Stop Trying To Find Your Passion
I want to talk about something that’s been on my mind a lot lately, really for years, if I’m honest. Passion. It’s a topic you hear people talk about often, especially in the entrepreneurial space. But it’s not just there. School aged kids are being asked to find and state their passion as they fill out college applications. It’s in interview questions, although often disguised as the dreaded where do you see yourself in the next five-ten years question (insert epic eyeroll here). It’s everywhere. In fact, a Google search returns a ridiculous amount of posts and includes everything from How do I find my passion? to The 6 surefire ways to find your passion to Finally find your passion – and it’s not what you think.
As you can tell from the tone of this intro, I have a lot of skepticism about this approach to passion. Asking these sorts of questions, feeling the pressure to name my passion area left me feeling inadequate for years. Those who know me may be surprised to hear that because I’m extremely driven and goal-oriented, but it’s always been around short-term things – training for and running a marathon, keeping all the balls in the air when I was a new mom and still in corporate America (let’s be real… this was more out of necessity than passion), planning and hosting all sorts of events… the list goes on and on. But the truth is, I always felt a little lacking, especially when it came to career stuff. I never had that ONE thing I was shooting for, that lit a fire inside my soul and made me want to get out of bed in the morning, and I felt like I was failing. That interview question I mentioned earlier – I made up something different every time and always felt like a big fat liar. I literally didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.
But then something happened. I started to realize that finding something I was passionate about wasn’t going to be this massive AHA moment where it would come down from the heavens like a thunderbolt. It was going to be revealed in bits and pieces over time. And more importantly, it wasn’t going to come from me trying to think my way through it. It was going to take trying out new things and exploring new options. It was going to come from action.
Over the last few years, I’ve found that all the random experiences in my life have slowly started to fit together, like disparate puzzle pieces finally finding their mates. I’m going to share how these seemingly disparate moments brought me to where I am now, fully owning my passion for helping women grow and be their best selves, especially when it comes to running and building their businesses.
My Journey To “Finding” My Passion:
Moving to Egypt with my family when I was ten, learning Arabic, and falling in love with Middle Eastern culture.
Walking the streets of Cairo, Egypt with my study abroad peers years later, going to bat against the smack talk and harassment of an obnoxious group of teenage boys in Arabic, a language I was studying formally in college.
Facilitating my first leadership development workshop at Boeing, being terrified that I’d somehow mess it up. That I wasn’t an expert until my dear friend and colleague, Bridget, reminded me that I didn’t have to have all the answers, but to ask good questions.
Walking away from my corporate career to build a new kind of life for myself and my family. I knew something wasn’t right, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was… until years later.
Standing in front of a classroom of managers at Ethiopian Airlines and realizing that what I was sharing, how I was sharing it, was making an impact. That this information that seemed so humdrum in the U.S. was new, powerful, and could literally change the trajectory of these individuals’ lives and the company’s strategic future.
Leading a parent and guardian workshop at a school in downtown Minneapolis, MN to a group of Somali moms. Standing next to the translator, staring at the moms who were desperately trying to raise their kids in a foreign place with hopes and dreams of a better life, I found myself listening to her words and actually realizing I understood a good portion of what she was saying. Who knew Somali and Arabic were so similar?
Asking for my contract to being honored when a massive job was canceled well within the cancellation window. This was the first time in my life, in all my years of owning a business (nearly 6 years at that point), I’d really owned the fact that I was the CEO of my business. That the buck stopped with me… and that I hadn’t been doing that for myself for years. It was also when I realized that there are countless female business owners struggling to that very thing.
Launching a business partnership to help female business owners who didn’t fully own their role as THE CEO, who were stuck, or who simply needed a to pull a few levers to change everything about their business. That business lasted three and a half years and taught me so much about business and being a business owner.
Taking a risk and deciding to say yes to TEDx speaker coaching and falling in love with that platform and the entire concept of us all having big ideas that are worth sharing.
Pivoting back out on my own and finally using my voice to say what I really want to say in order to truly make a real difference in the world.
Embracing all the parts of myself and learning to love and listen to myself fully – body, mind, and spirit. Acknowledging that I have years of skills and experiences that make me a thought leader, an experienced coach and mentor, and the owner of my own successful business.
As you can see, these random experiences in and of themselves were just that – experiences. But when taken all together, when stacked on top of each other, were me being led on a passion journey that I never could have sat down and come up with on my own. You can’t think your way to finding your passion. You have to be in it. Doing it. Living it. Engaging and reflecting in it. And to be honest, that journey doesn’t end. It keeps evolving.
So, how do you “find” your passion?
Focus on the things you really care about. Focus on what you love doing, who you love serving, and what makes you truly happy. This will ultimately allow your work, time, energy, and efforts to fully align with your values and how you want to show up in the world.
Quit saying you’re “going to do” something… and DO it. I know so many women who keep saying they hate their jobs or want to leave corporate and start a business, dabble in it for a few weeks… and then give up. Doing the thing you really care about requires time, energy, and effort. It requires strength of will, resilience, and a willingness to get uncomfortable. And most importantly, it requires action.
You Do You. You are your own person. You are your own treasure trove of awesome made up of skills, experiences, talents, and so much more. No one else is like you. No one else will do the same thing in the same way you do. Let yourself do what you love and care about. Give yourself permission to try, mess up, and ask for help. I promise you’ll figure it all out.
One of my favorite quotes is by Howard Thurman. He says, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
If you need a safe space to experiment, then join me in the Empowered Entrepreneur Community. You’ll find yourself surrounded by purpose-driven, imperfect, passionate women who are just like you, putting one foot in front of the other in their quest to live life on their terms.
Passion is something that develops over time. It’s not found in your head; it’s in your heart. It’s something you cultivate through experiences, reflection, and a willingness to embrace the possibilities, so, I invite you to look back and see what got you where you are. What parts of your journey light you up? What brings you joy? Your passion journey may not be fully clear yet, but I’m guessing the pieces will start clicking into place.
