You know you’ve discovered your passion when you love what you are doing. But wait a minute. Nothing is that simple is it?
Check out what Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon, tells us:
” One of the huge mistake people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions. Your passion chooses you”.
Are you continuously working to find what you love to do? Perhaps starting with your personal development? A very good idea these days … where to change is the name of the game. Aim high. Explore. Stretch your boundaries. Let yourself fail some. But be sure and put learning in your skill bag.
All of these are useful to remember for growing knowledge of your enablers for success. Enablers for success that are essential for your personal and professional development and in doing what you love.
We are all aware of Steve Jobs Stanford commencement speech given in 2005, where he talks about doing what you love. It is a classic talk on this subject. He encourages his student audience to keep looking and don’t settle. Jobs goes on to say as with all matters of the heart; you’ll know when you find it. Ah, but finding it.
To do something well, you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We’ve got it down to four words: “Do what you love.” But it’s not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated. And often unattainable for some.
I recently read an interesting book on the topic of how to find what you love to do. The book is by Cal Newport: So Good They Can’t Ignore You. The themes in Newport’s book are bound by a common thread: the importance of ability. His thesis is that the things that do a great job great are rare and valuable.
If you want them in your working life, you need something rare and valuable to offer in return. In other words, you need to be good at something before you can expect the job that you love.
Mastery by itself is not enough to guarantee your love and satisfaction: The many examples of well-respected but miserable workaholics support this claim.
The main thread of the argument moves beyond the mere acquisition of useful skills and into the subtle art of investing career capital into the right types of working life traits. The path to what you love – at least as it concerns what you do for a living – is more complicated than simply answering the classic question “What should I do with my life?”
So here is the kicker from this book: when it comes to creating work you love, following your passion is not particularly useful advice. In fact, it is seriously flawed. It not only fails to describe how most people end up with compelling careers but for many people, it can make things worse: leading to chronic job shifting and unrelenting angst.
Newport points out that motivation requires that you fulfill three basic psychological needs:
Autonomy: the feeling that you have control over your day, and that your actions are important
Competence: the feeling that you are good at what you do
Relatedness: the feeling of connection to other people He introduces the craftsman mindset which is based what you can offer to others.
This mindset asks you to leave behind self-centered concerns about whether your job is “just right.” Instead, put your head down and plug away at getting great at what you do and contribute.
Regardless of what you do for a living, approach your work like a true performer. Adopt the craftsman mindset first, and then the passion follows.
But some people love what they are doing. I certainly do. Many people will try to tell you: “This passion stuff is BS,” “There’s no such thing as passion,” “passion is a myth that gets in the way of a successful business,” etc.
These are tragic cases of people who have never had the experiencing of genuinely loving what they do.
More reading on mentoring from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Remarkable Lessons in Motivation Steve Jobs Taught Me
How to Create Honest Employee Trust and Empowerment