You’ve probably heard it a thousand times. “Follow your dreams!”
Most of us want to do it. In fact, you’d probably give your right arm if you could wake up tomorrow with a life that completely surrounded your passion.
You want to live it, breath it, and be happy because of it.
But, you have bills to pay today. And finding a career that aligns with your dreams is often too much of a risk to take. So, you keep toggling back and forth between paying the electric bill and chasing your passion.
Is there a secret to achieving what you want you haven’t heard about?
Well, when it comes to finding a career that aligns with that beloved passion, here’s what you really need to know.
Why You Feel Torn Most of the Time
As noted at the outset, you, as most people, probably feel pulled in two directions. Your passion tugs at you from the right and your responsibilities tug at you from the left. In fact, that battle may often pull you apart.
The reason for the great tear in your being is that you’ve fallen prey to a false dream.
This false dream is the romantic idea that there’s only one way to chase your passion. You might even believe that, unless you live your dream exactly as you picture it, then you’re not living out your purpose in life.
As it goes, there is actually more than one way to fulfill your life’s purpose. And, finding a career to help you do this is very, very much within your grasp.
How to Identify Your True Passion
Your passion is what drives you. That might sound obvious, but it’s actually more complicated than most people know.
Many think of their passion as an actual activity. In reality, your true passion is not the activity itself but what that activity produces in you and in others. While you might enjoy that activity more than anything in the world, it’s the core value behind the activity that really sparks your fire.
In finding a career that aligns with your passion, you have to get a little introspective and identify what you truly value. What’s important to you? In other words, what sparks your fire?
Once you establish your core values, you can more easily find different ways to express them, rather than expressing them through one specific activity or hobby.
Cultivating the Ultimate Blend
When it comes to finding a career for you to live out your passion, it’s important to look at it from the inside out. For instance, if one of your core values is self-expression, then you yourself might choose the hobby of painting or poetry.
Of course, you know as well as I do that finding a career in painting or poetry might not bode well for the empty dinner table.
But now, consider the job of an academic advisor. In this career, you get to help students find their way in life, which can really be the ultimate form of self-expression. In this case, the advisor career would be a great “match.”
Clearly, this is just one example, but the whole point is to look past the job or the activity. Look deeper into the possibility of living out your passion within the scope of your career.
Dedicating Yourself to Your “Match”
It’s important to remember that finding a career that flawlessly cultivates your perfect “match” isn’t reality. Not only are you going to have to embrace a creative and open mind, but you’re going to have to be dedicated. After all, this “match” idea is an entirely new way to approach dream-chasing.
For instance, even if you’ve discovered a great avenue to pursue your true passion and make a decent income, the “chasing your dreams” feeling will not be a choice every day. Life is tough. Jobs can be tough. Even a job that aligns with your passion might offer you a bad day once in a while.
And, that’s okay. In fact, that’s life.
So, in short, happiness and satisfaction don’t automatically find you. But, you can actually find it by creating the life you want.
—
If you’re ready to stop struggling with being pulled between your passion and your purpose, please reach out to me. Together we can identify your core values and successfully incorporate your passion into your career.
