1. “Passion” is a very broad word. Each of us chooses to define as we will.
It may vary from “work that gets me excited” to “this is why I
believe I was placed on this earth.” When we are talking with someone
about this subject, each of us may
think we know what the other means. But often we are wrong. If we use it, we need to define what we mean by it.
2. “My passion” is related to, and dependent upon, self-knowledge.
Show teenagers, for example, a list of
possible careers,
and ask them which ones they feel any passion for, and they are liable
to answer “None.” Come to that same person ten or fifteen years later,
and they have gained in knowledge of the world of work. More importantly
they have gained in knowledge of themselves.
Now they know, from experience, exactly what they like or don’t like.
We, who are trying to help, may speed up that process by asking them to
do a self-inventory. At any age. Typically, they will want a template
for doing such an inventory.
3. “Passion” has seven parts to it.
The most helpful self-inventories always turn out to be those that
correspond to the parts of a job. That is to say, every job has seven
parts to it: it requires certain skills (do), certain knowledge (know),
certain goals (reach), certain people environments (surround), certain
working conditions (enable), certain locations (find), and a certain
level of responsibility (chart).
Thus, a helpful self-inventory covers all these parts: what do you
most love to do, what do you most love knowing, what are you most trying
to reach, who are you most trying to surround yourself with, what most
enables you to do your best work, where do you find such places, and
what project, plan, or challenge, do you most want to help chart?
One example of a seven-part inventory is chapter five in the current edition (2013) of
What Color Is Your Parachute? However, there are shorter inventories (on O*NET, for example) that omit some of these seven parts of one’s passion.
4. “Passion” is found in an overlap of your present work (with only some of the seven parts).
For example, if I find a place where I am surrounded with the kinds
of people I most love to work with, using the knowledge I most love to
use, and tackling the challenge or problem I would most love to solve, I
may feel I have found my passion in life. But if, as time goes on,
there’s more of an overlap of my work with all seven parts of me, I will
more and more feel I have found my passion in life.
5. Taking time to define your passion in all seven of its
parts increases your awareness of the missing parts when you do stumble
over them.
Doing a self-inventory of these seven parts increases what you’re
listening for, even if your current job is only a partial overlap.
6. “Passion” is energy.
The more you find your true passion in life, the more energy you will
feel when you’re at work. Thus, as we grow older, and our physical
energy begins to diminish, it becomes all the more important to replace
it with the energy that comes from having found our passion.
7. Finding your “Passion” in life is only a means to an end; the end should be com-passion.
Defining your passion in life is not a sufficient goal for any life. That can be very selfish and inwardly-directed.
This makes me excited; this makes me happy. So what?
Let us suppose you were out of work for two years before you finally
found meaningful work. What does that leave you with? A hope you will
never go through such a period again? Yes. But is that all?
Let us say you have now arrived in some function where you need to
hire people. Do you reach out and go the extra mile, now, to help
someone who has been out of work for two years? Or do you turn them
down, and say, “Sorry, we don’t hire people out of work as long as
you’ve been”?
You haven’t grown until you have wrung every bit of compassion out of
your own experience and used it to feel and show empathy toward someone
in a similar predicament. Compassion, to find and feel our ties to all
other human beings, should be our real passion in life. Passion; does it
teach you compassion? That’s the acid test of any life.
Copyright © 2013 by What Color Is Your Parachute
Out-of-the-box
job search ideas can work wonders in a competitive job market. But if
you struggle to come up with a creative, yet still professional idea
that hasn’t been overdone, you might end up sticking with the
old-fashioned resume and cover letter in order to land your next job.
