If you have attended a careers seminar or spoken to someone about where you take your career, the likelihood is that you have heard the phrase ‘do what you love’. In an ideal world we would all love to working careers that we’re in love with – but does it always work like that? According to Cal Newport (author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You) “Telling someone to follow their passion — from an entrepreneur’s point of view — is disastrous,”
Career Vs Passion
For starters he says, career passions are rare. When you think about what you are actually passionate about, could you turn this into a career? Not just things that you like a bit, or things that you love but real burning passions that you need in your life! This could be art, music, poetry or something else – something that you’re passionate about and truly love. When you consider an actual passion, is that something you can realistically make a career out of? We would all love a career that we can feel passionate about, but we have think about this in a sensible way – will people actually pay you to write poems for them or sing them a song?
Of course if you can make a career out of something that you enjoy and like doing then this is all the better – after all, who doesn’t want to spend their days doing something that they actually like doing? However there is a big difference between doing something you like and something that you actually feel a passion for.
The Way Forward
The best thing you can do is find a career that you actually like and then work hard on this. When you undertake new responsibilities and learn new skills you can really find a new-found passion for a job that you really enjoy – and then you get the best of both worlds.
Whatever career route you go down, you have to think of it in a way that is actually going bring in the bucks. After all, as much as money might not bring you happiness it does pay the bills. It is important that you consider a career that is actually going to bring in a wage.
