This post is all about how to find your passions in life.

From a very young age, we are encouraged, or best said forced to choose a career path that we are supposed to continue and pursue for the rest of our lives.

But my question is, who the hell has a clear vision of what to do with their life at 16, 18, or even 20 for that matter?

The idea that we should choose a career and a passion to pursue for the rest of our lives seemed to work in the past, but not in today’s world.

The truth is that it rarely is the case when people have just one passion they would like to pursue and enjoy if they are even lucky enough what those passions are.

Because even though school is great at teaching us about mathematics, history, science, and languages it fails to teach us one of the most valuable things in the world, which is how to discover our passion and pursue them.

But why is this so important and valuable? Well let me answer that with another question: would you rather live the next 40 years of your life in a career that doesn’t make you fulfilled and makes you dread the Mondays every weekend or a life where the distinction between weekdays and weekends doesn’t matter and you wake up every day excited to do what you love?

We all search for and desire happiness in our lives. And although the scenery that I just described may seem utopic in today’s world and A luxury, the truth is that it´s possible and you can also achieve it.

So, if you never know the answer when asked what your passions are, are wondering what career to choose, or can’t figure out how your different passions complement each other, this post is for you. 

In this blog post, I´ll be sharing with you a few tips to help you find your passions in life and have more clarity around your goals for the future.

Let´s begin!

What is the meaning of passion?

Let’s start with the definition what is a passion, because even though it´s a word that is thrown around a lot, what does it mean to be passionate about something?

Passion is an incredibly powerful emotion that demands to be acted upon. When you have passion for something, you love it even when you hate it.

Passion is the “thing” that pushes you through the obstacles and the difficulties because you don’t care what it takes to become better and be successful. 

It is within our power to create the life we dream of and one of the secrets to living that dream life is hidden in our passion.

Now contrary to what people might think, oftentimes a passion is not something we are born with, but rather something we develop. Our interests are fluid and something we need to dive deeper into.

In the same way, not every passion we have is going to turn into a possible career, some passions we have are meant to be enjoyed as hobbies or a way to unwind and relax, and that’s perfectly okay as well.

Why is it so hard to find your passions?

Do you know what are your passions in life?

Sure we all know the things we enjoy doing, what we hate and more or less the direction we would like to take in our careers.

But do you know what your passions are, the ones that drive you to constantly challenge yourself, the ones that bring you happiness, the ones that make time fly by, the ones that you feel lucky to do every day?

And why do we find it so hard to find our passions? Well often we find it difficult to discover our passions because of the following things:

• Self Doubt: The truth is most of the time we do have an idea of what our passions

are, but we hide them behind the rug because we don’t actually believe that we are capable enough to pursue those dreams or that we’ll get anywhere in life if we do.

We hide behind our fear and insecurity. That way if we “don´t know” our passions we won’t have to feel guilty for not being brave enough to pursue them.

But lying to ourselves is not going to take us anywhere, so it’s time to break those beliefs and take those passions from under the rug because you own it to yourself to build the life you have always dreamed of.

And if you don’t believe me, I want you to picture your younger self when you were a little kid, I want you to think of her in fact, if you can find a picture of yourself as a child better.

Now look at that picture, at the little girl with the huge dreams, don´t you think she deserves all the amazing things the world has to offer, don´t you think she deserves to see all her dreams come true?

I want you to think of that little girl every time you think of giving up or hiding away.

• Having the wrong mindset: Having the wrong mindset could also be keeping you 

from finding your passions in life because you are focusing too much on finding a passion that can make you money. Remember what we said earlier about not all passion being meant to turn into a career?

• You are overthinking too much: Most of us think our passions are something 

grand, something that once we find it is going to solve all our problems and save us from our despair. 

But the truth is that most of the time our passions are right in front of our faces, hidden behind our interests.

Stop overthinking and looking for a grand solution to solve your problems, when you focus on what you love doing, what you are good at, and what fascinates you, you will discover that your passions have been there all along.

“Your passion is right in front of your face. If you have to look for it, then you’re probably not passionate about it at all.”

MARK MANSON

How to find your passions to create your dream life

Finding your passions shouldn’t be a stressful and complicated experience. And to help you find them, here are a couple of questions, tips, and resources you can use to help you find your passions in life.

9 Questions to ask yourself

• What did you spend your free time on as a kid?
• What were you good at in school? (Doesn´t necessarily have to be related to academics, it could be extracurricular activities you did or clubs you participated in)
• What are the things that spark your curiosity? What are some topics you are always interested in learning more about?
• What could you talk about for hours on end?
• What is something that you do with ease that others find difficult?
• What skills come naturally to you?
• What topics turn you own?
• Where does your mind wander?
• What do I find unbearable? ( This question might seem strange, but to discover what you want, you need to figure out what you don’t want)

You might not be able to answer these questions all at once, but take a look at your daily life, and try to answer them. Once you do you´ll find a couple of topics/ activities to start diving deeper into and experimenting with.

How to find your passions in life. Other resources:

1. Use your core values

I know you might be asking yourself what my values have to do with passions Well, the answer is everything, in fact, your core values have to do with everything in your life.

But what do core values mean?

