5 Days To Discovering Your Passion

This is a five-day challenge that is designed to help you discover your true purpose and calling, which is especially useful if you are lacking direction and want to get back on track with your life.

Each of the five lessons contains a short reflection followed by a specific, tangible action step, which you should complete before moving on.

The goal is to keep it short and actionable so you can build momentum and experience a mini-win after the five-day challenge.

And remember, although this five-day challenge is presented as a single article, I trust you not to cheat and move on until you’ve completed each of the action steps. 🙂

Day 1 – Myths And Methods For Discovering Your Passion

The phrase, “Discover your passion,” has been thrown around extensively in recent years, leading to a lot of helpful things, but also some that can throw you off track.

Today. we’ll look into methods that really work and rule out those that aren’t helpful.

Reflection:

“You won’t learn what you like or what you want to do until you try sh**.” (Neil Patel: New York Times bestselling author and Wall Street Journal’s top influencer on the web)

You’ve probably heard a whole slew of opinions about what helps you discover and implement your passions in life, including:.

• Think back to what you liked or did as a child.
• Ask others what they think you should do.
• Take detailed (and typically expensive) personality tests.
• Make sure your passion will lead you into your ideal career path.

While there is some limited merit to these suggestions, they’re not important guidelines.

And in fact, some of the above could even be called myths.

While it’s true that children are naturally curious, ask loads of questions, and get excited about new activities, when they don’t like doing something, they’ll bail.

The reason childhood interests aren’t necessarily a great help is that much of what intrigued you as a child changed as you aged – former interests have been outgrown.

Suggestions from others may confirm skills and talent, but if people only view your outward actions, they’ll overlook inner desires and values that you alone sense are there.

Taking psychological or personality tests are potentially helpful but can also be overkill. Psychologists will tell you that test results can change based on your emotions at the time a test is taken or render different results a year or two later – and some are not as scientific as they claim to be.

Lastly, while finding a “dream job” is wonderful, passion doesn’t always translate to a career. Sometimes passion is simply a creative outlet, a stress-reliever, or just plain fun.

Action:

So, what are some tried and true methods of uncovering your passion that really can help you make sense of what motivates/satisfies you?

You should start by answering these five questions:

1. What are some things you do really well?
2. What actions and activities give you energy?
3. What could you do all day and not get bored?
4. What makes you lose track of time?
5. What topic could you read books or blogs about, and never get tired of it?

Please do not move on until you have answered the above questions, and make sure you keep your answers handy for the rest of this 5-day challenge.

Next, we’ll unpack how taking action and breaking unhelpful habits combine to strengthen passion.

Day 2 – Taking Action

Yesterday, we looked at methods and myths. Today, we’ll look at the need for action and experimenting.

Reflection:

Yesterday’s quote from Neil Patel unquestionably gets it right when he says that you have to get out there and try all kinds of things. Experience is essential – you need to figure out what you actually like and don’t like.

A natural cycle occurs when you enjoy something – you want to keep on doing it, and the more you do it, the better you get at it.

And the better you get at it, the more you like doing it and want to do it more.

When you find something you like to do – whether for yourself or for another person or for someone’s business, whether you’re getting paid for it or not – it’s a good indicator that passion is involved.

It’s equally important to figure out what things you don’t like. Opportunities may pop up that sound amazing, but once you spend time on it you realize that it’s not at all what you’d hoped.

Natural skill or talent also has to be taken into consideration. If you can find something that you truly LOVE to do and are also NATURALLY skilled at, you may have found something special.

The intersection of desire and talent is typically where you find the thing that you’re most passionate about.

Action:

Just two questions to ask yourself today:

1. Look at the areas/activities identified yesterday (things you do well, that give you energy, make you lose track of time). Have you put them to the test for long enough to know if they’re passing interests or long-term ones? A genuine passion ensures that your interest is sustainable, and you’ll know that it is when you keep going back for more.
2. Would doing those activities as a career be exciting or satisfying for you? Or would it take all the fun out of it? This requires a consideration of what everyday routines would look like. For example, you may enjoy baking pies, but baking dozens under the stress of deadlines might ruin it for you.

That’s it for today! Tomorrow (assuming you’ve thought about and answered the above couple of questions), we’ll look at how recurring themes help uncover passions, and how patterns in your life can make or break a growing passion.

Day 3 – Uncovering Themes And Habits

Yesterday, we looked at taking action to find passion. Now we’ll consider recurring themes and discuss patterns that help or hinder passion.

Reflection:

It’s highly likely that passions are already present and active in your everyday lifestyle – you get into conversations, browse the Internet, read books or blogs, watch videos on YouTube, and write or talk to others about topics of interest.

Look at your budget, checkbook, or credit card statements for clues, then check out the past six months of your calendar entries – because you invest time and money into things that you value.

There are specific topics that grab your attention – just as there are subjects that you find tedious, uninspiring, or frustrating.

Topics you love to learn about, read about, and write about, are areas of passion that you’re developing, whether you recognize it or not.

When an old friend calls you and wants to know what you’ve been up to, pay attention to what you share – because we naturally want to share areas of high interest with those people we care about.

At times, you’ll find yourself envying what another person is doing, which can also be an important clue to what you’re missing in your life.

