The Habits You Need to Find Your Passion

We can’t just say that we are passionate or not passionate for something if we’ve never even done that thing before.

I was wrong about passion for a long time. One of the main delusions of passion that I once believed was that you need to have passion for something before you commit to it.

The book that the blog post on passion was based on was the Delusion of Passion by Mark Nathan and David Anderson (not an affiliate link, just really love the book!). It had mentioned the apparent formula for success which exactly describes what I once thought passion was like:

PASSION -> ENGAGEMENT -> COMMITMENT->ACHIEVEMENT->SUCCESS

When in reality, passion actually is like this:

ENGAGEMENT -> COMMITMENT-> ACHIEVEMENT->PASSION-> SUCCESS

So as you can see in this above formula, passion actually belongs to the end. I was one of those people who had a hard time trying to figure out what I was passionate about without even trying anything.

We don’t need passion to engage, commit, and achieve. Passion is something we discover after we’ve done all of those three mentioned things, and it’s going to take some time before we realise how passionate we are of it.

For example, I didn’t decide that I was passionate about blogging until I started a blog. If I was going to rely on my passion first, I’m telling you this blog would’ve never existed.

So how do I find something that I could be passionate about?

Now, you may be wondering, how can I find something that I could be passionate about? How can I do that without wasting any time?

Here’s the truth – the first activity you try and commit to, you may not end up becoming passionate for it. It may take a few tries, but you would eventually find something you enjoy doing! It will take time, and it does require a lot of patience.

That’s why this blog post is going to outline four habits that you need so that you can easily find your passion. Also, it’s four habits to help you become passionate about the process of finding your passion (funny enough, I know).

These habits include:

1. Have Regular NON-NEGOTIABLE Rest Days

Okay, this may sound like a bit of an odd one, but hear me out!

First, the obvious reason why we do need non-negotiable rest days is because as human beings, we need to recharge and rest regularly.

Just think of your phone… your phone is an incredible tool that does a lot of things for you. But there will come a time when it needs to charge. It’s hard for the phone to do those things it usually does if the battery is low or it had died.

Similar for us as human beings, it’s hard for us to do stuff if our battery is low. That’s why it’s important for us to recharge and rest.

… Now okay, how does that relate to finding your passion?

You may be worried that have completely non-productive days is going to affect your productivity. Ironically it doesn’t. Funny enough, you need unproductive days to be more productive.

When you have a rest day, it’s non-negotiable to NOT work! You’re not allowed to do the regular things you do, whether it’s work, side hustles, or you’re studying. To add on to that, while you’re taking rest, you may find yourself wanting to work!

BUT you’re not allowed to, because it’s a non-negotiable rest day. That’s when you can discover hobbies and passions – things you would’ve never discovered if you didn’t take any rest days. I found my passion for coastal walks and hikes by the beach during the time that I had rest days. If I spent all my days working and never taking a break, I would’ve never discovered that passion!

Picture the scenario of never having a rest day, and just spending every single day working. Not only do we get burned out, we never get to discover things about ourselves outside of work.

That’s why, having rest days isn’t about being lazy when we want to be, it’s also about discovering new ways that make you feel happy and fulfilled. They could eventually be turned into passions that could someday make an impact!

2. Have a Self-Care Routine Set in Place

I had just recently wrote a blog post on how to create your own self-care routine.

You may now be wondering, how does having a self-care routine relate to finding your passion? Well, you’re about to find out.

We already know that self-care is about taking time for ourselves. BUT self-care is also about discovering things that you love doing. All the activities that you do are for you, and only you. No one else is going with you or doing them with you. That way, only you get to make the decision on whether you enjoy that activity.

You can read in depth on how to create your own self-care routine in the blog post. For now, here is a brief outline:

Step 1 – Have Set Non-Negotiable Rest Days

Step 2 – Discover your Love Language

Step 3 – Brainstorm like crazy and keep a list

If there was one step on that list that contributes A LOT to finding your passion, it’s step 3. It’s the step where you get to brainstorm like crazy and keep a list of activities. This is so that you never run out of things to do when the time arrives for your self-care.

Remember how we said earlier that passion actually comes after the process? We actually have to do a certain activity or hobby for some time before we realise how much we love it and have passion for it! Hence, for us to find a passion for something, we actually need to try out some activities!

That’s why we need to have non-negotiable rest days (from Habit 1 on Non-Negotiable Rest Days), and add together those two steps so that we have the opportunity to try out new things that we enjoy, that could eventually be turned into a passion.

It’s a win-win, because when you take a rest day and do an activity that eventually becomes your passion, that passion could be something that can make an impact to this world. Technically, by not being productive, you end up turning it to something completely self-less when it’s turned into a passion that could help many people.

Funny how it all works :))

3. Making Sure You Have Hobbies that Help You Grow

Have you ever heard about people turning their hobbies into a business? Most times, people had turned their hobby into a business because of how passionate they were for their hobby.

In a previous blog post where it talked about how you can make your life more interesting, it mentioned the importance of allowing yourself to take the time to have hobbies that lead to exploring other passions, and most importantly, make an impact to more people with the avenues that you pursue.

