Why Finding Your Passion is Like Digging for Fool's Gold

You don’t have to strike career gold to find fulfillment

You’re on a mission to find a new career and excited by the prospect of re-energizing your life with fresh challenges. There are many directions you can take, which is why you’ve sought lots of advice. One piece of advice keeps coming up.

Follow your passion.

The thought of finding your passion and dedicating years — maybe even the rest of your life — to it, is thrilling.

You embark on a journey to find the pursuit that will galvanize you.

That’s when things go awry.

Passions are ill-defined

There is no shortage of advice on where your personal passions might lie. Childhood memories of happy times, unmet ambitions, subjects you love to talk about and irreplaceable activities are among the places you’re told to explore.

And there is plenty of guidance on what a passion actually looks and feels like.

Psychologists tell us that there are two basic types: obsessive and harmonious.

Obsessive passions are uncontrollable and will likely to lead you into trouble. It’s best to avoid these emotional powder kegs.

Harmonious passions are in tune with your personality and beliefs, and amenable to being harnessed. These are the ones that can empower you.

As you explore these various avenues, it becomes apparent that what constitutes a passion is not as clear-cut as first appeared. For instance, traveling back to your childhood to locate passions seemed like a great idea. However, you find that the things you loved to do all those years ago are not as emotionally charged many years later. Maybe it’s because you’ve changed, or that these memories are more like a Hollywood movie than real life.

Also, passions are not always easy to pin down; they’re often entangled in thickets of wishful thinking, dreams, and patchworks of experience, emotion, and memories. In some cases, as soon as you get near to what seems like a passion it turns out to be something else — like a passing interest.

Still, you manage to snare a few candidates. Now what?

The ideal job might not exist

The next step is to pick the passion(s) that can be turned into enticing career paths.

But there are no obvious winners.

Some are simply not translatable into promising employment opportunities. Take, for example, a sport you followed religiously as a kid. Playing it professionally is out of the question unless you discover the Fountain of Youth. You’re not looking for a volunteer gig, and other jobs in the sport require track records or qualifications you’re not prepared or able to acquire.

A few passions offer career possibilities that involve serious downsides such as low pay or unappealing hours.

There are pursuits that are of interest but don’t impassion you. They are more like interests that you prefer to follow at your leisure.

Or, maybe you’re doubtful that a passion has the legs to carry your life to new heights. Will it continue to burn bright within the confines of a corporate environment? Will it become just another jaded job?

Multiple interests are fine

You’re stumped because it seems that no single passion exists to fuel your ambitions and give you the emotional shot in the arm you’re looking for.

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

The fact is that not everyone has the life-driving convictions of a Mother Theresa or the exceptional gifts of an Albert Einstein.

Some people like to graze on different interests rather than feasting on all-consuming passions.

Elon Musk is best known for building Tesla electric-powered cars. He’s also created ventures that are building rocket ships to Mars, boring vast tunnels, and developing the hyperlink designed to whisk people from Washington DC to New York in 30 minutes.

Having multiple interests rather than a burning passion is not a disorder — it’s the variety that can be the spice of life.

Others have a passion that encompasses multiple pursuits. A fervent need “to give back” can be fulfilled in countless ways, for example.

Another possibility is that a passion for something has dimmed, but it has variants that light a fire in your belly.

When Robert Redford announced his retirement from acting in the summer of 2018, he said that after 60 years of life as a professional actor it was time to quit. Aspects of the job such as doing endless takes had taken the shine off his passion. But he still loves directing and plans to continue in this role.

There are many variations on the “follow your passion” theme, so don’t get hung up on the need to find one that unlocks the door to workplace happiness.

The unhealthy pursuit of passion

In fact, stalking your passion can actually be counterproductive.

A Stanford University study found that the “find your passion” quest might undermine how interests develop and actually narrow the field of potential interests for an individual. The mantra implies that once you’ve snagged a passion, it will be easy to pursue and hold onto. But the Stanford researchers found that when people encounter challenges — which they usually do — such a mindset increases the chances of them eventually abandoning the passion. Also, the idea that a personal passion exists fully-formed just waiting to be landed suggests that the number of pursuits a person has is limited. There’s a danger that a single-minded hunt for a passion blinkers you to other opportunities.

Moreover, passion is not necessarily a prerequisite to finding a gratifying occupation.

Most people would like to out of bed in the morning and look forward to going to work. But you don’t have to glow with a missionary’s zeal to enjoy a job. According to career gurus, attributes such as having a sense of independence and a belief that you’re making a difference are key components of job satisfaction.

So, if passion isn’t the magic ingredient in the recipe for an exciting career shift, what is?

Who needs it anyway?

Clearly, you need a healthy interest in a career to make it fulfilling. And that can be enough, especially if you’re someone who likes to sample life’s many riches. Or, if you don’t need to be impassioned about the way you earn a living.

And passion might grow anyway, without you even noticing.

A study by the University of Michigan maintains that a person does not have to fall in love with a job to develop a passion for it; that can develop later.

Contrary to popular belief, the researchers found that cultivating passion for a job over time is just as effective as trying to find the perfect job at the outset — a mission that is probably doomed to failure anyway.

The Michigan research casts doubt on employers’ passion for passion; the corporate fixation on hiring employees who are consumed by the idea of working for the enterprise.

Individuals can be hamstrung by similar beliefs.

Accepting a job that is in the direction you are looking for rather than one that induces you to shed tears of joy is not settling for second-best.

In his best-selling book Barking up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker explains that people generally take one of two approaches when trying to choose which pursuits will lead to a successful life: “maximizing” or “satisficing.”

“Maximizing is exploring all the options, weighing them, and trying to get the best. Satisficing is thinking about what you need and picking the first thing that fulfills those needs,” he writes.

In our multiple-choice world maximizing is very difficult. “You might think that evaluating more possibilities would lead to objectively better results — and you’d be right. But it also leads to less subjective happiness with what you end up with,” says Barker.

Maximizers “always feel that they can do better.” Whereas satisficers settle for an option that works for them. They settle for “good enough” and usually come out happier at the end.

If you possess a passion and have identified a job that is aligned with it — all power to you.

But if you find passions to be elusive, tying yourself in knots over finding one — and a line of work that will deliver it — is counter-productive. Especially when the quest leads you down a rabbit hole of aspirations.

Unburdened by this restriction, you are in a wonderful position to explore life’s options. And since you have years of work experience under your belt, chances are you have a good idea of what interests float your boat.

Discover your sweet spot

Imagine finding a career that provides pleasurable work, and enables you to experience the delight of discovering new things about a pursuit that piques your interest while becoming better at it.

Chances are there are aspects of the job that are less satisfying — maybe even tedious — but there are many more in the positive column.

And you don’t feel an ounce of guilt or disappointment over taking a job that seemed like a passion but doesn’t ignite the daily fireworks you envisioned — because you didn’t set out with unrealistic expectations.

Your new occupation is a happy place that enhances your life and expands your sphere of interests. It also meets goals that are important to you, such as providing financial support and a flexible schedule.

Who knows, one day you might even experience the warm glow of passion for your newfound career.