It might not be the exact same activity, but aspects of what they’re doing could motivate you to try a new activity or launch a business venture.

Patterns and habits, both positive and negative, either nurture or hinder the development of passions. To a large degree, taking ACTION is what will bring joy into your life.

Achieving a passion will require you to honestly examine your priorities – sometimes you’ll battle laziness or the “tyranny of the urgent”. Unhelpful habits get in the way of a wholehearted discovery process.

Action:

Here are today’s five questions:

1. What recurring themes do you uncover when you examine the things that you:
   • Read about
   • Write about
   • Spend money on
   • Invest time in
   • Love to talk about
2. What areas of interest does your calendar reveal about your time investment?
3. What areas of interest does your budget reveal about your financial investment?
4. What part does procrastination play in preventing your pursuit of passions?
5. What about laziness or putting urgent (but not really important) things above your own desires?

Once you’ve answered the above five questions, that’s it for today! Tomorrow, we’ll discuss some of the ways you can explore a potential passion and further assess possible career paths.

Day 4 – Exploring And Assessing Areas Of Passion

Yesterday, we uncovered themes and patterns related to passion. Today, we’ll share avenues for exploration and ways passions can morph into careers.

Reflection:

A developing passion often has small beginnings, so a great start is to set time aside for exploratory trips outside your normal routines.

Hit up the public library – not so much to borrow books (although that’s fine) but to browse. The goal here is to observe which topics jump out at you and what subjects you feel drawn to.

Browse a directory of online classes or community college classes. Be adventurous and take a class you’ve always wondered about. You might love it or hate it. Remember, crossing things off that you don’t like can help narrow the field.

If you have some level of expertise in an area, volunteer to write a guest blog post or an article for a local paper. Volunteer to teach what you know to others. Get out of your comfort zone.

When you’re pondering turning an area of passion into an income, there are practical ways to strengthen your confidence that your passion is indeed career worthy:

• Interview a person or two employed in your area of interest. Find out the path that took them there. Ask what their biggest challenges have been.
• Ask to intern with or “shadow” somebody who’s currently working in that field. Offer to do it without pay and ask tons of questions.
• Start by adding what you’re passionate about as a side-hustle to your full-time job, and then slowly grow it into a business.

Action:

Resources online are virtually boundless, and many are free. Sites like Coursera, Lifehacker, Khan Academy, Instructables, LinkedIn, Udemy, and many others provide education on almost any topic you can think of.

Google “free online learning resources” and spend a few minutes scrolling through the results. Look for topics that pique your interest and select one or more.

And if you’ve already determined areas of interest, look for those topics specifically.

Either way, is there a free course you can start this week? It’s FREE (other than your time, of course), so if you get into one and lose interest, just move on to another.

Alternatively, see what free or low-cost courses are offered through continuing education in your community.

That’s it for today – once you’ve looked for new things to try!

Tomorrow, we’ll finish up with ideas about making room in your life for passion.

Day 5 – Making Room For Your Passion

Congratulations on making it to the final day – you’ve made some amazing progress so far!

Yesterday, we looked at ways to explore and assess areas of passion. On this final day, we’ll look at benefits and outcomes – the varied paths where your passion can take you.

Reflection:

Nobody gets to the end of their life and wishes they had led a more boring existence – so try to imagine how satisfying it is to uncover sources of joy that you hadn’t identified before.

Adopt a mindset that opens the door for adventure!

The benefits of stepping out, exploring new interests, and finding passion are plentiful – new friendships will form, and you become a more interesting person and less dependent on others’ opinions.

This isn’t selfishness – becoming more satisfied, focused, and content makes you a better partner, parent, and friend. Passionate people are typically good role models!

Physical benefits occur too. Trying new things leads to a release of the “feel good” hormone called dopamine. Turning around and doing good in the world is a reward in itself too.

A guide from the UK mental health foundation, Doing Good Does You Good, states: “Doing things for others helps maintain good health. Positive emotions reduce stress and boost our immune system, and in turn, can protect us against disease.”

In addition to all these benefits, your passion can indeed bring you to career possibilities – you could end up in a dream job that grows out of a passion.

It’s important to follow the path to see where it leads. Avoid putting pressure on yourself or being afraid to make mistakes – there simply are no wrong ways to pursue your passion.

Action:

Narrowing your interests to a specific passion is often a series of small increments.

1. Name three interests that have kept your attention, brought satisfaction, given you energy, or made you lose track of time.
2. What is the very next incremental step you can take to nurture each interest? Be willing to step out of your comfort zone.
   • Do you see ways that each interest could become income-producing or a career opportunity, even part-time?
   • Are there indicators that your interests are related? If so, how could they be combined?
   • Could you be satisfied if your interests don’t lead to a career change?
   • How could you pursue them anyway for your own fulfillment?

Think in small steps – your goal is simply to nurture your interests and see which offer the most rewards.

With each step you take, you’ll be closer to both discovering and doing the things that give you the most joy.

Conclusion

Congratulations on completing the 5-day challenge!

What’s next?

Well, that’s up to you, of course, but one place to start might be to try turning that passion into a business (or side-hustle), and you can read more about how to do that here.