No? Cool. Really.
It has become ingrained in our culture that you need to “Follow Your Bliss” and “Do What You Love” and all sorts of other platitudes. And yeah - I 100% believe you should do the things that bring you joy and that light your fire and… yeah, that you’re passionate about.
But I do NOT agree that you need to make your passion your source of income.
I DO believe you should be passionate about your work, but your work absolutely doesn’t need to BE your passion!
If your job brings you fulfillment and lines up with your deep, down values - being passionate about it will be easy but putting pressure on “your passion” to be profitable could easily suck the joy right from it.
You can be an artist that has a fulfilling career in the fin-tech sector and still get your creative ya-ya’s out on the weekends. No excuses needed.
You can find things to be passionate about in the job you work at, or incorporate some aspects of your passion into your daily work which will help you feel satisfied- but there is something to be said for pursuing hobbies & passions with no pressure to make money from them.
This is such a common theme that comes up with my clients. For example, I worked with a client whose sole passion on this earth was creating art. And seriously folx, she is Talented.
Whelp, like everyone does, she needed to pay bills and wanted to get paid for her passion so she took her graphic design know-how and got a job in corporate land.
She was super happy AND paying the bills AND making creative stuff… until she wasn’t.
See, she was so good at her job that soon she was a team lead, then a director and then like the boss boss. One day she realized it had been months since she actually had a chance to make a single thing.
Her days were filled with client meetings and reviews and management training. She was miserable and so energy drained that she had zero interest in creating anything when she finally had a few hours to herself.
And…. I’ve got a file folder full of these stories.
Look I’m not saying that if your passion happens to be profitable and you’re happy that it’s bad (in fact - yay you!) but that it’s unfair to expect that everyone can and should make their passion their profession.
You don’t hafta! It’s ok!
And what about all of you out there that have absolutely NO IDEA what your ‘passion’ with a capital ‘P’ even is?
Are you somehow ‘less than’ all the people who have a singular burning desire?
Nopety, nope, nope.
This added pressure, of having to not only KNOW what your passion is, but then make money from it, and only it, is friggin’ nonsense.
That pressure? That’s a passion killer if I ever knew of one (I could go into a bedroom/sexual performance metaphor here but I think ya feel me)…
Look, you gotta pay the mortgage so take your time, Find Your Thing, enjoy your work and be fulfilled by work that supports your values.
You got this.
If you need help discovering what your Thing is and finally figuring out what work you want to do, check out Career Change With Confidence for step-by-step help.
Yours in “you do you” career goodness,
EBS
