3 Ways Your Passions Can Help You Get Ahead
Career Discovery, Career Enrichment, Self Awareness
What words come to mind when you think about doing something you’re passionate about? Happy… Alive… Joyful… Energized… Excited… When we think about the concept of embracing our passions, it is typically driven by the desire for more happiness and fulfillment in our lives. And for good reason. Introducing more of your passions into your life and work will most certainly bring you greater fulfillment. But, it will also do something else, and that is what I want to focus on.
Pursuing your passion builds skills that are often overlooked. Outside of the feelings of joy and excitement, these skills will help you smash your goals and accelerate your career. Let’s dive a little deeper:
Motivation
Motivation is your driving fuel. When your fuel is running out, you start to slow down and if it depletes completely, you guessed it – you stop. It becomes pretty obvious then that we can’t speed ahead without any gas. Think about the last time that you were doing something that bored you. Were you focused, energized and motivated? Or were you watching the clock? Now think about the last time you did something you were truly passionate about. Did you get up early to finish it and work even when you weren’t supposed to? Passion is what gives you the fuel you need to truly step on it!
Resilience
This is one of the most crucial, and often underestimated, skills critical to your success. When life gets hard – which we all know it does – it is resilience that helps us dust ourselves off, get back up and keep on movin’. So what does passion have to do with resilience? Passion makes things all worthwhile. It keeps us determined and committed. If I am working on a project that hardly interests me and my computer crashes and I lose it, how inclined am I going to be to start again? Or if I’m giving a presentation on something I don’t care about and I totally choke, will I want to talk on that topic again? The answer to both of these questions is likely “no.” Sure, if I have to get the work done, then I will. But I may do it with a lot of groaning, frustration and only just do enough to get by. But what if the project was something close to my heart, or the presentation was something I was truly passionate about? Chances are that, even though I would feel upset and frustrated, I would start over or try again because it’s worth it! Passion makes it worth it, and when it’s worth it… we get back up!
Creativity
When we’re passionate about something, chances are we spend a lot more time thinking about it than when we’re working on something that bores us. And when we spend time reflecting and caring to make it better, we arrive at innovative ideas and solutions The most creative concepts are born from passion. The Wright Brothers were infatuated by aviation. Bill Gates was obsessed with computers. Rarely will you find an entrepreneurial success story whose main character was not driven by passion. Passion drives innovation and innovation drives transformation, so if you’re looking to make a meaningful impact, your best bet is to first find your passion!
When we look back over these three powerful qualities – Motivation, Resilience, and Creativity – we notice that they are three of the most crucial drivers of success Think about any successful people you know. Do they do something they hate? Or do they do something they’re wildly passionate about?
Your passions are more than a nice way to catch a little more joy in life. They are the vehicle that will drive your success. So, I would like to leave you with two questions to think about:
- Are you currently doing something you are truly passionate about? If not, what opportunities for success are you missing out on and how can you better align your career to your passions?
- What are you doing on a daily basis to incorporate your passions into your life? What more can you do and how might this improve both your happiness and
They say that people with great passion can make the impossible happen. I challenge you to test that theory.
