The Solution to the Problem of Lacking Passion
Most people have many interests but aren’t necessarily passionate about any one thing. While it’s true that some people are naturally passionate about things, this is the exception not the rule. More often than not, lacking passion is the main problem holding people back from reaching their potential. The reason for this is because when you don’t have a passion, you tend to drift between all your different interest with no purpose in mind.
This is a recipe for the “jack of all trades, master of none” lifestyle. To reach your potential, you must avoid this lifestyle at all costs. Therefore, the solution to the problem of lacking passion is to take one of your interests and fully commit to focusing on it with a purpose.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is waiting until they discover a passion for something before they develop their life’s purpose. Surprisingly, it’s the complete 180 degree opposite. You don’t need to have passion to develop a purpose, you need to have a purpose to develop a passion.
From Purpose to Passion
Purpose is about going deep, not wide; vertical, not horizontal. Purpose requires that you pick one of your many interests and then learn everything you can about it. You must meet with other people to talk about it, volunteer or get a job in that area, and find ways to contribute innovative ideas to it.
In other words, going from purpose to passion is a 5-step process.
- Pick an interest that you have been toying with and get serious about it.
- Learn everything you can about that interest by creating a daily practice of taking classes, reading books, listing to podcast, and watching videos that go deep into that interest.
- Find mentors, meetup groups, join associations, and attend conferences to build a network of people who you can talk to and learn from.
- Volunteer or get a job so you can gain working expertise in that area on a regular basis.
- Find a way to contribute innovative ideas to advance the research or applied research in that area.
Taking these five purposeful steps consistently over time in a specific area of interest is how you develop passion. Don’t waste your time waiting for passion to knock on your door. Instead, be bold and commit to a purpose and let the passion develop naturally over time.