While we may have busy schedules with a job or studying, it’s important to explore activities to do outside of that. That’s where having non-negotiable rest days come into place. It was mentioned earlier that it’s hard to find a passion when all you’re doing is doing the things you regularly do. You’re not able to find the time to discover another passion that could eventually help people and fulfill you!

When it comes to brainstorming activities and figuring out which activity to do from the previous habit, we want to consider having the following hobbies:

1. One that grows our MINDSET
2. One that grows our KNOWLEDGE – note that you’re growing your knowledge in another area that has nothing to do with your work or studies.
3. One that keeps you FIT
4. One that keeps you CREATIVE
5. One that allows you to MEET PEOPLE
6. One that allows you to HELP PEOPLE
7. One that just allows you to RELAX
8. One that can eventually MAKE YOU MONEY

When you think about it, all the hobbies mentioned above can be turned into a passion, here are the examples:

1. Listening to a podcast is a hobby that grows your mindset – A passion for this could lead many avenues such as becoming a motivational speaker, or even starting a YouTube channel where you share all this encouraging material.
2. Learning another language is a hobby that grows your knowledge – A passion for this could lead to many opportunities to teach other people the language (and could even make some money in the process!)
3. Doing nature walks is a hobby that keeps you fit – A passion for this could lead you to finding other places to do nature walks wherever you go. You may meet people or learn other things in the process.
4. Baking is a hobby that keeps you creative – A passion for this allows you to explore ways to bake delicious cakes and cookies that enhances your creativity in the process. Becoming passionate for it could turn the hobby into a business if you start selling!
5. Attending public speaking workshops is a hobby that allows you to meet people – A passion where not only you learn public speaking skills, you build your network of people who are like-minded. Plus, having public speaking skills could lead to many opportunities of impact!
6. Volunteering at a community centre is a hobby that allows you to help people – A passion where you’re obviously helping the community. You’re also meeting people in the process, and just by volunteering you’re automatically making a difference with impact.
7. Journalling is a hobby that allows you to relax – A passion where some of your writing could help other people in the process. A real life example is me with my hobby for journalling, turned into a passion for writing, which led to me launching this blog, and future e-book.
8. Blogging is a hobby that allows you to make money – A real life example is me 😂A passion where my blog could eventually make me money one day. Initially as a hobby, it turned into a passion where it’s eventually going to become a business very soon! I’m really excited for this!

As you can tell, everything correlates. Having rest days where you get to do activities, eventually could lead to having a hobby, which eventually leads to finding your passion!

4. Find Inspiration

Now, this is a habit that you can do any time, whether you have a rest day or not.

Let’s keep this simple:

When you’re constantly consuming negative content, such as checking the news update every hour, or watching really anything that doesn’t make you feel good, it’s hard to come up with something that could eventually become a passion for you.

Because think about this – if you have a negative mindset from the negative content you consume, and you come up with an idea of something that you could be passionate about, your mindset is going to determine whether you go through with it. Most times, it will convince you to scrap it.

That’s why, taking initiative to surround yourself with inspiration, by consuming positive material, gives you not only a better mindset, but also ideas that pop out of things that you can do! You can read books, listen to podcasts, or watch YouTube videos.

I’ll say this though, reading one book, listening to one podcast, or watching one YouTube video may not automatically give you an idea of something to do. Regardless, filling up that tank of inspiration would eventually give those ideas for you. Our mind tells us a lot of things, and gives us a lot of thoughts. We are the ones that need to take the initiative to not let anything negative control us.

Finding Your ULTIMATE Passion is Going to Take Time

I’m not going to promise you that within a certain time frame of doing these habits, you will find your ultimate passion in your life. But what I will say is that your passion will come easier to you when you just relax, try new things, and engage, commit, and accomplish as you go.

As long as you’re actively trying something, then giving it a go, then you can decide if you’re passionate about something.

But how many times do I have to try it before I can say that I am not passionate about something?

I’ll wrap up this blog post with this. You may be wondering how many times you have to do a certain activity before you can decide if you’re passionate about it.

I’m not going to take the credit for this little technique that I have been using for quite a while now! I did a 21 Day Self-Care Challenge by Eileen Wilder, and in one of those days in the challenge she introduced something for me that was an absolute game changer!

The technique is from Virgil Thomson, and it is where you try something THREE times before you decide that it’s not for you.

• FIRST try to get over the fear of doing it – and I even think that getting over the procrastination of it is something that stops us from starting something too.
• SECOND try is to learn how to do it.
• THIRD try is to figure out whether you like it or not.

So if you’re someone that could use a rule of thumb when trying different things, this technique is for you!

Now, you can just start something… anything. Develop these habits and something that you can try out will come to you!

-Lauren 😊

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Similar Articles You’ll Also Enjoy:

What Passion REALLY is

How to Create a Self-Care Routine!

How to Develop Hobbies that Help You Grow and Discover Your Passion!

Best Personal Development Habits that also help you Discover Your Passion!

How to Practice the Five Love Languages on Yourself!

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