How to Discover What You’re Passionate About

What could be deeper at the core of who you are than what you love?

There are few topics that are as important as this one. This is what you’ll be spending a lot of your life doing. This is your contribution to the world.

Did you know 70 percent of American workers are either "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their work? (Gallup 2013)

This statistic is really sad.

Imagine, what would this world look like if people could find meaning in their work? We would live in a much more productive world, and we would feel so much happier and more fulfilled.

If you fall in that 70%, you will never feel the intense joy and fulfillment of giving back to a cause that is bigger than yourself. You will never discover the greatest gifts and strengths that lie within yourself. You will never be fully engaged with life.

You have to find what you love.

How do you find what you’re passionate about?

1. Introspection

The answers may not come overnight. Be patient. Keep searching and refining your vision. The answers are inside you somewhere.

Ask yourself:

• Deep down... What really matters to me? What is important in life?
• How do I want to help people? How do I want to give back?
• What would I change about the world?
• What do I like to talk about and learn about? (What are the books, podcasts, etc I like?)
• Who inspires me and why?
• What would I like to be known for?
• What moments in my life have I felt fulfilled or proud of myself? (What was I doing then?)

Sit with these questions for a while and ask them to yourself over weeks or months. Pay attention to any themes that come up. I recommend journaling the answers because this facilitates clear thinking.

2. Try things out

You’ve done some introspecting and now is the time to act.

Find a project you can start on your own, volunteer, and find a way to actually do what you care about. You will soon find out if you really enjoy it and if it feels fulfilling.

3. Rinse and Repeat

Finding what you really love is a continuous cycle of introspection and putting that introspection into action to gain more clarity.

What you love does not have to be just one thing.

For example, maybe you’re a therapist and you care about helping people heal emotionally, but you also care about environmental conservation.

Just go volunteer, get creative, and give back in some way to the cause you care about, whether that’s in a big or small way.

Some don'ts:

• Don't let the voices of others cloud your judgment.
• Don't be complacent. Don't put this off because it's easier to.

This is one of the most important things to think about because this is what drives you!

Keep searching and keep giving back. The world needs your gifts.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes by Steve Jobs,

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

A book that helped me introspect more on this topic was Find Your Why. I highly recommend reading it if you want more guidance.

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