Passion comes in many different forms and making a living from it may mean starting up your own business, a change in profession or simply tweaking elements of your current career. Whatever the final outcome, here are the first steps you need to take in order to start aligning your passion and your career.
Explore your passions
Look at all the things that get you excited and brainstorm all the ways you could incorporate these into a career or business idea. Look at whether there other people doing similar things who you might be able to connect with or start researching other jobs in these areas. Spending time exploring different ideas will help you uncover which ones really light you up and which ones are just passing interests.
Know what you’re really passionate about
Like relationships, passion can come and go pretty quickly so you want to be sure that you know what it is you’re really passionate about. Instead of focusing on the area of passion, such as the hobby or interest, think about how you feel when you’re involved in this activity. By understanding the feeling your passion gives you, you can then look to align your career to recreate this feeling. You may find that you are already closer to this feeling than you think.
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Understand how your passion fits with success
Everyone has their own definition of success and so it’s important to understand what it is you’re after. Ask yourself how would you define a successful career and lifestyle? What would it look like? What would you be doing and how would your passion fit into? Whilst building a career based on particular passion may sound ideal for some people, for others aligning passion and career is more about have a career that gives them the space and flexibility to follow their passion outside of work. Your passions and career can complement each other without necessarily overlapping and you can still be passionate about your career without it being directly linked to your hobbies or interests.
Understand your motivation
Whilst what you are going to do for work is important, the reasons behind why you want to do it are even more so. Think about what it is you’re looking to achieve or the impact you want to have. Understanding the real reason why you want to get out of bed each morning to follow this passion and build a career around it is critical for long-term satisfaction, particularly if it’s going to involve a period of significant change.