Don’t let the need for passion keep you from getting started.
“I need to find my passion.”
“I’m just not passionate about…” enter any number of things here.
“I don’t want to waste time working on something I’m not passionate about.”
I see it everyday, people living timid lives waiting for their passion to drop out of the sky. Here’s a secret to being an achiever — take action on things, because it’s through activity that passion develops.
Don’t believe me?
Think about the musician with an incredible passion for music. Chances are when they first attempted to play their instrument they weren’t that great at it. As they kept at it, over time they improved, and as you might expect began to enjoy what they were working on more and more.
You can see similar situations play out again, and again, and again.
Allow action to be the catalyst for finding your passion
Don’t wait to get started. Try things, even if you’re not very good at them to begin with. Find joy in the trying of new things. Make intentionality of action your ally as you move through your day. Realize that as long as you know the right way to do a thing, and do it on a regular basis you will improve to some degree in it. That thought should get you excited. Because when you act on it you begin to realize you can use intentionality to do some great things in life.
Let your action propel you towards activities you’re passionate about
I see a lot of people so focused on finding their passion that they end up stuck, and never getting started. It’s pretty sad.
Instead of waiting for your passion to appear first — try things, and stick with them to see if you enjoy them.
The reality is that most people who do work they are passionate about didn’t start that way. When you’re not good at something it’s hard to get joy from it. Yet, as you do a thing, get better and more familair with it, then it becomes easier to do. You get a passion for doing, and or pursuing the thing.
For example, I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts in that area of the work I do. If I’m honest, when I first started I wasn’t particularly passionate about writing. In fact I was terrible at it. To this day my writing style is pretty much how I talk. It works for me, and others seem to enjoy what I share, but the point is, I did it before I was passionate about it, and it turns out I ended up loving it.
Friend, here’s the bottom line, ovetime I’ve improved as writer. I have had a book published, and writing is now a pretty big part of my life. If I’d waited to get started until I was “passionate about writing” — I’m not sure I ever would have found out I was.
It’s Your Life, LIVE BIG
Josh Hinds
* Author & founder of GetMotivation — let’s connect on Linkedin