How to Find Your Passion

Last week we talked about the Importance of Play – for adults as well as for kids.  As a part of this continuing series, we want to cover the importance of knowing and following your passion. 

In this article, you’ll find online resources on how to find your passion.  It is our hope that you will use these online resources to delve further and make time for your passion as well as help your children find theirs.

A Hobby Versus a Passion

Before we start on how to find your passion, I want to make it clear the difference between a passion and a hobby.  A hobby is something you like to do that engages you and relaxes you at the same time.  Pursuing a hobby as a part of your career will not be sustainable, you will peter out.  A hobby does not drive you.

Hobbies help to balance passions and work.  Both are important in expressing who you are.

A passion, on the other hand, can very well set you up for success in a career, if that is your choice.  Passions move you, they are something you love and you’ll feel an overwhelming sense of obsession towards it.  A passion does not relax you, it drives you.  

If you run up across obstacles in pursuing your passion, you’ll be relentless in your pursuit to solve them.  Time will pass by and you find yourself lost in its pursuit.

For example, I love to read.  Now that my kids are older, I read a lot more than I could before.  I find it relaxing.  Although I may highlight certain sentences in my Kindle, I rarely go back to them.  If reading was my passion, I’d probably be documenting and keeping a repository of all of my highlights.  I would probably flourish as a researcher as well.

Perhaps you have lots of hobbies but you’re not sure if one of them is a passion.  Find out more about the differences between hobbies and passions. 

Can a hobby become a passion?  Yes, when a hobby becomes more of an obsession rather than a relaxed occasional event and you are willing to suffer for it (time away from friends/family/other projects, you pay for tools needed to pursue it, etc.) it has transformed into a passion.  

How to Find Your Passion

All of us grew up with interests.  As we age, we tend to gravitate towards those interests.  Before I started the Well Connected Mom, I wondered about how to find your passion too.  I decided to look back on my childhood to see if I could identify patterns that would help me understand what my passions are.

I remembered borrowing the Popular Science magazine from the school library, always eager for the next month’s issue.  It was always available, as I was one of the few who clamored for it.  I was fascinated by how our future was going to change.  Popular Science gave me a possible glimpse into what could be.

In 2009, I saw many moms with an iPhone, but only using it mostly for phone calls and texting.  They didn’t seem to know all that could be done with apps back then.  Why?  Who had the time to research them and know which ones were worthwhile?

I started WellConnectedMom to share my enthusiasm for technology with busy families, so they could know right away if an app or gadget would suit their needs.  I’m still writing 9 years later!

Is this blog a hobby?  No.  Publishing twice a week is relentless.  Constantly testing out new gadgets and how they interact with each other takes time.  Putting my thoughts together as to what aspects of a product is most relevant to the needs of families takes research.  But I love it.

Many people today don’t know what their passion is.  The funny thing is, it’s right under their nose.  So how to find your passion?  You’ll need to explore a bit.

Explore…

Eight ways to find the true passion in life that has eluded you.

Take this 30 question quiz to help you determine your passion.

Find out more about yourself with this Myers-Briggs/Jung Typology test.

Making your passion your work.

Think about it.  If you didn’t need to work to support your family,

What would you spend your time doing?

What topic could you read 50 books on and never get tired of reading about it?

If your boss asked you to create your ideal job at work (or at another company), what would it be?

How Do You Know It’s a Passion?

• You will actively pursue it and  read about it
• You’ll find yourself enthusiastically talking to people about it more and more
• You make time to work on your passion
• You can’t wait for the next time to work on your passion
• You’ll tend to spend your extra money on tools to support it
• You’ll lose yourself in the activity, incognizant of time
• Your enthusiasm spills over into other areas of your life, possibly improving your outlook on things
• Making mistakes is a part of the process of learning, you’ll do anything to learn and improve
• You feel like you just cannot do it

Still not sure about your passion(s)?  Take time each day or several times a week to play, adults need to play nearly as much as kids to reset our minds and free them of stresses from work and life.  Clearing your mind will help make you more present to what excites you in life.

As many passions stem from our childhood years, pay attention to the things your kids are interested in.  What stays with them and what is a passing fancy? 

You have the opportunity of observing these interests with your kids to help guide them and develop their passions.  Just maybe, you’ll be able to help them develop their passions into a life-long career and journey.