By Marquita Herald, Emotionally Resilient Living

Did you know that, depending upon the exact term you use, there are currently between sixteen and forty million conversations online about how to discover your passion.

The headlines are all too familiar, “Find Your Passion in 5 Minutes Or Less”, “Why You Need to Find Your Passion”, “Find Your Passion and Do What You Love”, and of course the ever popular, “Find Your Passion and Never Work Another Day in Your Life!”

For those of you who have firmly locked onto your passion in life, pat yourselves on the back because, for every one of you, there are scores of others who will tell you that they still don’t know what they want to be when they grow up.

We may act as though we’re saying this in jest, but more often than we like to admit find ourselves feeling somehow “less” for being 30, 40, 50+ and still having no clue what our passion is.

Maybe you’ve even entertained the notion that there is something wrong with you because you should have had it all figured out long ago?

“I’ve tried so hard to figure out my passion but I don’t feel ‘passionate’ about anything and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. What if I don’t have any passions and my life now is the best I can ever hope for?”

This is an actual comment I found in response to one of the aforementioned millions of articles on how to find one’s passion, but it’s hardly unusual.

The Never Ending Search for Passion

The basic idea of finding your passion goes something like this – find your greatest passion, match it to a career path, pursue that career with all your heart and chances are you will achieve success.

That makes sense as far as it goes, but there are a few stumbling blocks and one of them is that we underestimate how our interests change over time so pursuing a career based on what you were passionate about when you were 20 could well leave you miserable and wondering what the heck you were thinking at the age of 30.

Then there is the problem with our preconceived notions of what the process should look and feel like based on all of the inspiring stories we’ve read about what a glorious life people lead who have followed their passions.

Now you’re not only looking at a serious case of tunnel vision, chances are you’re holding out for a passion that comes fully equipped with an exit strategy from that 9-5 job you’ve been clinging to just until you, well you know, find your passion.

Passion is where your energy and effort meets someone else’s need. Click To Tweet

Should You Stop Searching For Your Passion?

Terri Trespicio is a branding strategist who helps visionaries, experts, entrepreneurs, and businesses communicate with power and precision across media platforms. She consults with a wide range of experts, everyone from surgeons and social media celebs to startups and brand managers.

She’d also like to tell you why you should stop searching for your passion.  Listen as she tells her story and challenges you to rethink the popular notion that following your passion is the answer to a life well lived.

Who Do You Want to Be?

We’re often so driven by the pressure and expectations of what we believe we should be achieving that we don’t stop and look at the reason behind all the doing.

Stop struggling to uncover a ready-made passion and begin working passionately toward the hard but worthy goal of doing something of value.

Instead of worrying about what to do, try asking yourself who you want to be.

When you know who you want to be, you’ll become clearer about what you truly want to do, and passion will naturally flow from having done that well with little regard for ego or expectations.

This is the way to create a fulfilling life that adds value to the world.

If you’re ready for more … Another TEDX worth watching is To Find Work You Love, Don’t Follow Your Passion by Benjamin Todd. Please don’t be put off by how young Benjamin appears, this is a brilliant talk with some very specific steps to follow to find work that you love.

What’s your story? Do you have a job that you are passionate about, but wasn’t something you initially thought would interest you? How did you get involved? What made you grow to love it?

Let today be the day you give up who you’ve been for who you can become.

About Marquita Herald

Marquita is an author, resilience coach and the chief evangelist at Emotionally Resilient Living. She’s also an unapologetic workaholic who loves red wine, rock n’ roll, road trips (and car dancing!), peanut butter cookies and (especially) a dog named Lucy.

She’s saddened and frustrated by excuses and cruelty and believes authentic compassion is the most powerful force in the world.

To learn more about Marquita and the mission of Emotionally Resilient Living  click “here“.

http://www.emotionallyresilientliving.com/still-struggling-find-passion