Follow your passion?

There’s so much debate about whether you should follow your passion in your career or not. Should you?

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Some people say that it’s the most important thing for a fulfilling life — discovering your purpose and living up to your highest potential.

However, others say that you shouldn’t do this at all — you can still work on your passion without it being your job. You’re wasting your time and others’ as well if you do this since you can instead benefit the world more by working on something that’s what you’re good at rather than thinking you can only do that thing that you love.

I think that you should be spending more of your time doing the things that you are passionate about, as random as they may seem.

I recently met a older man (could have been in his 60s or 70s) who told me that his first job ever, working with and riding horses, was his passion and he’s spent his entire life working on and perfecting those skills. He’s traveled the world, met countless amazing people — all while being extremely fulfilled by what he’s doing.

My whole life I’ve been fascinated by so many different and seemingly contradictory passions. It’s only until recently that I realized that I was more intellectually intrigued and thrilled about tackling a new challenge.

However, I didn’t feel the strong pull of passion that I now feel towards my chosen career path (read more here). And when I look back and join the dots of my seemingly scattered series of choices and passions, it makes complete sense! It’s that “DUH!!” moment, but it’s so understandable at the same time because you never really know what’s going on except in hindsight.

My advice is just to keep trying different things and charting your path forward (well, sometimes it goes back before it goes forward). I think that’s part of figuring out your life’s purpose and just living a meaningful life. Some people figure this out early, some later, maybe some never do. You need to be asking yourself what kind of impact you want to leave on this earth and people’s hearts. You need to figure out your WHY (Read Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” or watch his TED talk).Once you’ve figured that out, you’ll realize that HOW you do it can happen in so many varied combinations. And you’ll find a way to live your purpose no matter what your circumstances and challenges.

Here’s to challenging ourselves, every day, to cultivate a passionate, meaningful life.