Do you feel completely lost and out of motivation most days? You look at people and wonder, how are they so happy with the jobs they do? Don’t they get tired of it? Feel bored? Feel burnt out? Well, it is because they are following their passion. And here, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to discover your passion.
Your passion is basically what we call anything that makes you feel passionate. Anything that you feel extremely motivated to do. What makes you happy and gives you internal satisfaction? For different people, this is completely different. Even the same person may find more than one thing fun to do.
While you may feel passionate about something, one other point to note is that your aptitude is also very important. You may love watching planes fly and think about becoming a pilot. But it also matters if you can be a good pilot or not. This is very important in knowing how to discover your passion. For instance, if you are not good at mathematics, you can’t qualify to be a good pilot.
It’s equally important to have an aptitude for something in order to do it well. Not just passion. However, in most cases, if you love doing something, you can learn it fairly fast. Because your interest in it facilitates your motivation. This helps you to learn fast and efficiently.
How do I discover my passion?
One of the most frequently asked questions regarding passion is how I discover my passions. We have some leveled steps for you below, which should help you understand this. These steps involve tried and tested techniques to discover your passion. These are steps that successful people used to find out what makes them happy. Following these steps, we assure you that you will discover your passion.
There are many such quizzes and tests that tell you where your aptitude lies. These tests determine your scores on specific abilities. These are usually psychological tests that determine your personality, aptitude, the kind of work you enjoy, etc. A career counselor will help out best with these quizzes. They determine different aspects of your life and tell you which jobs are suitable for you following what you are best at. They mostly take into account what you love doing.
These how-to-find your passion quiz can also be found online. However, they are less accurate and are mostly just the guesswork of websites. But they do give you a rough estimate. If you can’t afford to go to a professional, these will work for you.
They are great at determining what you like to do and give you your skills and talents in accordance with your answers. These help you discover your passion. You can easily discover your passion and what you love to do with the help of these how to find your passion quiz online.
Ways to discover your passion
1- Brainstorm to discover your passion
You will want to start brainstorming. Brainstorming means to storm your brain with ideas and thoughts. This may be an exhausting task to do, especially if you have no idea what you want. But trust us, this is the key. Most times, you already know what you want. You just haven’t figured it out consciously.
Brainstorming helps to pick ideas from your head and gather your thoughts. This way, you discover your passion quicker. It helps you look deep into yourself and figure out what you like to do most. For instance, if you like reading, but you have never actually considered it an art. This is where brainstorming will help you. It makes you understand how even ordinary things may be your passion.
2- Self-analyze to discover your passion
Another huge step in the process of how discovering your passion is self-analysis. When you self-analyze, you look deep within yourself. This is very important also for people who have the question of how I discover my passion and purpose. Because your purpose has to basically do more than with your brain, it has to do with your soul and spirit. It has to do with what brings peace to your heart and not mind.
For this, it is very important to analyze your thoughts, desires, your personality, and who you are. When you figure out what kind of person you are, it helps so much to discover your passion and purpose.
You have to look deep within your personality. You have to evaluate your past experiences, where you went wrong, and how you can make them better. These will help you identify what brings you peace in your life. That is what is most important for finding your purpose in life. Because a purpose is what gives you meaning to go ahead in life. And with that motivation, you can do wonders.
3- Try new things
You also have to try and test new things. Things you may never have tried before. They say you have to get out of your comfort zone if you want to achieve something great. Well, that applies here. If you want to stay in your comfort zone and do the same boring things you do every day, you cannot discover your passion. It takes risks and difficulties in life to achieve something worthwhile.
As they say, nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy. That’s one of the truest statements there is. But don’t let that make you scared. Because what you love doing is never hard for you because of the motivation behind it. When there is a motivation behind an act, the desire to do that is heightened, and hence efforts are not despised for it.
It doesn’t tire you to do what you love. So, keep trying new things that relate to what you love. Chances are, you may soon discover what you love. You just have to get some new ideas and perspectives.
This may be very hard for you if you are going through a transition. Especially because it is harder to find your passion when you are depressed.
4- Check aptitude to discover your passion
Another hugely important thing in how discovering your passion and purpose is aptitude. Many people have this one common question from you; what are your passions in life? Well, the question may seem so simple. But when you start thinking about it, you’re blank. It’s because most of us have no idea what we want in life.
We are just following a similar routine every day, with no idea of what makes us internally happy. Aptitude has a great role to play in this. Because your aptitude for something needs to be high in order for you to do well at it. As earlier mentioned, you may love watching planes fly. But you may lack the mathematical aptitude needed for flying a plane.
So, you may check your aptitude for other areas and jobs related to flying planes, such as mechanics, flight attendants, flight managers, suppliers, etc. There are a number of jobs to do related to one simple thing. Even if you lack aptitude in one, you may be full of aptitude for another.
5- Ask your friends
Another thing you must do is to ask your friends and family what they think your passions are. What do they observe the best in you? Sometimes, it is your simple qualities that can guide you to your passion. For instance, if you are highly capable of speaking different languages, your friends can help point that out to you.
Similarly, your family has seen you grow up, in most cases. They know what you loved to do since you were a kid. It is most likely that your family can guide you with these questions of how to discover your passion. Do consult your friends and family in this regard.
6- Lookup jobs for what you are good at
Finally, look up different jobs related to what you find yourself an expert at. There is a good chance you may find what you love among what you are good at. Especially because usually, we are good at what we love to do.
