Maybe you know what your passion is

Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash

Most clients come to me for coaching because they want to make a change in their careers, but they don’t know what they would enjoy doing nor what they would find fulfilling. They talk about their friends, who always knew that they wanted to be doctors, goat farmers or conceptual artists and they seem to be a bit jealous of the “simplicity” of their friends’ lives in comparison to their own.

Why does everyone else seem to know what their calling is? What is wrong with me that I have no idea what I want to do? Maybe I simply don’t have anything special that I would enjoy doing and my destiny is to accept and settle for what my work life is like: work and nothing else. After all, if I look around, how many people seem to be happy in their jobs?

Does that sound familiar?

Let me tell you a secret: All of these clients, without exception, know what they are passionate about. Deep inside, they know what they would like to do. I did not hypnotize these people to uncover their secret, mysterious, hidden passions. It is not needed because often, the answer is so self-evident, right in their face even, that they feel as if they can’t see it. It might feel like This can’t be it! Everyone loves doing this, right? Everyone wants to do that as a career!

Well, maybe. And what if not?

Look, Anna, I know where you are going with this, but I literally can’t make a living out of improv singing, adventurous sports, helping random strangers or playing with cats, can I?

Maybe not. But what if you could? And what if it’s not just about the activity itself but also about the values you are honouring while pursuing it and the impact it creates?

What if you allowed yourself to let your ideas unfold, just in your mind, no strings attached. What if you could get creative and genuinely realistic about it? What if you started asking yourself Why not? instead of saying That’s not possible?

Knowing what you would like to do is only the first step. The choice of what you are going to do about it is exclusively yours. You have already achieved a lot in your working life; you have learnt, grown, and you have acquired skills and experience. You are a responsible, mature person. That’s also why you see all your obstacles and perhaps feel afraid. 

But know that all the fears and obstacles that are coming up to rediscover your deepest longings and opportunities are part of the journey and belong there. If they were not there, the majority of your friends would already be astronauts, rock stars and environmental activists.

Originally posted on October 1, 2020