How to find your dream part 2: Finding your passions

The title of this article may be misleading. It’s somehow crazy that we even need to talk about finding our passions. The right title may be Rediscovering your passions. We were all born as curious human beings who were fascinated by the things surrounding us. As a kid, we simply explored new things and stopped if we didn’t like them. The older we get, the more our teachers and parents tell us to grow up and do something serious, the more we lose our sense of exploring and doing things. Anyways, let’s get into it.

Passion is defined as a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. It has nothing to do with job titles or ways to earn your living. Get your head together and start thinking freely about things you really enjoy doing. And don’t you even think about limitations.

In the following, you will create a list of things you are passionate about. So get out your notebook, sharpen your pencil and write down the things that you love. Here’s some questions that might help you:

• What fascinates me?
• If I am in a bookstore; what section am I drawn to?
• What do I end up talking about when I meet my friends?
• If I would need to spend a free weekend working, what would I work on?
• What is the work I would gladly do for free?
• When was the last time I massively overdelivered on something? What was it I was working on?
• If I wouldn’t need to care about money, what would I do?
• What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?
• What activities did I enjoy doing when I was a child and which ones do I still resonate with?

So you found some things that make your knees wiggle, and the hair on your back dance tango. The next step is to take your list of strengths and put it right next to it (If you haven’t defined it yet, here’s how). Find matches.

If you’re good at cooking and you’d spend a whole weekend just to surprise your friends with a five-course-meal at Sunday’s dinner party, that sounds like a match. If you’re good at woodwork and find yourself in the workshop every evening, that’s also a good starting point.

Now that you’ve found some matches, it’s time to put your dreams into action. Before you even think about excuses for not doing the things you love, here’s some advice:

• Start. Immediately. And make it a habit. Integrate the things you love into your daily life and become better, one step at a time.
• Stop doing things you hate. There’s no point in doing things you’re not passionate about.
• If you think you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV and checking fucking Facebook.
• If you think your passions interfere with the expectations of people around you, surround yourself with like-minded people who support you.
• Find at least one thing you’re passionate about and try to do it for a living. Now, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, but it’s well worth the effort. If you dread going to your job, or find yourself constantly lacking motivation, or find what you’re doing dull and repetitive, you need to start looking for a new job. Staying in your current job will not only continue to make you unhappy, but you are not realizing your full potential in life.

Before we go on with techniques that help you realize your dreams, we’ll have a look at how to define your values. Values will lead you along the way and will help you taking the right decisions. One last thing left to say:

DO IT.