You will find so many different jobs related to one small field. Such as, if you love art but are not exactly an expert at painting or drawing, you can become a historian and study art. Or you can work in museums, with art and management. There are also archeology-related fields for art. One small field comes with so many different job options for you, so keep looking.
7- Talk to experts
You should also talk to an expert and consult them about how to discover your passion in life. They will help you see many different options in what’s available in job categories for what you love to do. These experts can be career counselors, experts in specific fields, or just general consultants.
Make sure to visit a few of them and share your interests and needs in detail. They will help you figure out and discover what you love to do and what job options are available in that field.
8- Read books
You should also make book reading a hobby, even if it isn’t your strongest desire. Books contain so much information on different passions.
For instance, the book “Find your passion: 25 questions you must ask yourself” is one of the highest-selling books on passion. It was initially published in October 2013 and written by Henri Junttila. This is one of the books you must read in order to figure out what you love to do and how to discover your passion.
How to find your passion as a teenager
The hardest part can be finding your passion as a teenager. Because in these years, you usually don’t even know what you want. Nor have you tried new and unique things. As you grow older in life, you come across things that interest you and make you happy.
The reason behind not being able to discover your passion most time in your teen years is very simple. The human brain isn’t fully developed by teenage. It keeps developing throughout the teen years. While this may be different for different people, on average, it develops through the teen years.
This also means that a person’s personality has the flexibility for change or growth throughout the teen years. That is why it can be hard to know exactly what you want from life by this time. But generally, you do have an idea of what makes you happy, even if you have never done it.
You also have a general idea of what you are good at. This may be due to excelling in grades in that subject/field in school/college. This may also be some skill that you don’t utilize at school, but you know that you have. Like running, basketball, painting, debate, linguistics, etc.
Here are some of the steps you should follow in order to find your passion as a teenager.
1- Talk to a counselor to discover your passion
Talk to your counselor/ consultant at school/college. They usually have career counselors after college to help you figure out what you like. But if you are generally looking to discover your passion, ask your counselor to help you figure this out.
Counselors will usually help you figure out what you already know. They will also help you look at things from different perspectives. Since in your teen years, you are not aware of many jobs and fields in your life, they help with that.
Counselors will tell you about different ways of doing something that makes you happy. They will tell you about the different positions in different fields of work. How you can work on your skills from your teen years.
They will also help you see where your aptitude is high through personality tests, aptitude tests, etc. They will guide you on what kind of work options suit your personality type best. Personality inventories usually help you see different traits within yourself that you may not be aware of in your teen years.
2- Ask your parents
Besides talking to your counselors, also talk to your parents. They have known you the longest. They know you the best. Parents tend to know what you liked as a kid and what makes you happy. They also see you doing your best at what you love.
They will guide you best on what they think is right for you. Talk to them about different options and different things you love. Ask about their opinion. Your parents know you the most and are in a better position to judge what you can and cannot do. This is very important for you if you are looking to find your passion as a teenager.
3- Check your aptitude to discover your passion
As mentioned above, aptitude is very important in order to do what you do best. The simple mechanism behind this is that what you have high motivation to do, you do it best. Your desire to do it facilitates your skill in it.
Usually, you are good at doing what you love. That’s just how the human brain works. So if you find your aptitude in different skills, this will help you find what you love to do.
4- Have your parents talk to your teachers
Your parents can also consult your counselors and teachers to help you find your passion as a teenager. Since you are too young yet to know what kind of job openings there may be for different sets of skills, your parents and teachers can discuss what they find best about you. They can help each other figure out what their skills in school and outside school are.
This will give them a picture of what your general skills are, and then you can further take it along.
5- Learn new things to discover your passion
Now you have a general idea of what you want and what makes you happy. You also know from your parents and counselors what your skills in different subjects and outside school are. This gives you an idea of what you are good at. You already knew what you loved, but you were probably confused.
Now that you are clear about it start learning new things. Learn new things in the fields and skills that you love. Such as, if you love cars, generally, find out what there is more about cars. Find out what kind of jobs there are. Get books to help you learn deeper knowledge of mechanics and designs of cars, etc.
This helps you further specify your passion so you can work to excel in it from your teen years.
How to find your passion when you are depressed
This has already been discussed above that it can be really hard to find your passion when you are depressed. That is why there are specialized steps to help you deal with this issue.
1- Get therapy to find your passion when you are depressed
When you are depressed, there are usually many reasons for it. Therapy helps subside those reasons and let your brain breathe. It is only in a very creative space and a healthy mental environment that you can actually think clearly about what you love. So the first step would be to get therapy.
2- Do what you love
Start doing what you love. This will bring a sense of joy into your life. This will clear your head from negative thoughts and make you feel good about yourself. High self-esteem leads to doing better at things you are good at. This helps subside depression and helps you figure out what you love.
3- Try new things to discover your passion
Try doing new and unique things. Do anything that brings you joy. This clears your head from negative thoughts and helps you to figure yourself out better. This also leads you to discover your passion and what you love doing.
4- Talk to your friends
One thing depression takes away from you is your social life. You stop talking to your friends or socializing at all. This leads to further socio-emotional blockades and gets in the way of the thinking process. You can’t think clearly; hence you can’t figure anything out.
Get back to your social life, even if you hate it at times. It will make you frustrated at times, but you need it. Your friends will help you figure out what you love doing and what makes you happy. It will also clear your head and help you think in a more productive way to facilitate you to find your passion.
