Discover your passion by peeking into you past, and connecting the dots…
Do you know what you are passionate about? Then you are lucky, many of us don’t. So, when we hear “follow your passion”, we are a bit lost… like searching for directions in an unfamiliar city without Google Maps : ).
Following passion is absolutely necessary. We are most productive, at our best, happiest when passionate. Big hurdles become stepping stones, insights, intuition, are at their strongest. Else, we are quite lost, frustrated… kind of, “Struck in the wrong job“.
After a bad day in office, a cranky client, or a lousy boss, we pause and ponder about “passion”, then get back to the routine. We know we are passionate about something but don’t know what. And, finding it is easier said than done.
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Protagonist 1: Anand Raj, a dear friend since decades
Anand’s “passion” was easy to be seen unlike Adithya’s, our second protagonist
Protagonist 2: Adithya, my son.
Adithya just completed his 10th board exams. So far, he has enjoyed, and been good at playing football, dancing, selling, and teaching.
To see whats common in all of these, we need to dig deeper. We need to see what exactly he enjoys in each of these.
- in football, he specifically enjoys nutmegs, and trick shots.
- In dancing, he performed some unusual dance moves that the crowd enjoyed.
- He invented a bed-sheet holder and sold them. He is very aware of value of money but still he loved the “surprise” when the buyer heard his story and appreciated him.
- Now, in his 10th, he coached a bunch of kids for the exam. This was all one-on-one. He thoroughly enjoyed when he saw them learn and were able to answer questions. He even followed up with them on the daily study plans. All these were at a cost of his study time.
So, what is common in all, how are the dots connected? “create +ve experiences for others, see their response in real time”. So, this is what drives him. He will be passionate about anything that ticks this.
On the contrary, he disliked programming. There was no joy, probably because there is no human interaction. He didn’t like inventing. It took a long time, working in silo was not fun; unlike my daughter – she is happiest when cleaning the house, driving a two wheeler, car (off-course not on public roads), cooking, singing, all these by herself. She doesn’t want others to see her doing the cool stuff (wave boarding with hula hoop; which she self-learnt)
So, what are the careers that Adithya can take up? Not coding, not working with machines. Definitely not RnD. Maybe a psychiatrist? Maybe a doctor? Don’t know. But whatever the career, he will enjoy the most when it has “create +ve experiences for others, see their response in real time”
I am quite unlike Adithya. “real time response from others” has never been a motivator.
Protagonist 3: Rohith, yours truly
My oldest memory is when I was a toddler (late 1970’s). We were in a large joint family. Most of my fathers siblings were not yet married. I was hence their evening entertainment. My uncles got me jigsaw puzzles. Seeing me solve them quickly, to challange me, they would flip the pieces upside-down. They thought, “no picture, should be impossible to solve”. I would solve that too.
The next memory is building stuff. This was during my middle school. I had 3 sets, engineering set, Bristle block, and bricks, something like these… I have spent a lot of time building on and on and on.
Another fond memory is lolling around while reading. I was a voracious reader, reading content on paper bags, bills, labels, billboards and everything. During middle school and high school, we had subscribed to Champak. I remember one specific story. It was of a boy who knew the calendar; given a year, month, and a date, he could tell the day. He was worshiped as God! Those days, this seemed impossible. This piqued my interest. I set out to figure it and soon I could too. I also built tools-toys of perpetual calendar using paper, another using LEDs etc. Since then, if a problem is impossible to solve, I am in it : )
And, while in high school, while reading a book, a question popped up, “why are everyone running around? What are they doing? Why can’t everyone just chill? What is their purpose? Whats my purpose?” I couldn’t find my purpose. So, I thought “let me help them in their purpose”. This has been an invisible force since then.
So, for me, if I am chasing large challenges that are seem impossible to solve, when I am building stuff, running behind a mates purpose/societal purpose, I am happiest, most contended. And, this is a key stone in Peer-Mentor.com
What don’t I like? Doing the routine. I am quite bad in “delivery and operations”, status reports, micro managing people, auditing the compliance… You get the drift. If forced to, I can do it for some time but this cannot be a core permanent responsibility . For me, these tasks are not in the realm of “seemingly impossible”. Even when I had such roles, and which needed labor and “seemed impossible to automate, I have pushed through and built tools.
Protagonist 4: Karthik, my brother.
This is the most subtle of all. He has diverse interests and good in many of them. In each, he is way above average and hence appreciated.
He couldn’t become an archaeologist or a Dentist but still it helps here to understand his passion. In photography, he is more keen on bird photography rather than landscapes and portraits.
So, whats common in each of these?
- Each needs a tool to get the job done.
- The other end of the tool, is something “natural”. For many of us, “computer is a tool to play with data” but it doesn’t interest my brother.
- Needs precision and concentration.
So, whatever the job, if it has all the 3, he is at his best.
As you can see, to find what is “passion” needs a lot of digging and introspecting. But whatever it is, once found, once articulated, we can see a spurt of hope and positivity.
Takeaway –
Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you. - Oprah Winfrey.
