How to Find Your Passion

Article from WikiHow by Jamie Bresee, Wpendy, Tom Viren, Imperatrix and 30 others

Your passion is the reason you wake up in the morning, and just the thought of it can keep you up late with excitement. But not everyone knows exactly what his passion is right away. Don’t worry — whether you’re looking for your passion to find a new career, or if you’re looking to get completely immersed in a new hobby or activity, there are a number of things you can do to find your passion.

Brainstorm



Think about what you love to do. To find your passion, you should first take a look at your own life and see if you’re already doing something that you love — but just not doing it very often. Figuring out what you really love to do and channeling it in a productive way that turns it into a passion can help you explore your heart’s desires. Here are some of the things you should ask yourself when you brainstorm what you love to do:





What are my goals?


If I could do one thing for the rest of my life, what would it be?


What do I love to do?


What would I do, even if I didn’t get paid to do it?


What makes me feel like nothing else exists?


What activity makes me feel completely in my element?






Think about what you’ve always dreamed of doing. This is different from making a list of all of the things that make you happy. Here, you’ll have to write down all of those things you’ve always dreamed about, but haven’t done because you don’t have the time, the money, or because they’re impractical or even slightly scary. Here are the questions you should ask yourself as you brainstorm what you’ve always dreamed of doing:






What is the one thing I have always dreamed about, but never got to do?


What did I want to do when I was a child?


Do I have an impractical dream that I once abandoned?


Is there something I’ve been afraid to try because it takes me out of my comfort zone?


Is there something I’ve been wanting to do but haven’t done because of financial fears?


Is there something I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t tried because I’ve been afraid I’d fail or just not be very good at it?


Is there something that someone I know does that thrills me?





Create a game plan. Once you’ve written down the answers to your questions, you may have a better idea of the type of things that already interest you or the things that you’ve always wanted to try. Now that you have a bit more information, you can create a plan for finding your passion. Here are some things you can decide to do:






Make a goal of trying at least five things on your list. Plug them into your calendar. Make a plan for actually doing these things as soon as you can, even that means within a year, if the activities are more complicated, like traveling to a foreign country.


Make a goal of trying a few completely new things that take you out of your comfort zone. They don’t have to be on your list — you can just try a few more things that pique your interest, even if you haven’t necessarily always dreamed of doing them or tried them before.


Prioritize your potential passions. Decide which things you’d like to try first. You can try the ones that sound most intriguing first, or you can try the most practical ones first

Use Your Interests to Your Advantage

Turn a beloved hobby into a full-time passion. If there’s already something in your life that fills you with excitement, joy, and self-worth, then you should try to turn that hobby or activity into a full-time endeavor. Though it may scare you to make a big life change, if you know there’s something you already love, then you should spend more time pursuing it to see if it’s your passion.

Your hobby could be anything, from ceramics, painting, or poetry, to teaching yoga or screen printing.


If you can’t make money with your passion (like running marathons, for example), then you can find a way to make that hobby the central passion of your life by getting involved in the running world in some other way.


You can transition slowly into spending more time doing your favorite hobby to see if it’s your passion. If you’re afraid to drop everything and devote yourself to this hobby full time, then take baby steps. First, spend the entire weekend pursuing your hobby. If this makes you realize how much you love it, then spend the whole next week pursuing your hobby. After that, you can see if you want to spend all of your time devoted to this activity.






Rekindle a childhood passion. You may feel like your life has become too routine or boring for you to have time for dreams and passions, but there must have been a point in your life when you had a real dream to pursue something courageous and exciting. Think back to your childhood self, and the things you used to dream about when you were a kid or even an adolescent. See if you can find a way to transform these dreams into a passion.





If you always wanted to be an astronaut, then maybe this idea doesn’t appeal to you quite as much anymore. But think about why the idea appealed to you in the first place — maybe because it involved exploring space, science, or adventure — and see if you can find a new passion out of that.


Be brave. If you wanted to be a singer or an actress, it’s never too late to try to fulfill your dreams.


Unfortunately, you may have to take a practical approach in some cases. If you wanted to be an Olympic gymnast when you were ten and you’re forty now, it’s unlikely that there’s a gold medal in your future. But if you were once really passionate about gymnastics, see if you can involve yourself in it in some other way, such as being a trainer, coach, or being involved at a gym in some capacity.


If you were lucky enough to keep a journal when you were younger, go through it. See what passions sparked your fancy, and what dreams you wrote about again and again.






Combine your talents. Maybe you have more than one talent, like doing tricks on a BMX, and you love to write. Could you see yourself writing books on BMX riding and tricks, or true stories about how those riders started out doing what they love? Here are a few other ways to combine your talent:





Maybe you love to write poetry as well as interpretive dance; could you interpret one of your poems, or write a poem about your love for dance?


If you’re a talented writer, make the most of your writing skills. If you love something, blogging about it or making a website about it will help you share your passion, use your writing skills, and develop your love for what you’re doing.


If you have a passion for languages and an unrelated field, such as animal rights, see if you can use your language skills to work as a translator or interpreter in that field.

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