We collectively believe in a lot of myths. One of them is that your life only makes sense if you do what you love. That might be true, but the pursuit of your passion can be equally satisfying, which is something we often overlook.
Casey Neistat is an awesome YouTuber and entrepreneur. In his vlogs, he often talks about how much he loves his work (most recently here). And he advocates the belief of âfind a job that you love and you donât have to work for a day in your life.â
Heâs not the only one who believes that. Many artists, athletes, entrepreneurs believe the same.
Steve Jobs even said:
âYouâve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you havenât found it yet, keep looking.â
I agree. However, it seems like many of us put too much pressure on ourselves to find our passion.
- Without passion, we are not complete.
- Without passion, our life has no meaning.
Really? It sounds like weâre giving âpassionâ too much attention these days. Itâs important, yes, but itâs not a magical solution that will make all your problems disappear.
Some people say: âIf only I would find my passion.â
And I think: Then what? Letâs say you find your passion.
But if youâre an idiot, you will be an idiot with a passion. And if youâre a miserable complainer, youâll be a miserable complainer with a passion.
Donât expect that your life will be 10X better when you love what youâre doing. Life is still LIFE. You have to wake up, make money, struggle, and deal with all the other things that life brings with it.
People ask me: How did you find your passion?
Iâm one of those people who didnât exactly know what they wanted to do when they grew up. There were many things I thought about doing.
But was I miserable before I started doing what I do now? Fuck no.
I have to admit, Iâve been an idiot and Iâve made stupid decisions in the past, but Iâve also been a hard worker, got two degrees from college, read tons of books, traveled, started and failed a few businesses, and always made the best out of bad situations.
And then one moment in 2015, I thought: Why not write about the stuff that Iâve learned along the way? My mentors and people who were close to me told me I should do this stuff a few years ago. I didnât think about it at the time. But last year it just happened. Like a eureka moment.
Donât get me wrong: Itâs awesome to wake up every day and look forward to working on the stuff you love to do. But itâs not the ultimate key to happiness.
âSo how is that information useful for me?â
For the past year, Iâve been researching how others can stimulate the process of âfinding your passion.â But Iâve never found any research that has a sound answer to that question.
No research says âdo XYZâ and that will result in YOUR PASSION.
The only research that comes close is from neuroscience and eureka moments. You know super awesome insights that appear out of nowhere. And finding your passion is often the same: Itâs just an insight.
In The Eureka Factor, John Kounios and Mark Beeman explain how insights arise and what scientific research says about stimulating them. They write:
âThough insights often come as a surprise, sometimes we can sense that an idea is present, lurking just below the threshold of awareness, ready to emerge. This puzzling phenomenon has a strange subjective quality. It feels like an idea is about to burst into your consciousness, almost as though youâre about to sneeze.â
Instead of putting pressure on yourself, you need something else that will trigger that final step of getting a eureka moment. Kounious and Beeman continue:
âCognitive psychologists call this experience âintuition,â meaning an awareness of the presence of information in the unconscious mindâââa new idea, solution, or perspectiveâââwithout awareness of the information itself, at least until it pops into consciousness.â
You donât know your passion because youâre not aware of it. Thatâs all. Donât make things more complicated than they are. And donât try to force it to come out of you. Itâs not a pimple that you HAVE to pop.
âBut how can I stimulate my brain to get more insights?â
- Expose yourself to different things. Read about stuff youâve never considered. Travel. Hang out with different people. The more you broaden your mind, the more information you get. Kounious and Beeman show that eureka moments are often a blend of different ideas that youâre exposed to.
- Manage stress and anxiety. Chronic stress and anxiety prevent your mind to think clearly, focus, and relax. Those are key ingredients of getting new insights. So before you think about finding your passion, deal with stress and anxiety first if youâre having a lot of it.
I think those two things are critical steps that most of us skip. We dive into the practical things like keeping a notebook next to your bed.
But the thing is: You need input if you want to output.
Instead of consciously thinking about your passion, let your passion come to you. Itâs somewhere inside of you, hiding because itâs afraid to expose itself.
You just have to trust that someday it will seemingly appear out of nowhere. When that day comes, make a happy dance, celebrate, whatever, but the next day, wake up and start working.
Just like youâre doing now.