Follow Your Passion (With Benefits and 8 Steps to Find It)

Careers Event exists to help people learn how to find their professional passion and dream job.

8 Ways To Find Your Passion

A passion is something that motivates you and helps you make plans for the future. Developing your passions can help guide you both personally and professionally. Pursuing your passions can help you seek certain opportunities that give you a direction for the future. In this article, we share why having a passion matters and explore ways you can discover your passions both inside the workplace and out.

When you discover something you’re passionate about, you gain a purpose. Passions drive you to excel and motivate you to learn. If you’re excited to pursue certain activities and interests, you grow your abilities with a specific focus.

Pursuing your passion makes you self-motivated, a key trait that can serve you both personally and professionally. It can draw you to others who share the same interests and open up new networking possibilities and friendships in the workplace or in your personal life.

Benefits of following your passion

When you apply your passion to your career, both you and your employer can benefit from your natural enthusiasm for the subject at hand. Using your passions in the workforce can help you in the following ways:

Affects your job search

Many people choose a career based on their interests. Working every day in a field you’re passionate about is the goal of many job seekers. Understanding your passions can help guide you as you pursue a career, grow in your current position, or decide to make a career change.

When you’re looking for a job, if you’re not passionate about your opportunities, reconsider the jobs that you’re considering. This lack of passion may be a good sign that you may want to redefine your job scope and explore different opportunities. When you find a job listing that excites you, this is a good indication that the work aligns with your passion.

Adds focus to your resume or cover letter

You can acknowledge your passions on a resume by adding them as part of your summary statement or even under skills if they apply to your career. In a cover letter, you can describe how your passions contribute to the workplace. If you’re applying for a position at a company where you feel passionate about the work you’re doing or the company’s mission statement, try including a statement like the following one in your cover letter:

I’m passionate about meeting with farmers and discussing the benefits of using natural pesticides. I have thoroughly researched the negative effects that chemicals from most pesticides can have on the environment, and I hope I can work for a company that shares my values.

Guides your career goals

Knowing your passions can help guide your career goals. When you commit to pursuing a passion in the workplace, you can set goals for growth to work toward your chosen interests. For example, if you’re passionate about graphic design, you can work to add design certifications to your resume or learn to use particular design software. Creating a list of career goals and then considering the steps you can take to achieve these goals is an excellent strategy for planning for your future.

Helps you relate to coworkers

Sharing your passion is one way to connect with and relate to others. It can also help you identify those individuals who share your passions. Use career passions to form professional connections with those who share a love and knowledge of your interests for networking opportunities and personal value. When you build relationships with others with whom you share a passion or interest, you can also learn from them. Examining the career of someone with similar passions and learning how they achieved success can be an excellent model for you when planning your career.

How to find your passion

1. Develop what you already know and like

Instead of thinking about your passion as something you may discover by trying out a range of life experiences, consider it something you can nurture through your life choices. Set goals with objectives that can help you accomplish a long-cherished desire. For example, if you’re interested in writing, set a goal like writing for 30 minutes each evening. By doing this, you dedicate some time each day towards developing your interests into what may become passions. Give yourself the ability to choose your passion based on what interests and motivates you.

2. Explore new ideas

When you rely on what you’ve always told yourself you’re into or good at, you may overlook trying a new activity. Instead of labelling yourself as one particular type of person, consider what you can learn by investing in a new idea. For example, you may find inspiration by exploring a topic you hear on TV or read in a blog.

Consider keeping an idea journal or corkboard where you can save and post things that interest you. You may notice the same kinds of ideas keep repeating as you collect your thoughts. Any reoccurring themes may be worth seeking more information about to uncover whether it’s an idea or activity that incites passion.

3. Put passion into everything you do

If you consider everything you do worthy of your energy, you can inject passion into all of your daily activities. Enthusiasm for your daily tasks can turn into a genuine love of what may have been a mundane activity. For example, if you put more effort into preparing meals, you may find that you’re passionate about cooking and can pursue it further. Hopefully, your passions can become what you do most in life. When this occurs, what you’re passionate about becomes an action instead of something that you pursue.

4. Research new topics

With the vast amount of information available, it’s challenging to decide which sources to pay attention to and research further. When you make it a regular habit to take in ideas and information from subjects of interest, you can more easily discover which topics truly inspire passion. Consume ideas from sources that are rich in content about the topics that interest you. You may decide to read books and articles both digitally and in print, listen to podcasts, and watch instructive videos. Study content that comes from thought leaders to grow your knowledge base from reputable sources.

5. Slow down and concentrate on the present

Sometimes, being mindful of your daily thoughts and activities can help you determine what you genuinely enjoy doing. When you discover something that makes you feel passionate, take time to experience that activity or idea. Dedicate time to developing interests that are unrelated to your other responsibilities and make this time a priority.

6. Make it your goal to have fun

To discover what you’re passionate about, consider what excites you. Passions can come from activities that bring you joy. Sometimes you can find your passion by doing an activity that you consider fun. For example, you may decide to grow a vegetable garden, realize you enjoy this activity, and choose to learn more about gardening and growing vegetables. You may recognize that you enjoy gardening so much that you decide to pursue a career in horticulture.

7. Take classes to explore your passions

Consider taking in-person or online classes where you can learn more about topics that you find interesting. You may research courses that a local university, college, or library offers. If those facilities don’t provide a class related to your interests, you can likely find a wider variety of courses online.

You can also consider researching clubs and organizations which may host seminars on topics related to the group. As you gather knowledge and skills related to your interests, you may realize which topics inspire you. Occasionally, companies even pay for their employees to earn certifications or attend conferences in an area that interests them.

8. Create a list of goals you want to achieve

One way to discover your passion is to consider how your future may look. Write a list containing accomplishments you hope to achieve in the next five years. Identify which achievements on your list excite you the most and then work backward to discover how you can achieve these accomplishments. Create a plan to transform these ideas into actionable objectives that help you work toward your goals.

Resource:

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-find-your-passion
https://emplois.ca.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/follow-your-passion
https://www.careersevent.com/how-to-find-your-professional-passion/

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