Many people today wish to build a career based on their passion. They express a burning desire to wake up feeling excited to get out of bed and go to work. Indeed, passion does increase our energy and drive. So what if you desire this, but don’t yet know what your passion is? I hear from many people in this dillemna and so this week's Love Your Work Weekly blog shares one big clue I’ve uncovered on finding your passion that may surprise you: finding your passion comes through noticing your frustrations.
Let’s begin with a bit of context:
Your passion is part of your “genius.” We all have genius – made up of our natural talents, experience, and passion – yet we often don’t see our own genius because the activities and topics in our genius zone come so easy for us. We dismiss our genius as something special thinking that everyone knows what we know, but they don’t! Get on the other side of someone else's genius for a moment and you’ll get what I am saying. Imagine you are hanging out with Albert Einstein. He’s talking about the theory of relativity. It’s all French to you. You don’t get it. You can’t keep up. But to him, what he’s saying is so easy. This is HIS genius.
Likewise, your genius is what you know really, really, really well from your instincts and also because you care about it a lot and have experience in that area. Because your genius comes so easy to you - before you recognize it as special and your genius - you expect everyone should know what you know. But they don’t. And that can be super frustrating. Like for example, before I became a coach and before I knew that helping people to love their careers and to identify their genius was my passion, when I heard someone whining about their job and how unhappy they were, I got very frustrated. I knew how to turn the situation around with ease and judged others who didn't do just that. For you, finding your passion in your frustrations might look like …
being really frustrated when parents pass on negative patterns to their children – you are passionate about conscious parenting
being really frustrated with domineering old school ways of managing employees – you are passionate about compassionate leadership
being really frustrated with a space that has clutter, is disorganized, or has negative energy – you are passionate about spatial coherency.
Here is the good news. Like I did, you can turn what frustrates you in others into something you can teach others (given your genius) and make it your line of work. It really just takes applying a whole lot of compassion - remembering back when you weren’t as clear on your path - and also breaking down what you know into smaller details. So, if you are a seeker for finding your passion, remember the wisdom revealed here next time you catch yourself looking at someone saying “hmph, you idiot!” You might have just identified your passion right there!