade passion inside of me just waiting to blossom. If that was the case, then if would have appeared by now. I’ve listened to myself. I’ve asked myself the ‘tough questions’. I’ve brainstormed. But still, nothing.
This view of Passion with a capital P is also limiting in my view, because it implies that you have a ‘true passion’ out there. The implication of this is that anything else you do is false, and most likely a waste of time.
I don’t like dichotomies like that. I don’t like splitting the world up in a ‘right’ way to live (where you follow your capital P Passion) and a wrong way (where you’re complacent and/or blocked).
I’m not blocked.
I just don’t have a freaking passion. That doesn’t mean that I’m broken.
It just means that I’m a bit confused. And that I’m working on figuring my life out.
And I don’t need these condescending articles telling me that it’s just a matter of asking the right questions in order to discover this Passion that exist within me.
Anyway. One of the articles had the point that passion isn’t something that you are born with – it’s something that you cultivate, and nurse into existence.
Based off that logic, the author of the article created this formula:
(curiosity + engagement) x time = passion
The article explains the formula rather nicely. Basically you need an area you are curios about, you need to let yourself explore this area, preferably with people who also find this subject interesting. And then you need to devote yourself to it over time. 5 minutes isn’t enough.
I like that it takes a more pragmatic stance on this weird passion-thingy.
It takes some of the pressure of to just focus on an area where I feel a sense of curiosity. It doesn't have to be my passion. It's just something I'd like to know more about.
So that would be my advice to you guys. Forget about following your passion. Forget about finding your purpose in life.
Just find something that you are curious about. It doesn't matter what it is. It could be silly. It could be something you think is completely useless. It could be totally impractical. It doesn't matter.
If you like, tell me in the comments something you're curious about. If you find it interesting, somebody else probably does as well. Maybe even me.
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