{"id":493,"date":"2019-07-14T23:51:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T03:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=493"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:37:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:37:51","slug":"how-to-find-your-career-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-find-your-career-passion\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Find Your Career Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How do you find your career passion<\/a>? How do you find work that you enjoy, and that you’re also good at? We have a complete guide here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You won\u2019t feel fulfilled if your life lacks passion. This is often the root cause of the empty feeling many people experience. But there are things that get in the way of discovering and pursuing your passions<\/a> \u2014 starting with your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0Shortform’s guide to career development<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work vs. Passions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How do you characterize your work? Typically people call it a job, career, or mission. A job is a daily grind, while a mission is something you feel passionate about. A career can be either or both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work that\u2019s a daily grind impedes your happiness and ability to live a meaningful life<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re like most people, you have a job you aren\u2019t passionate about. <\/strong>We\u2019re taught from an early age that that\u2019s the nature of work; it\u2019s about simply making a living, which we have a responsibility to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re taught to work hard in high school and college, doing stuff we don\u2019t care about, so we\u2019ll find a \u201cgood job\u201d with reliable pay and benefits, so we can go into debt purchasing a house, car, consumer goods, etc. This process is touted as the American dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re to keep our nose to the grindstone, so one day we can retire and enjoy our lives for a few years before dying (the average lifespan of a retiree is often only three years after retirement). For 40 years or so, we trade our most precious commodity (our time) for a paycheck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s true that we all need money to live \u2014 for shelter, food, clothing, medical care, etc. But beyond that, attaining the American dream won\u2019t make you happy.  For many, pursuing it saps joy and meaning from life.
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The Truth About A Career<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many people expect a career to be more fulfilling than a job. They believe it\u2019s the ticket to a meaningful life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, having a career often sidetracks you from that goal. The reason is that people invest in their careers to the point of assuming an identity and social status based on their job title<\/a><\/strong>.
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Our cultural norms aid and abet this tendency. One of the first things people ask when getting acquainted is, \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d This seems innocuous, but the implied question is, \u201cWhat do you do for a living?\u201d \u2014 and you know you\u2019ll be judged (assigned a social status) based on your occupation.
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Once you believe your career is who you are<\/a>, it\u2019s difficult to give up that identity even if you come to hate your career.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A better way to answer the \u201cwhat do you do\u201d question is to reply with what you\u2019re passionate about. For instance, \u201cI\u2019m passionate about cooking; what are you passionate about?\u201d It leads to more interesting conversations than the typical answer along the lines of \u201cI\u2019m a director of operations.\u201d)
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The truth is, you\u2019re far more than your career; you have passions that you can pursue for a meaningful life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From Career to Passion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Josuha and Ryan had conventionally successful corporate careers, but eventually they felt stressed and unhappy instead of fulfilled. So they worked harder and turned to consumerism \u2014 they bought stuff in an effort to purchase happiness. Eventually they realized this wasn\u2019t the path to happiness \u2014 they needed to cut the excess in their lives and pursue their career passions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To discover their career passions, they had to remove the many anchors holding them back, including the status\/identity of their careers, and their lavish lifestyles and debt.
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In creating and operating their website, TheMinimalists.com, they pursued their career passions and turned them into their mission. Joshua\u2019s passion is writing, while Ryan\u2019s is mentoring others.
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Sometimes people stumble into a line of work that brings them great satisfaction.<\/strong> They feel they\u2019re being paid to do what they love and they refer to their work as their mission. But they\u2019re exceptions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t feel grateful and passionate about your work, then you probably haven\u2019t found your mission. The rest of this chapter is intended to help you identify, then cultivate your passions, and pursue them as your mission.
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You can be passionate about almost anything (and you can have multiple passions) \u2014 as a result, any line of work can be your mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people know what they\u2019re passionate about, but may not be pursuing it as their full-time mission. Others don\u2019t know what they\u2019re passionate about, or what their mission is.
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Regardless of where you fall, this chapter will help you identify the anchors keeping you from discovering and cultivating your passions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passion Fuels More Passion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Two things characterize passionate people:<\/p>\n\n\n\n