source:
http://privatelist.findyourdreamjob.com/what-top-performers-know-about-passion/#comment-4746
Top performers know:
1. To find your passion, you need to open up opportunities.You do that by getting extraordinarily good at what you do.
Ask yourself this: If 5 years ago, I’d asked you to predict where you’d be today, would you have been able to?
Of course not. So isn’t it ironic that most of us wait around for our “one” monolithic passion, as if it’s going to stay the same for the rest of your life?
We change over time. Our passions change. So trying to pinpoint our “one” passion makes little sense. Today, I’m passionate about behavioral change and helping you find your Dream Job. A few years ago, that passion took the form of teaching people about money. Who knows what it will be tomorrow?
So what do you do?
You open up as many opportunities as you can so that when you discover a passion, you’re well-positioned to take advantage of it. My friend Elizabeth decided she was interested in letterpress (high-end stationery) and she took a few classes. Then she realized she loved it, kept doing it, got very good, and recently got written up in the Wall Street Journal. She never predicted that — but she explored a bunch of interests and this is one she’s passionate about right now.
The irony of the woo-woo people who write in about finding your passion — think kooky life coaches — is that they’re actually not very skilled at anything. If you’re not good at your day job, what gives you the right to think you deserve to find your life’s passion when you haven’t even put the time in to become good at something?
2. Internalize the idea that passion is often a by-product of becoming extraordinary.
Many of us operate under the Invisible Script of: First, find my passion. Then, get really good at it.
Counter-intuitively, passion often works the opposite way.
Try this: First, get really good at something — let’s say, email analytics, or assisting an executive, or writing for your blog. Think about it. In college, how many of us took a class where we didn’t really know what we were getting into…and we ended up loving it? Yet if we were to simply read the course catalog, we never would have taken it.
Then, you realize, wow, I actually love this.
You get good at something, then often you find out you’re passionate about it.
3. Use a series of micro-explorations instead of grandiose Pointless Passion Pursuits.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You sit in your room with a blank sheet of paper, listing off all the things you love and all the things you’re good at. Then, magically, you’re supposed to somehow “see” what you should do with the rest of your life.
How many of us have done this? How many of us were told to do this by experts or career books? Please kill me now.
When I tested this with people, we realized how unrealistic it was. One of my friends, for example, had dropped out of law school and simply had no idea of what was out there. She had all kinds of crazy ideas, like “I could never work in technology because I don’t have any technical skills.” Yet a few years later, she’s earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year as a 20-something top performer. (I’ll share her story with you next week.)
The point is, she didn’t know what she didn’t know.
A better suggestion: Decide to enroll in 2 classes in the next 2 months. Anything you have the faintest interest in, find a class. For example, oh, you always wanted to know how to rock climb? Pay $50 to take a class. Oh, you want to know how to sew paisley patterns? You can’t find an existing class? Go on Craigslist and offer $75 to someone to teach it to you.
The money isn’t the point. You can barter or attend free community classes. In fact, it’s not even about the classes. The point is that instead of sitting in your room and trying to “think” your way to your passions, the micro-steps of testing your assumptions can radically change your approach to finding your passion.
Here are more nuanced thoughts on finding your passion
We all know people who seem to have “figured it out” — they’re doing the stuff they love, they’re getting paid well, and they’re genuinely happy with the impact they’re making. Too often, we distance ourselves from them. The truth is, nobody expects you to know your life’s passion in your 20s or 30s.
But I hold you to a high standard: If you’re not systematically making micro-moves towards it, just get off this site. There’s no room for people who use phrases like “I need to figure it out…” and “Yeah but, I just have too many things I want to do…”
Your passions will change over time, and I’m not telling you to close the doors. But by passively waiting for our passion to fall from the sky, and never committing to doing one thing, we’re paradoxically delaying our passions even more.
The difference between top performers and average performers is that top performers know they cannot think their way to clarity.
Average performers think inside the passion box, getting frustrated, temporarily resolving to “try harder” (as if trying harder to find your passion has ever worked), then often resign themselves to never finding what they love. “It’s ok,” they say, “there are other things more important.” Yet by taking the wrong approach, it never mattered how hard they tried. They never gave themselves a fair shot.
Top performers are different.
They LOVE the idea of uncertainty, of taking micro-steps towards finding a passion for today. They also get extraordinarily good at what they do, which opens up more opportunities. They try a variety of things — taking classes, reading different books, taking others out for coffee — and methodically move their way towards finding their passion.
I cover the step-by-step plan for this in my Dream Job course, which opens on Sunday. I’ll share more details with you soon.
You can do the same, too. Give up the idea of a single passion magically materializing in your head. That’s not how it works, and I’m ok being blunt enough to tell you that. Losers talk about finding their passion for 50 years. Winners go through the dirty process of DISCOVERING it.
TO DO TODAY
Leave a comment with these 3 things:
- Before today, what words did you use to describe finding your passions? (Example: “I need to find…” or “I’m waiting to figure out…”) and what was your BIGGEST WASTE OF TIME finding your passion?
- What was your biggest insight about how top performers approach their passions? Be specific please.
- What will you do, THIS WEEK, to get closer to finding your passion? Be specific.
Looking forward to reading your comments. I read every one!
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