Forget finding your passion, follow your curiosity …
I know, I know. What kind of a coach tells people to forget their passion?
Thanks to perky lifestyle influencers, we’ve become a generation obsessed with the quest to discover and follow our passion in life or work in order to find meaning and joy in what we do.
Now, if you know, or think you might know, what your passion is then that’s great and do that, for sure.
However if you don’t actually know, then what?
Is there something wrong with you if you like a lot of stuff but don’t necessarily feel a calling to make something your life’s work? If nothing is shouting at you … ‘it’s me! Pick me! You were born to do this single amazing wonderful thing that is me!’
Are you going to live a “less than” life because you don’t have this clear, defined thing you want to do or be?
The truth is, many people simply don’t know what their passion is.
You’re not weird. It’s perfectly ok not to know - most people don’t.
Obsessing about finding your one true calling or passion in life can keep you stuck and dissatisfied. Desperation to find it can take the joy out of things that you might otherwise enjoy. It can leave you feeling depressed and empty, focussing on what you lack instead of what you have.
Instead of waiting until you’ve found your passion or comparing yourself to others who seem to be laser focussed on what they want from their life, forcing it, or stressing over whether you’ll ever find your version of it ….. Give yourself a break.
Let it go. Say goodbye to finding your passion and choose to follow your curiosity instead. Have fun. Be interested. Explore. Don’t put so much weight on this being “IT”. Be curious and explore the things you’re interested in with no expectation or attachment to the outcome.
When I first started training in the field of NLP and personal development I never expected it would become my career, I was just interested in it, I actually expected to keep the things I’d learned all to myself just for my personal growth.
Years later, having followed that curiosity with no expectation, I know that even if I won the lottery tomorrow and never had to work a day in my life, I would still coach people. However, had I approached it from the start with the outcome of ‘this is going to be my life’s work forever more’ I’d have probably run away. I wasn’t passionate at the start because I didn’t know enough about it - but I was curious, and the more I learned, the more I loved it and the more it became a passion.
With a curious, playful and open mind and with no expectation or attachment, you too might just stumble on your passion, or, you may find that there’s so much in life that interests you that having just one passion in life is pretty boring anyway and that’s ok too. Learn more about the value of curiosity in my book How to be a People Person.
#becurious