Try it out
Doing what you love and what you are passionate about
So what?
We previously posted about what passion is, why you can’t wait for passion to find you and why you need to find your passion and cultivate it. ICYMI, you need to find your passion. By finding your passion, you will have:
- More personal and professional freedom;
- Improved self-awareness and confidence;
- Increased safety circle; and
- Simpler life.
This post discusses the second step of finding your passion.
Trying it out
Once you have taken the first step of taking stock and shortlisted your list, it’s time to test your idea by trying it out. Whether your passion is something that you want to do during your spare time or want to replace your job with, it would be wise to take your passion out for a test drive to see if it is really your passion. As part of your trial period, make sure to follow the below in order for your experimentation to be worth your time and effort.
Research
You need to know your passion as much as possible, even if it’s something you are knowledgable with. Read websites and books, listen to audiobooks and podcasts and speak to as many people as possible to research your passion. Find out what learning and development you need to undertake, the skill-sets you need to acquire, cost that is associated and what is recommended.
Unless your passion is bespoke or extraordinary, there would be multiple ways to go about with it. For example, your passion of playing cricket will be possible through different clubs around your area, fielding positions and time commitments which can vastly change your experience of playing cricket. It would be prudent to find everything about your passion. Not only you will be able to determine the best way of taking on your passion, you will have alternatives in case your chosen path doesn’t pan out.
Practice
Even if you are a seasoned professional, anything you are good at or want to get better at needs practice. Start practicing your passion by repeating certain tasks and mastering them. If it’s truly your passion and something you love doing, the practice of it should be something you want to do as well as be life fulfilling. Why not spend your spare time or make time to do something you love and get better at it?
Don’t quit your job
Are you looking to turn your passion into a business or career? It would be sensible to keep your job while you’re in the process of trying out your passion. No matter how certain you’re that the newly found passion of yours is legitimate, staying with your current job will provide you with ability to save up the funds to turn your passion into a business and all the while allowing you to practice and obtain the skills you will need to become proficient.
My experience
ICYMI, I used to spend hours in one sitting building legos as a child. I can’t recall when I stopped building them but there was a gap between building things and when I went through the exercise of finding my passion. When I explored what my passion might be, I naturally gravitated towards building and making things. Reconnecting with my childhood allowed me to find a new hobby which led me to buying a 3D printer to design and make things.
Now, turning my passion of 3D designing and printing into a business is something that I’ve been toying with but haven’t gotten far. I haven’t quit my job and will continue to research on ways that I can make some money on the side.
What now?
- What is on your list of potential passions that you identified from our previous post?
- Try it out for a few weeks or months to see if they’re something that you can continue doing and even turn it into a business or career.