Follow your passion. It has been a core guiding principle that helps me to decide on life’s most difficult choices. That simple strategy has also allowed me to live the life I have always wanted.
But what does it mean to follow your passion?
We make choices every single day. The decision we make will impact the quality of our future lives. People consider various factors in arriving at their conclusions. Unfortunately, many do not follow their passions when arriving at life’s most important decisions.
To follow your passion means choosing the option that gives you the highest level of satisfaction, i.e. something you deeply love.
That should apply to most of the crucial decisions in life. For example, in choosing what to study, the career to pursue, the business to run and obviously who you wish to marry.
Why do many can’t follow their passions?
The most common reason is they do not know their passions. They might like a thing or two in life, but they don’t love it deep enough to call it passion. The solution is to be very honest and ask yourself what you enjoy doing. It should be something that you are happy doing every day, including weekends and public holidays.
It may sound cliche, but once you discover your passion, you will never have to work for another day. You will then be tap dancing to work as Warren Buffett phrases it.
Follow your passion or go for the money?
Money is the most common excuse for people to give up their passions and lead unfulfilling life. There is no need for you to do that. Money is a by-product when you follow your passion. That means money will naturally come when you do what you love doing.
Let’s assume that you are a chef. You feel you do not receive sufficient remuneration for the time and effort you put into your work. But you love your job!
Under such circumstances, some might opt for careers that may pay more. However, leaving their passions to pursue something they may not enjoy for money may not be a wise decision. The better solution should be to package the skills into a product and turn that into a business. I will not go into details on how to do that in this article.
How does following my passion allows me to lead the life I desire?
I studied engineering in my university days. I struggled throughout my four years of degree courses doing something that was not my passion. The six months of attachment to an engineering company gave me a wake-up call that I should not continue living life doing something I do not enjoy.
I have always been very interested in the finance field. I decided to follow my passion and pursue accounting study at ACCA. That decision changed my life. As I explore deeper into accounting and finance, life seems to be getting more exciting and meaningful. Life would have been very different if I had decided to remain in the engineering field after the attachment.
What if you are not good at doing what you love doing?
There is doubt that you need to be good at doing your job to survive in the real world, i.e. talented in your chosen field. The good news is that each of us has more than one passion! The key is to pursue the passion that aligns with our talent. I have written a separate article on the concept of talent and passion. If you are interested, you may check it out here.
Conclusion
Following my passion changed my life. I believe it has the same effect on you too. If you have not discovered your passion, do continue searching. Congratulations if you have found one. If that aligns with your talent, it is time for you to package your skills and build a business around them. It will be the start of an exciting life journey!
– Yanto Wong –
