Time and again we have been told to follow our passion. There’s a saying that if you find your passion, you will never have to work a day in your life. Now the question arises that how one can find one’s passion? Many people start something and make good progress in their careers. But as time goes by, they seem to hit a barrier which they can’t quite overcome. In this article, we will look at some of the ways you can rekindle your career through renewed passion.
How do you find your passion in your career
Search for your “flow state”
Every person has efficiency at something or the other. It’s the things that we enjoy doing because we are masters of it. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines this state of enjoying something as a flow state.
When you are climbing the career ladder, you will often be tasked with things that you don’t enjoy. And that’s completely alright. Not all of us are jack of all trades. If you feel that something that you are doing isn’t providing innate satisfaction, it’s probably time for you to look for your flow state. Find something that keeps you engaged where you feel the work is effortless. Once you do that, it will become much easier for you to engage in work and find passion in your tasks.
Having a growth mindset
One of the reasons, why people reach a rut in their career, is because they aren’t incorporating a growth mentality. Building a career will come with new challenges. The problem arises when you look at these challenges as barriers and not opportunities.
Having a growth mentality is looking at every barrier as a developmental opportunity. A new challenge means something new to learn and incorporate into your skillset. A growth mindset will allow you to face your challenges head-on rather than avoid them at every step.
Reassess your skillset
Every step of moving up your career will be different than the previous one. Every new position comes with its challenges and solving them requires a different skill set. The question is, are you well equipped for the challenges?
People complain that they can’t find passion in their work because they don’t enjoy it. In most cases, the enjoyment doesn’t come because they aren’t sufficiently skilled for that specific task. While you are stuck wondering about your work, you should also take some time off to reassess your existing skillset. Understanding what is lacking and what can be done to acquire the missing skills will go a long way to rekindle the passion for work.
Creating the “T” of your career
Here is an analogy for the T shape career. Often, we put our central focus on a single task. You might be thinking that is the core aspect of a full-time job. But is it though? Do you have to drag yourself into a boring routine over and over again? The truth is you don’t. And that is where the T career comes.
It’s like having a central pillar which is your core career. Just like the two hands of a T, you can have other self-fulfilling activities to coincide and complement your core job. Sometimes following your passion alone won’t ensure bread and butter. Instead, you can kindle and channel your passion through things you like doing as a side hustle. That way, you will always have economic safety as well as rejuvenation from doing things you like doing.
Set finances aside
Let’s be honest, we’re always concerned about making money. It’s the prime reason why people wake up every morning to go to work. What if human beings do not need to worry about money? Almost everyone would leave their job. This is because money acts as a constraint to passion.
Take some time off from your usual activities and reflect on your life. What will you do if you are free from the worry of earning money? Is it something that aligns with your existing responsibilities? If so, then incorporate them into your daily activity ledger. If it doesn’t, you can always go back to the T-shaped career approach.
Let ideas flow
There’s a saying that if you are bent on seeing the worst, you will only experience the worst. The same holds when it comes to finding passion. Are you sure you aren’t dead set about not letting passion through?
Often people become so pessimistic with their life that they don’t let themselves be motivated again. The existing works become a motion for them which they go on about. However, you should be open to ideas. You should let the ideas flow so that you can find what motivates you, what drives you. Look around, look for inspiration, you will be sure to find your cause.
Construct your umbrella
Passion can come from all sorts of different places. And oftentimes they might be completely unrelated. It becomes increasingly difficult to channel these different streams into a single work. As a result, many people fail to find the right passion for their workflow.
However, there is a workaround to this. Your sources of inspiration may feel disjointed with each other. But you can try and find a connection between them. If not all, at least some of it will work together to inspire you.
Know your limit
People will tell you that take a leap and the net will appear. As a matter of fact, that could not be away from reality. Real-life isn’t a fairy tale. You cannot expect things to go according to your whims. In search of passion, make sure you aren’t pushing your limit. You cannot leave everything just because you haven’t found your passion. As you keep searching for your call, make sure you have something to fall back on if you can’t make any headway.
Source: United News of Bangladesh