How to Find Your Passion

October 5, 2016
Feeling stuck, unmotivated and unsure about how to reignite your sense of wonder? Take a risk and scare the heck out of yourself.
By Emma Johnson

Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your lie.

Career experts debate whether this adage is great advice for charting a professional path, but the question then becomes: What am I passionate about

Whether your goal is to find a career that excites you or to enrich your life with a hobby, identifying a passion is a natural inclination. In several studies researchers have found that passion is a critical component of psychological well-being, goal-accomplishing and effective leadership.

Ask yourself these questions to determine what invigorates you.

What interested you when you were young?
Manon DeFelice, founder of Ink Well, a recruiting agency that helps high-powered women stay in or re-enter the workforce, asks clients, “What was the topic of your high school senior thesis?” The answer often surprises people with the precision with which it points to a current passion.

What causes do you care about?
Chris Dorsey was passionate about environmental conservation from an early age. He used that enthusiasm to create what would become one of the biggest reality-TV production companies, with a mission to support the outdoors and conservation. “It’s remarkable how the more I give to conservation organizations, the more good things happen to me and my company,” Dorsey says. “That has happened too many times to be coincidence.”

Do something scary.
Feeling stuck, unmotivated and unsure about how to reignite your sense of wonder? Take a risk and scare the heck out of yourself. Always considered yourself a klutz? Join a recreational sports team. Terrified of public speaking? Take an improv class. Jolt your psyche to a place it has never gone.

Take money out of the equation.
If you suffer from paralysis under the pressure of finding your moneymaking passion, take the money part out and focus on the zeal you feel for the activity.

Passion is a critical component of psychological well-being.

Chris Dorsey
51; Denver; founder of Dorsey Pictures and creator of more than 40 TV series focused on the outdoors

Growing up in rural Wisconsin, the outdoors was important to my family, so was storytelling. As the youngest of nine kids, I grew up listening to stories of older people around me. As someone who is passionate about the outdoors and conservation, and as an English and biology student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, I started writing for local and state newspapers about outdoor adventure. I learned how media can influence people to make the right decisions. This grew into first a career in sportsman publications and then into Dorsey Pictures, which is committed to quality programing about the outdoors. My success there led to involvement with conservation organizations, which, when paired with our programming, can make a big difference for causes I care about. For example, after a series we created about the fragility of saltwater flats, the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s membership grew 300 percent and fundraising grew by 150 percent.