Values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live your life. They are the fundamental beliefs that guide your actions and determine your priorities. Values are the terms with which you determine if your life feels full, abundant, accomplished, and happy. 

And inside your values, you have your core value, which are the ones that define your biggest priority in life, the ones that when you say them out loud makes you vibrate with emotion.

What I love the most about core values is that they become this incredibly powerful tool once you discover and understand yours.

They are quite literally a life compass because values are the representation of what truly matters to you in life, about what you stand for, what moves you, and finally what makes you feel happy and fulfilled.

And when it comes to how to find your passions in life and choosing a career, your values and core values can come in handy in discovering and establishing them by using these as a personal guide.

Discovering your core values can also come in handy when establishing and respecting boundaries, as they give you an idea of where is your limit, of what you are willing to withstand while respecting yourself.

Another benefit of discovering your core values is the improvement of your decision-making skills. But how can we use values to make better and wiser decisions?

By for example every time you have to make a decision but you find yourself doubting, you simply have to internally ask: “Does this choice support my values and what I stand for? Does this decision support the essence of my true self?

So now that you know what are values and how powerful they are, you might be wondering how can I discover my values and core values.

You can discover yours by following these 4 simple steps:

Write your values

Review the list of examples of values linked below and select and write down every value that resonates with you as well as the values that most accurately describe your feelings or behaviors. Add any you think of that are not on the list as well. 

A little tip that has really helped me in this step and that I highly recommend is to read the words out loud and feel what emotion they evoked in me.

Here is a list of 100 values worth checking out to find out yours!

Categorize values into related groups

Now you have a master list of your values, so the next step is to review the list and see if you can group the values into categories. So for example, you may have written down growth, learning, and personal development. These values are all related and could be placed in one category. 

Identify the central theme of your groups

Once you have categorized your values, choose a word (within that group) that best represents each group. You can leave the other words in the group in parentheses next to the central theme word to give the primary value more context.

So continuing with the example mentioned above, let´s say I have a group of values which are growth, learning, and personal development. And I decide that the one I resonate most with is personal growth. 

Then that list would go from- learning, personal development, and growth to “Value: personal development (learning, growth)”.

Choose your core values

Now that you have your values chosen and grouped, it´s time to rank the top values in order of importance. While the number of core values people have can vary, try to choose between 3 to 5 core values.

If you have more than 5, ask yourself what values are essential to your life. And remember, in this list, the order has a meaning so make sure to list your values in order from your most meaningful to your least meaningful ones.

Oprah´s Passion Hexagon

Another resource I want to share with you to help you find your passions in life is Oprah´s Passion Hexagon.

This is a great exercise that will help you figure out how you want to spend your one and only life by identifying the activities that make you light up—the things you love to do more than anything else.

How to use my passions in life

Let´s say you have figured out what your passions in life are, now what?

Now comes the real challenge, what do I do once I have found my passions in life? Should I cultivate them as hobbies? Do I try to turn them into my career?

The money question

Passions normally go hand in hand with the topic of career. “Find your passion and you´ll never have to work a day in your life”, “Passion is the difference between finding a job and finding a career”…

And although these quotes have a hidden truth, they have also created a lot of pressure around this topic, which could become an obstacle when finding your passions in life, as we talked about earlier.

This pressure might make you feel like you need to make something out of your passions, turn them into a profitable career, become a professional, be successful…

But your passions don’t need to be a money-making opportunity or a side hustle. Your passions can just be a creative outlet to unwind on the weekends or after a long day at work.

So once you have discovered your passion, ask yourself, would you like to make a career out of this passion, do you see yourself working on this in the long term, does this passion motivate you to challenge yourself and push your limits? Do you vibrate with emotion or feel excited at the possibility of turning this passion into a career?

Regardless of the answer to these questions, I highly encourage you to develop and invest in your passions, because, in the end, they all bring you happiness, fulfillment, and meaning to your life.

“Finding your passion isn’t just about careers and money. It’s about finding your authentic self. The one you’ve buried beneath other people’s needs.”

KRISTIN HANNAH

Ikigai

An Ikigai is a potent tool that helps you merge your passions to find your career´s sweet spot. Meaning how you can combine your passions, skills, and problems of the world with doing something that fulfills you AND makes the world a better place.

Ikigai is an ancient Japanese philosophy that has enveloped the way Japanese people live and it means “reason for being”.

This philosophy combines what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can get paid for and it looks something like this:

Aside from helping you find your career sweet spot an Ikigai also can help us:

• Design your ideal work lifestyle
• Create a healthy work-life balance
• Pursue your career dreams

I want you to take a look at this exercise and try it at home. Take a piece of paper and start writing down the answer to all the categories we just mentioned to find your IKIGAI.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post on how to find your life passions in your life and build your dream reality.

Success is not something that you can achieve in one day or one week. It´s a path filled with struggles, teachings, blessings, setbacks…

However, it´s not impossible and I hope the steps in this post will help to make that journey a little easier and more enjoyable and become your best self!

Remember to believe in yourself and your capabilities and that you are worthy of even your deepest and wildest dreams!

What are your two biggest takeaways from the post? I would love to read you in the comments!