Finding your Passion

TLDR; You will not know if you like something, unless you actually do it!

Note: If you want to skip my experiences and go directly to the lessons learned, skip to the last portion of this article.

Throughout all of high school, college, and then the first few years on the job, I struggled with trying to figure out what I was passionate about. I entered analysis paralysis by searching endless blogs about careers and all the differnet careers that exist.

Whenever I found an interesting career, I noted it down and tried to learn as much as I could about it; what college degree is required, what a day in the life looks like, how much people in the field make, etc. Whenever I saw a job that I liked, I tried to do all that I could to learn about the company and what they were doing. I just read, listened, and watched about all these interested careers.

But, I was stuck and could not find something that I wanted to do. There was a downside to everything that I found and even when there was not a downside at first glance, as I learned more I always found one. I never understood this and for years I felt that I would never really figure out what I wanted to do in life and die unhappy. This is not an exaggeration by the way, lol.

As an avid reader of self development books, I already knew the answer was to just start doing. But for the majority of the jobs, I did not know how — all I could think of (which I did) was apply for low end jobs in those fields to see if I would get it. I understood the work and what people did, so I felt equipped to take on the role. I was completely wrong.

Whenever I would attempt this, I would go all out and learn everything I could, but never spent time actually practicing the day to day work.

Here are a few examples

I spent my first year out of college trying to learn about accessibility and the current problems with online sources not being usable by people with disabilities. I was extremely passionate about the subject and learned all that I could about how people with disabilities were affected by some of these websites by design. For instance, users who are blind rely on third party software to navigate the web. If these web pages are not coded correctly, the tool, used by blind users, would not accurately speak out the contents of the page. This makes it really difficult for these users to obtain the information on these web pages. There are also specific colors and fonts that should not be on a web page as it affects users who are color blind! I felt empowered and wanted to enter this field to help. However, I realized that a lot of the work that is done behind the scenes is re-coding the pages so that third party tools can accurately speak to the contents of the page. This was extremely monotmous and boring to me so I hated doing the actual work and only really liked the end goal and how users with disabilities would benefit from the changes.

I decided to start my masters in Computer Science part-time out of college in hopes to focus on human computer interaction and design. I felt like it would elavate my career and everything online told me that it was the future. I was accepted into the program and started taking classes each semester. Some of the earlier classes were awesome – they were all theory based and I really enjoyed learning the concepts for user experience. I disliked the programming courses that were coding intensive because I felt most of my time was just spent debugging my code. It really sucked and I decided to quit that same semester!

One last example was when I really considered switching careers and becoming an occupational therapist about a year ago. I wanted to help people in a way unique to what I had experienced. Luckily at that time, I was talking to someone who was a doctor. The idea of being a doctor sounded great, and they pay a lot of money for the work they do (as they should!). However, after talking with this individual daily and about the work they were doing, I quickly realized how much schooling was involved and how not everything that they were taught was intriguing. If I am going to be spending that much money — It would have to be in stuff I enjoyed and had an interest in. The end goal/service was awesome, but the process to get there was not! Also, I learned about the day in the life of a doctor and while it sounds great when you read about the occupation, a lot of the day is spent doing paper work and reading charts. This seemed so boring to me and not worth the career switch!

Needless to say, there was a running theme in a lot of the things I quit pursuing and I am sure you have figured it out too. And while spending all these times looking into these new careers, I learned an important lesson: you have to fall in love with the process, not just the end goal.

Fast forward to the last two years, I decided to take a different approach. I learned about what it takes to be a coach and learned all that I could – it was like clockwork, now. Only this time, I decided to learn and do at the same time. I loved what I was learning, and being able to apply it and share with others was both fun and rewarding — I already had some experience working with friends. Throughout the years I have done a lot of reading and course watching related to self development. I felt that it was something that I could really start to implement and improve my life with. And after making those changes, I started seeing positive results and outcomes!

I started writing about what I was learning and linked it to my experience. I was always a reader, but never really thought about writing myself. When I put my thoughts to paper I was so moved by my own thoughts. I did this for about two months and then felt like I hated it again. I went all out and felt that I had nothing else to write about after 3 months of consantly writing and creating articles related to self development.

I listened to a podcast called, Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte and it explained how you should document all your thoughts somewhere as you are learning. Whenever you needed to refer back to something, rather than going online to find that information, you can refer to your notes that are more related to yourself – you wrote it after all!

I decided to get into writing and start writing regularly. I would connect what I would learn that day to my work. I got into writing again this way, but this time it started to stick! I fell in love with the process all over again and just writing my version of what I was learning made me better understand the material! I soon pivoted and rather than just write about self development and life hacks from the things I learned, I journaled about who I was, wrote stories based on plots that I would have preferred from the shows I would watch, and started writing down all my big ideas. It was liberating and to this day, and as I write this post, I love the feeling it provides me. I can type my thoughts, use pen and paper, or just draw something and feel alive.

It took me a while to get to here and find something I really enjoy doing. I have incorporated journaling into my daily schedule, writing for my blog regularly (although I need to get better at posting), started writing my own book in my spare time, and even at work I write procedures and training documentation for my team (engineering stuff).

What I learned from my experience when I quit was that I gave up too soon. You need to understand the difference with giving up when things get difficult and not liking something. You can miss out on an opportunity doing something you enjoy if you quit too soon.

I just went on a huge rant about my life and my experiences, but the biggest lesson learned was to try new things. Taking on new challenges are the only way you can determine if something is for you or not. You may not be great at it at first, heck even after a while, but if you enjoy it then nothing can really hold you back.

Here are some key tips for you to help you find your passion, if you could not gather them from my mistakes are:

1. Try new things! You will never know if something is for you or not without actually doing them.
2. Putting your time and efforts learning something might seem like a waste of time, but there are always transferable skills that you will learn along the way. Learning anything new is desirable.
3. Don’t focus on the end goal, focus on the day to day work - actually start doing it!
4. Quitting too soon because it is difficult may cause you to miss out on something that you actually are passionate about. For me, that was any form of writing and self expression.
5. Document your experiences. Sometimes we forget we dislike something and decide to pursue it because it looks lucrative or rad.

There is no clear cut way to finding your passion. You have to take your mind on adventures and explore different interests to find what you are looking for.