My friend used to say she had no passion other than watching movies or traveling. The fear of not having a career she’s passionate about would annoy her so much that she stopped watching movies.
Today, my friend is a marketing specialist at her favorite company and also lives her passion for traveling and watching movies.
If you’re also worried about your career because you don’t have a passion, remember this: 8 in 10 Americans aren’t passionate about their jobs. Therefore, you aren’t alone and you can be successful even without a job you’re passionate about.
What is Passion?
A passion is simply a strong love for something.
From a career perspective, it’s an enthusiasm toward one’s work. It’s when you wake up excited every day to go to work and engage with its tasks. It’s when you don’t want to leave your career at any cost and when it feels like you truly belong to your career.
How do I find a career if I have no passion?
If you’re an overthinker, finding a career without a passion can be difficult. The best advice at this point is to stop overthinking.
The following list of advice will help you find a suitable career without a passion. This will help you brainstorm suitable career options and get creative with finding the right job.
1. Your career doesn’t need to be your passion
Understand that most of us don’t have jobs we’re passionate about. Some of us don’t even have a passion, so it’s okay if you feel the same.
A career comes with great responsibility and even stress so turning your passion into your job is the easiest way to destroy your dreams. Instead of stressing about finding a passion so you can make a career change decision, focus on a skill that pays.
It’s also fine if you currently have no skills. You can easily learn in-demand skills online, and that too for free. You just need to find a skill you can learn, craft a curriculum to make the learning process smooth and practice it.
2. Practical experience
If you’re young and have enough savings or time, make the most out of it and explore different career options.
You can find your element when exploring different careers and meeting new people. I did the same thing to transition into content writing and my life changed.
Discover who you are, take personality tests, find your desired lifestyle and research relevant career options. Our interests are derived from our personalities and knowing more about yourself will help you find a suitable career.
Make new friends, join communities, meet new people, and try different things to find work you enjoy doing. Pay attention to your emotions while you do this to make better decisions.
Do you feel exhausted at work or do you enjoy juggling certain tasks?
The network you build while you do this can also help find you a full-time job.
3. Know your desires
Knowing your personality involves knowing your goals, desires, and motivations. These are the things you want in your life. No matter if your passion doesn’t bring you these, you’ll end up liking careers that offer you the desired lifestyle.
Are you rigid about working from home? Do you want to live in a specific location? Is there an industry you’re knowledgeable about? What does your ideal day look like? Ask these questions to yourself to have a clear idea of your desires.
Once you know what needs to change, find out careers that offer your ideal lifestyle. Look at job postings for those careers. See what skills are in demand for your suitable career and learn those skills.
4. Eliminate unwanted careers
Assess the types of jobs you never want to be doing and eliminate them from your list. For example, if you don’t enjoy anything tech-related, keep this in mind when you search for a new job.
Even if your job role isn’t technical but you end up working with people in tech, you’ll have some technical encounters daily. And if you don’t like it, you’ll end up burnt out.
The process of elimination is crucial in finding work that keeps you sane. So don’t take it lightly and find things you absolutely hate.
5. Focus on skills
People who pursue their passion as careers make the smaller population. Others have to learn skills and be good at them to earn a livelihood.
So if you don’t have any passion, focus on the skills you already have. Get even better at them or learn new skills.
If you happen to have no skills, find skills you can easily learn and enrol in a course. Forget about making passion your career, earn enough to live your dream life.
Promote your skills on LinkedIn and build a personal brand to land better opportunities. Share LinkedIn content that showcases your credibility and builds a network.
6. Pursue passion as a side hustle
Finding a career you’re passionate about depends on luck, but making it a side hustle or fun project is your choice.
For example, if you’re passionate about painting but work in healthcare, why not share pieces you paint in your free time on social media or join weekend painting communities?
This won’t only allow you to practice your passion, but also keep you motivated at work. You’ll find yourself excited for a time off so you can do what you love. This will add meaning and purpose to your life and who knows one day you make a thriving business out of it?
7. Passions change over time
Humans have no free will. Thus, our passions are influenced by psychological and external factors like upbringing, stereotypes, societal pressure, past experiences etc. Therefore, our passions keep changing.
For example, You might be into coding because you’ve been influenced by your family and received a technical education. But you believe you’re passionate about it until you try a new thing. Maybe, move to a new society, where arts and culture are valued and after spending a few months there you find yourself inclining toward music.
Psychology tends to keep us in unwanted careers while trapping us in the false assumption of passion. This can become problematic when you put years of effort into a career and later realize your true passion is something else.
Considering this, turning your passion into a career will be stupid. Better try new things outside work, discover your personality and let the career be the source of sustainability.
@ohjoy and @thepoorsophisticate are great examples of people practising their passions outside work.
You don’t even need to share your work online, just practice it to give your mind a break from other responsibilities, and enjoy yourself.
Can you succeed without passion?
Yes, most of us do succeed without passion.
If happiness is success for you, you can find ways to stay happy without a passionate career.
If you feel success is being wealthy, you can learn in-demand skills and personal branding to earn more.
If you think success is health, you can invest in a nutritious diet and exercise to keep yourself healthy.
Most of us go to work to reach the weekend with full tummy and pocket, so we can do things that matter.
Most of my friends have a 9-5 job and they work hard all week to turn their passions into a reality. These passions vary from traveling to having a happy family depending on where the friend is coming from.
FAQs
Is it okay to live without passion?
Yes. Passion doesn’t necessarily give meaning to your life. You might still have things you enjoy doing like cooking, skincare, reading etc. Just keep doing them to enjoy your life and don’t think too much about having a passion.
Is passion necessary for a career?
No. If we make passions our career, most of us will be broke. And this will also keep us from practising our passions outside work. For example, my passion is living on a farm where a waterfall meets my cold water canal. Farm animals love me and I’ve got a small wooden library by the colorful trees.
I can’t make this passion a career but I can focus on my career to earn enough and live my passion.
How do I find a satisfying career?
Find a career that fulfils your goals and desires and the satisfaction will follow you. The goals and desires can be remote work, living in another city, having a 4-day work week etc.
What if my career makes me anxious?
If you’re always stressed about your work and the anxiety stays until you get holidays, you need a change. Find out what’s causing the anxiety and identify if you need to switch jobs or change careers.