It takes some effort to find the balance between both (loving the work you do and it making you financially successful). If you can marry the two, it’s an amazing experience!

Wonderful work JD - highly thought-provoking.

From an early age (around 12) I realised that my passion were stories - reading, writing and discovering them. Far too practical to be a struggling novelist (especially in my country, Malaysia, which is especially thankless) I went into journalism.

Over the years, I discovered that the job suited me to a T. And I discovered another passion of mine - the pursuit of knowledge. I just loved discovering and experiencing new things and my job gave me that option.

However, at times, I do wish for a less hectic existance (working till 4am is NOT unusual) and long for a life of an inspired novelist, hacking away at it in a cabin somewhere … but knowing me, I’d probably be bored stiff not discovering new things to experience.

I’m committed to my day job, it’s enjoyable and satisfies my need to make a difference, be respected, and use my maths and data skills. It’s something that I believe in. It also pays the bills.

I’m passionate about discussing sensible personal finance. I think it’s important and valuable. I love blogging. I blog to a small audience and I need their feedback. I couldn’t do it for a living, because I’d miss my day job which I couldn’t turn in to a hobby.

I’m passionate about making music. I don’t have the drive or the temperament to do it professionally (nor currently the skill). It’s easy to have as a hobby.

My day job remains my day job because it’s the only way I can get involved in that subject and be taken seriously. Everything else translates well to a hobby. But they are all my passions.

I’ve also seen examples around me, passionate and persistent people who overcame many obstacles and were successful, if not very successful in different fields: programming, film critic, pioneering e-commerce… Yep, it has to be true passion.

But how does one figure that out? Between jobs, college and (lack of) sleep, all the spare time I have is in the middle of the night.

How do I find my passion? I haven’t got the money nor the time to invest in all kinds of ‘try-out hobbies’.

It’s when I finally decided to CHASE my passion with everything that I was able to move past fears, and procrastination. Now, I’m able to do whatever I want, when I want!

My best,

Chris Dunn

can retiring be a passion?

Marc

Martin Seligman, a previous president of the American Psychological Association, has done quite a bit of research on happiness and discovered that there are a number of signature strengths (or passions) that individuals have. For example, my strengths are a love of learning, creativity, perspective, learning, humor, etc. Grumble’s example of collaboration could be one also.

What makes us happy is being able to employ those signature strengths as much as possible. Just as Grumble said, these strengths can be employed in various ways (collaborating on a play vs. another project). Discovering your strengths and finding ways to employ them in your work is the most effective way to enjoy your career and be happy.

You can visit AuthenticHappiness.com to take a series of free tests to discover your strengths.

I agree that some passions lend themselves more easily to a career than others, and people with certain passions may find it difficult to translate that into a job.

It would’ve been very helpful to me to read this when I was younger, as it’s taken a while for me to sort out my passions vs career path. Case in point: I enjoy interacting with people, helping them solve problems, and helping them improve their quality of life. From elementary school on, I had the notion that being a doctor was the best way to accomplish these goals, and make a career out of it as well.

Fast-forward to my “quarter-century crisis” where, a year away from finishing medical school, I realized that the art of medicine is completely lost in the horrific US system that we have today. You can do a lot more by going to a 3rd world country and actually treating people every day, rather than fighting HMOs to get patients standard care that has been validated for 20 years.

Passion? Still there. Career path? I graduated, but chose not to practice medicine. So now my new goal is to run a nonprofit patient advocacy organization… and in the meantime, take a job that allows me to learn the necessary business skills, as well as pay off my student loans.

Say hello to investment banking– it’s a far different career path than what I planned, but it will enable me to pursue my passion on my terms, not those of HMOs.

It just seemed silly that in the vast spans of human activity and individual potential that every person would be meant for only one activity for the 40-some years of their working life.

I’ve always found that likes, “passions,” whatever, rarely pay the rent, so most people seem better off with some kind of day job that doesn’t tax them too much. I’ve got a career, that I went to college for, which brings me what I’m told is a good paycheck, and I absolutely hate it.

But, once those 8 hours are up, and I finish my hour long ride across the city to get home, I’ve got the rest of the night to devote to my likes, and I’ll never have to live with being a starving artist or a struggling anything.

All I have to do is kiss ass in my job, which honestly means nothing to me so I don’t mind it, but I’ll never have to kiss ass in the activities that I love.

I’m actually very thankful that when I was younger I made a go of acting and jewelry. Trying to pay my bills at each of those was such a devastatingly disappointing experience that I gave each of them up (except for my mother’s Christmas earrings, without which I think I might be disowned).

I learned from those experiences that one of the things I need for my passion is SECURITY. I need to know that the lights will stay on and that I have health insurance in case I get sick. My day job gives me the security I need to write. Sure, I wish I had more time to write, but this is the compromise that works for me. Feeling secure in my day-to-day life makes me a braver writer.

I really think that anyone who wants to identify career or business opportunities should put together a personal inventory. You can do this yourself by taking stock of your interests, life experiences, work experience, personal qualities, unique challenges and so on. I’ve also written two PDF workbooks to help people — one is to help you identify potential consulting businesses you could start and the other one is for moms who are interested in starting businesses of any type. However, I’ve had a few people write in to say that these workbooks helped them uncover other kinds of careers.

But, again, I’m a big believer that your passions should extend beyond work. It’s the entire package that matters. If your work is 100% satisfying but your family, nutrition, fitness, personal relationships, health and other elements are suffering, you may not have struck the best mix for you.

Too many people get hung up in the planning/dreaming stage and their plans never come to fruition.

At 18 years old, I started teaching skiing part time. This morphed into a full-time thing, which morphed into a career as a coach in varied sports and then as a manager in the ski industry. All the while I devoured professional development opportunities and strove to become the best in my field.

On a parallel path, I became more and more fascinated with the related fields of physiology, anatomy, bio-mechanics, nutrition, etc. Part of this stemmed from my own passion for training, and part from my opportunities to take care of the physical conditioning needs of some of my athletes.

I soaked up everything I could in these fields and eventually this led to a “side-career” as a trainer. And that has become my full-time pursuit over the last few years as a wellness coach.

In retrospect, I have been extremely lucky to be able to follow such a winding path of evolving passion. As one of the earlier commenters reflected, I won’t get rich doing this in the conventional sense. But there is a deeper richness in being constantly excited about learning, progressing, experimenting and growing through a career that you are passionate about.

I don’t think that you can “brainstorm” your passion. But if you follow your desire to learn you will probably unearth it naturally.

Cheers,
Adam

Maybe it’s Art or Music or Books or Cars, whatever you like to produce is likely to be your passion. If you don’t like to produce anything, then sorry the world is not likely to support your time on the beach in the sun. The world is full of consumers and it always looking for more producers. So, be a producer of something you enjoy.

I love my job…LOVE it. I work two amazing executives. I’m a top-notch executive assistant, with passion for what I do, but I’ll never get rich (financially) doing this. I’m appreciated, supported, and spoiled by my two charges. I enable them to do what they do best, more efficiently. They tell me I’m worth my weight in gold. Unfortunately, there are limits to what an assistant can be paid.

So passion is an interesting thing. Yes, I’m passionate about my job. And that passion makes me really good at it. But no, I’ll never get rich working my passion.