All too often these days we hear this phrase or something like it. But what does it mean to “chase your passion”? Do we really understand the concept at depth and what it truly means?
I think when people are looking for or chasing their “passion”, quite often they get stuck in the nitty gritty and don’t look high enough. And there’s this odd limiting belief that each person will have only one passion above all others that they should “go for” and turn into their cash cow and career…
I don’t believe this is always the case. I for one have heaps of things I’m passionate about, as I’m sure most people do. I know I can’t make money out of all of them and some I wouldn’t want to, but that doesn’t make me less passionate about them. Inevitably when you put the pressure to make money on to something, there will be times when it completely kills the passion.
I think we need to stop using the word ‘passion’ when it comes to looking for work/career/jobs…. Instead we need to look inside and discover what our core beliefs are, that underlying value that drives everything we do. Look big, be bold and take it way out into the abstract.
For me, whether I’m conscious of it at the time or not, everything I do, every choice I make, is about the pursuit of freedom. Even if it doesn’t appear to be on the surface, nitty gritty level. So with that in mind, I’m never going to be happy in an office job, even when it is focused on doing something I love and am passionate about.
If we find what drives us, that one core belief or value that governs all we do, then we can find the work/career/job that fills that need. The best part is, it may be something you never thought of, or something you may have looked over in pursuit of that ‘passion’ idea and it may just turn out to be something that you love it.
The key is to know yourself, your inner workings, what makes you tick, as intimately as possible. Then and only then, can you move on to find your true ‘passions’.