I’m so tired of people being told to “find their passion” or “do what you love”. It’s bad advice. It sounds good, but just breeds anxiety and stress. I think of people in four overlapping groups
Innate Passion
This is who everyone is talking about. They knew it from early on. The first time they picked up that paintbrush or built their first lego. It gets them up in the morning, they dedicate their life to it.
Discovered Passion
The look the same as group 1 now. You call them “late bloomers”. It took a bit, but they now have their thing.
Passion Theme
Harder to spot. They don't scream passion, because they may not recognise it themselves. You talk about them in general terms. “they’re creative” or “good with people”.
It's not just one thing, but there's an overarching theme to everything they enjoy.
No Passion
You’re in good company. We “haven’t found our way” or “can’t stick to one thing”.
We change interests often. We don’t jump out of bed in the morning for that one thing, but love learning new things. 80/20 is our mantra. We can figure out new things faster than most people. Everyone puts “fast learner” in their resume, we actually mean it.
We'll probably never find out passion, and that's ok. We might envy the passionate, but do you really want just one thing, forever? NO!
Do what you love can also mean exploring, expanding, connecting the dots.
Stop looking for lifelong passion. Instead, be passionate now. Whatever you do after reading this, give it your all. If tomorrow it's something else, awesome, give that your all. Take care of today, and "lifelong" will take care of itself.