Do you sometimes feel like your life is an endless charade of going through the motions? You wake up, feed the kids and get them off to school, go about your work duties, come home, cook dinner, do homework, and go to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat.
What can you do to get your joy back? What if you’re struggling to find your passion? Life’s journey may occur on the outside, but it begins within. Who are you at the deepest core of your being? Who do you want to become?
Discovering your life’s path means learning who you are inside. You’ll discover how to find your passion along the way. Here’s why owning your individuality will put you on the fast track to finding your true path in life.
The Importance of Owning Your Individuality
Why is it so vital to know who you are? An insecure sense of self can put you at risk for various mental health disorders, especially if you feel powerless and hopeless.
Developing a strong sense of agency matters – it’s your core belief that your actions can affect positive change in your life and world. Feeling like a victim of circumstance can plunge you to the depths of despair as you throw up your hands, thinking that nothing you do makes a difference.
Without a strong inner sense of who you are and what you stand for, you risk making poor decisions in an attempt to mask pain or fit in with the crowd. For example, many people with social anxiety begin drinking or using drugs to ease situations like the company holiday party. The problem is, they start using more and more until they become too dangerously physically addicted to give up their substance without professional detox.
Once you fall, it’s hard to get back up, especially if your addiction robs you of resources. The U.S. healthcare system is reactionary – those without the means may receive emergency detox services and nothing else. Without the mental health support necessary, many who fall into addiction continue the cycle of despair.
However, that doesn’t have to be your fate if you own your unique individuality. You won’t need substances to smooth social interactions if you feel confident in your skin. If you’re saying, “But I’m still struggling to find my passion,” here’s what to do.
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How to Find Your Passion and Make Money
One method for how to find your passion – and make money – is to take a ride in the “way-back” machine. Get into a quiet, contemplative state and reflect on your career dreams in early childhood. No, not as a teenager, when parents and teachers started piling expectations on you like so many stones on poor old Giles Corey’s chest. We’re talking when you were really little – like 3 or 4 – before the world got its hooks in you.
What did you dream of doing each day? Picture yourself living that life, letting yourself experience the emotions. Then, sit down and evaluate. Is your vision viable? If it’s not – perhaps you dreamed of becoming a unicorn veterinarian – how can you make it realistic for adult life?
For example, maybe you loathe your present cubicle-dwelling job with a passion. Could you pick up part-time work with a veterinary clinic or roaming farm vet? Could you do a part-time split by working in the office for 20 hours a week and then devoting the rest of your time to the animals? If you rely on your full-time job for health insurance and rent money, could you start going to school to earn a veterinary assistant license and find a 40-hour gig in your desired field?
There’s nearly always a way – but prepare yourself. You may have to work hard and achieving your dream might take years. However, you have to do something with all that time. Staying on your present path will only lead to more years of feeling stuck in a rut. Is that what you want?
I’m Struggling to Find My Passion; What Can I Do?
What if returning to childhood doesn’t help you discover how to find your passion and make money? Here are eight other tips to help if you still say, “I’m struggling to find my passion.”
1. Take a Time-Out
If you’re struggling to find your passion, maybe you’re pushing too hard. Discovering what makes you tick should feel fun, not like a chore.
Instead, try to let your brain be instead of pushing for the ideal solution for how to find your passion and make money. If it lowers your anxiety levels, give yourself a time limit. Tell yourself you won’t think about where you want your life to go for one week. During this time, feel free to journal ideas but don’t commit to any course.
2. Try New Things
Some things sound more fun in a fantasy. For example, becoming a lawyer might excite Type-A individuals but prove too adversarial for someone who thrives on cooperation, not competition.
See if you can spend a day in the life of your chosen profession. It’s shameful that most internships require you to undergo years of training before putting you in the field, because you could invest oodles of time and money only to discover you don’t enjoy the daily grind.
If nothing else, talk to people in your field of interest and ask them about their day-to-day duties. Is that something you could tolerate?
3. Travel
Travel can open your eyes to new ways of looking at the world. If you have the means, get that passport stamp.
What if the mere thought of travel makes you chuckle, given your budget? Can you swing a road trip? You’re fortunate that the United States is vast, with multiple cultures overlapping. You’ll find the industrial northeast quite different from the more laid-back southwest.
4. Keep Track of Time and Money
Here’s a no-nonsense tip for how to find your passion: keep track of where you spend your time and money. Even minor details count. For example, if you find yourself with an extra $5, do you think latte or snack? If all your spare cash goes to food, you could be struggling with hunger – or having a burning desire to work as a chef.
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5. Emphasize Your Strengths
What are your natural talents? You’ll often find yourself happier in your daily life if you select something within your wheelhouse. Burnout is a risk in nearly any profession, even if you adore what you do. Having to struggle harder to overcome an innate dislike of numbers can make you miserable in an accounting position within days.
6. Talk With Other People
You learn best from talking to others. Identify someone with a job you admire or envy. What did they have to do to achieve that position? Are you willing to walk through the same fire to reach your goals?
7. Ask Yourself Hypothetical Questions
Keep questioning yourself throughout life. It’s natural for your desires to change with time and circumstances. For example, you might have once not minded whether you could telecommute or even preferred the office. However, a chronic illness can make working from home a necessity.
Questions like, “Is this the only way to reach my career goals?” help you make choices like whether to enroll in school. Tuition is expensive – perhaps you can find a creative way to use your experience to get you in the door.
8. Keep Your Expectations Realistic
Finally, changing your life doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and dedicated effort. Keep your goal in your sights by meditating on it daily – just before bed or upon arising is a good time. Reassess your goals occasionally and ensure they still spark joy. If not, it’s time to begin the discovery process anew.
How to Find Your Passion
If you don’t know how to find your passion and make money, you could spend years in an unhappy job. Your discouragement could color everything else in your life in shades of gray.
Instead, follow the tips above the next time you say, “I’m struggling to find my passion.” You can learn how to find your passion and make money doing it with a little introspection.