Passion is the fuel that burns the desire to achieve greater results. Metaphorically, it is the ball of fire under your butt when you do the things you love.
Routines and negative mindsets can diminish the power of passion in our lives, but what if you don’t feel passionate about anything from the start?
Don’t worry. You’re not doomed. You just need to take some time to discover yourself or reignite that fire.
Here are five tips that will help you in finding your passion and living a more fulfilled life.
1. What Would You Do For Free?
On the quest to finding your passion, you might have encountered people who asked you, “what would you do for free?”
There are lots of things we already do for free. If we breathe, we walk, and we spend time with friends for free. The question should be; how do we serve others for free?
The point is to give back; serve others, and impact their lives. What would you do that could help others in some way? When you live only to serve yourself, you might become passionless about the things you do. Life is more meaningful when we include others.
Furthermore, studies conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found evidence to support this. They performed brain scans of participants who acted either to benefit others or to benefit themselves.
Those who acted to benefit others showed increased activity in the parts of the brain associated with rewards. They also experienced less stress measured through blood pressure.
Ask yourself what you would do to help others without expecting anything in return. Your answer might be the key to finding your passion.
2. What Do You Love To Do?
Now, this might sound quite obvious; doing what you love will help you find your passion. Of course, but that’s why you’re reading this. You might be wondering, how do I find what I love to do? What is my passion?
Here’s a tip on how to find your passion: what would you do even when your body is dead tired? What is something you still reach for even when it seems like you don’t have the energy?
The same logic applies; eliminate the money, eliminate responsibilities, and eliminate the pressure even to do it.
What do you gravitate towards? For some, it might be cooking. Making a nice meal for yourself at the end of a long day just hits home, even if you’re tired.
For some, it might be cleaning. It feels especially warming to fall asleep when your home is nice and clean. Perhaps, at the end of a long day, you still want to move your body and dance.
You don’t have to push your body beyond its limits to find something you love to do, even when you don’t have energy.
But, notice what you love to do even at the end of a long day. It might give you a nudge on finding your passion.
3. What Feels Right To You?
People will tell you to work out because it’s good for you. It’s good for your body and your health; doctors recommend it.
However, some people just aren’t passionate about working out and exercising. That doesn’t mean that they don’t still want to be healthy.
A key to finding happiness and living a fulfilling life is to find what works for you. Figure out what feels right to you. It doesn’t matter what everyone else says or thinks.
If you want to move your body and keep in shape, but you hate running, you don’t have to push yourself to love running. You can try participating in a sport that makes exercising feel more manageable. That could be dancing, taking spin classes, kayak or swim.
You’re still working towards the same goal: staying healthy. You’re just doing it in a way that feels right for you, not going off what everyone else says and thinks you should do.
It applies to more than exercising. Figure out your goal or your purpose, and adjust your means of getting there.
4. Be Open or Change Your Perspective
Enough with the questions; on to the doing.
One thing you can do to help yourself find your passion is to be open to trying something you haven’t done before.
You don’t have to do something that scares the pants off you; just do something new.
If you don’t like change, your immediate reaction might be to reject the idea of trying something new outright. You might think, I’m fine doing what I’m doing. I just don’t feel passion for it.
That’s okay.
If you want to find a passion for doing the things you’re already doing, you can. You just have to adjust your mindset to achieve that mental clarity.
“Problems can’t be solved with the same mindset that created them,” said Albert Einstein.
Try to look at things from a different angle. You can’t solve your problem of a lack of passion with the same perspective. Your customer service job is an opportunity to practice your empathy skills. Your tedious desk job still gives you the opportunity to work with an amazing team.
Invigorated passion requires either being open to doing something new or looking at the same things from a different perspective. Whichever the case, be open to giving yourself completely to the deed.
5. Don’t Quit Your Job Yet
Some people romanticize the idea that finding your passion will automatically solve all of your problems. Finding your passion will lead to living a more fulfilled life, but you still have to be practical.
Don’t quit your day job until you have some kind of a safe landing.
You’ll have to figure out how to survive whether or not you have a job. You might as well be safe and have a cushion so that you don’t come crashing down.
Live your life. Pursue your passion. Just be smart about it.
Finding Your Passion For A More Fulfilled Life
There are questions to ask yourself and steps to take for finding your passion. None of that matters though, if you don’t try.
Passion doesn’t just drop onto your lap out of nowhere. It takes action and reflection to learn what you’re passionate about.
When you find that mental clarity about something you enjoy doing, keep on doing that thing that fills you with energy and quite literally gives you life. It can improve your mental health, and that is priceless.
For more tips on how to live a fulfilling life, check out more from our blog!
If you’re in the San Diego area and are looking to take charge of your mental health, get in touch with us at Solara Mental Health Center. We look forward to serving you.
