“Passion” is probably the most important component leading to our ideal career, and the first thing you should consider above all else. Even if it turns out that you have zero skills in your passion and you have no idea how to pursue it, you can at least start taking baby steps to setting the world on fire. Until you identify exactly what your passion is, you will simply be building random skills and pursuing a particular career just to earn more money. You could well be taking your life to the wrong place.
Discovering your real passion comes as a result of having gone through several worthy goal pursuits. You can’t possibly know your real passion unless you’ve worked on goals that really mean something to you. You need to experience the ups and downs of a serious goal pursuit and have taken the step to get out of your comfort zone.
If you can identify what it is that you want to pursue and the end objective that you want to realise, you will naturally be motivated which in turn will fuel your growth. By letting yourself be inspired by what you love to do, you will naturally be okay with doing the things you dislike/resist/hate/fear in order to realise your dreams. You will easily step out of your comfort zone to make things happen.
What Will Take You Out of Your Comfort Zone?
- moving towards your fear
- taking actions different from what you normally do
- falling in love with discomfort. The whole essence of moving out of one’s comfort zone is about learning to be okay with being uncomfortable
- regularly trying something new (at least once a week)
Knowing what you passion is, is actually more important than learning tips and strategies to expand one’s comfort zone, because once you are driven by a vision bigger than you, you will naturally do whatever it takes, including expanding your comfort zone, to achieve that goal.
Take some time out to experiment with different ideas and identify 2-3 things that you like, and then spend 3-6 months dipping your toe in the water. You could take courses, start something part-time, read up on it, etc. (This can all be done while maintaining your day job!). Then, take stock. How do you feel about the things you tried? Are you still excited? If yes, great! keep going. If not then repeat with 2-3 different things for another 3-6 months. During this time, take note of what you like and don’t like. At some point you’ll find something you feel truley good about, that you’d like to seriously pursue as a career.
What if you’re in between jobs or you’re currently in a terrible job at the moment? I recommend getting an interim job that you hate less, that you could stick at for a year or two. This would be a job that’s an improvement over your previous/current job and have you learning new things, while at the same time bringing in the money. This buys you some time to properly work out your next move.
