“Doing what you love or are passionate about does not feel like work” – In the past, I had always envied people who could say that. Of course I know it does not mean that everyday is a bed of roses, but I envied them because they knew what they were meant to do, and at the time, I did not have the same feeling .
Finding one’s passion or purpose are popular statements with enough books and articles written that give advice and guidelines on how to reach this. They often come with a set of questions to ask oneself and then an evaluation process follows with a eureka moment in sight. I have followed a few of these discovery routes but for one or other reason, I always ended up where I started, frustrated and unsure of what to do. I even tried ‘doing something new for 30 days’ to see if I like it and if it’s really what I want, but that did not work either.
So, the task of finding my passion has not always been clear, but I continued to feel it was important for me to continue digging because I want to focus my life hours on doing what is meaningful to me and others. It was not until some years back, I read an article (and unfortunately now I cannot seem to locate that same article 🙁 ) that made me realize that a passion wasn’t something to be found – because if I was passionate about something then at this age, I would already be doing it somehow.
My perspective shifted from looking at it as ‘trying new things or finding something that I did not already have’ to ‘I am already doing what I am passionate about’ – I just had to realize it.
Thus finding my passion, involved me looking backwards at what I spent and liked spending my time on, what I prioritized, what I liked talking and reading about, what I could do for hours out of my own will without any expectations. Something I was already doing without even putting much thought on. I cataloged everything. With each item, I dug deeper into what actually made me enjoy those things and wrote it down. I repeated this process a few times, each time asking myself what is it really that I enjoy in this activity, why do I drop everything to do this, why can I spend hours on this and not something else, and so on.
And through this self reflection, I realized that the common thread was that I enjoyed helping people to be in a better position and helping them solve problems, in particular those that enabled them to advance in life. There was a deep desire within to make a positive impact in people’s lives. All I need is a call for help and I will do it gladly, and it does not really feel like work.
After I came to this realization, I wanted to focus on it more and make it the central part of what I was doing with my day. When I realized it, my self-confidence and drive to to hone those skills increased and it also gave me clarity and focus to set goals and carry out activities that are in line with what I enjoy. Thus, when I looked for employment, I looked for work that included this aspect and utilized the skills that I already have. It’s also the reason I commit my time to Think Africa’s work.
When you realize what you want to spend your day on, eventually the money question arises (and I firmly believe it should come last.), ‘how can I make money from this?’ And the answer is that, just like any venture, you have to make yourself valuable enough that someone is willing to pay you to do what you do. And if money cannot be made, learn to be content to have it as a hobby or pro bono :).
“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”
Buddha