Can’t Find Your Entrepreneurial Passion? Do This Instead…
I just received an email from Peter Diamandis yesterday.
I just received an email from Peter Diamandis yesterday.
I love his enthusiasm for life & his abundant mindset for all things future-related, so I always look forward to his emails hitting my inbox.
However, yesterday’s message sent chills down my spine.
It started;
‘Getting absolutely clear about your passion is critical to your success as an entrepreneur.’
He went on to talk about how important it is to uncover your passion & gave a couple of exercises to help if you’re struggling to find yours.
Things like;
Remember what you wanted to do as a child?
If you had $1billion what would you do to change the world?
For me, this message about finding your passion always sends me into panic mode.
I’m hurtling towards my 50s, live an incredible life, and have enjoyed decent business successes in my life.
However, in all my years I’ve never been able to identify that one all-encompassing passion all the gurus tell me I should have!
When I was a kid and we got a rabbit, I wanted to be a vet.
A few episodes of Fame later I wanted to be a singer & dancer.
A couple of ‘A’s’ in English & I was sure I would become a journalist.
This has been a lifelong pattern for me!
My interests & ‘passions’ change depending on what season I’m in!
If You Can’t Find Your Passion Try This Instead;
In James Altucher’s book ‘Choose Yourself’, he talks about living your life in ‘themes’.
What theme are you currently living in?
Perhaps you’ve just come out of college and want to help others going through what you’ve just survived.
Maybe you’ve just taken up Yoga or Muay Thai boxing (as I did in 2021) and want to share the amazing benefits.
Perhaps you want to protect the oceans or help your teenage daughter and others like her with self-esteem issues.
There’s nothing wrong with having a passion ‘for now.’
Not all of us were born with one all-encompassing passion or innate gift we were destined to do forever.
You can still build a successful business, you can still live the life of your dreams and you can still change the world.
As long as you can identify what’s exciting you right now, and commit to it for as long as is needed to make it a reality.
Focus on Actions Not Goals
James Clear in his book ‘Atomic Habits’, highlights that what you do on a daily basis is the foundation for the person you are.
It’s the same when building a business.
What you do on a daily basis is the foundation for the business you have.
If your current goal is to write a book but you’re not writing every day, you’re going to experience frustration & unhappiness because you’re not doing something you know will take you closer to your goals.
If you’re a keen gardener & would love to start a blog or business around gardening, but are only talking about it, you’re more likely to be reading posts like this because you think you haven’t ‘found your passion’ yet.
For the bulk of us not born wanting to create spaceships before we could walk, passion comes from action not thought.
Stop thinking about what you ‘think’ you might want to do and pick something you currently enjoy and get to work!
Stop Thinking and Start Doing
If you’re chasing your passion and generally unhappy or dissatisfied with your lot in life it’s likely because you’re not taking the necessary action to move forward.
The chances are you’re thinking too much and doing too little (of the right things).
If you currently love to garden, start a blog about gardening or an Amazon business selling gardening tools, or a redbubble business selling T-shirts displaying jokes only fellow gardeners would understand!
Maybe you love to bake, run triathlons, or are addicted to home improvement.
What do you enjoy doing, talking about, reading about, that you could turn into a fabulous monthly income giving you the freedom to chase even more hobbies & passions?
It’s not crucial that you find that ‘one thing’, the ‘gift’ you were given or ‘your calling in life,’ to build a lifestyle business you can run from anywhere in the world.
In fact, searching for your passion, thinking about it, journaling about it & getting frustrated that you can’t identify it will only hold you back.
If you’re in the small minority of people who knew what they wanted out of life before setting forth from the womb then congrats.
Life has probably been infinitely easier for you.
For the rest of us, we just need to pick something, do what makes us happy right now & take action every day!