I often hear “follow your passion”, or “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”. Yet many of us have absolutely no idea what that is. We follow a career path that is dictated to us by circumstance, necessity, our family and friends, or just whatever is available. Some people never find their passion, their “true calling”.
Is that a bad thing? After all, careers are just a vehicle to earn money in order to live. You hire out your time and effort (brains and brawn) in return for remuneration. You earn enough to live on and to squirrel some away for retirement. Maybe a little extra for some nice toys and the occasional holiday. Do we really need to enjoy the work?
It would be nice.
Figuring out what you are good at and enjoy doesn’t come easy to everyone. Some of us can wait years for the inspiration, that spark.
There is a way of finding it faster though, but it does require a certain amount of risk and experimentation. It’s often referred to as the fail fast method. Essentially it involves trying different things and seeing what works and what doesn’t. In this case you would try a particular job or start a business and see if you enjoy it. If not, find something else and move on, failing fast. Maybe parts of the job or business were interesting so incorporate that into your next attempt, refining with each new venture. You didn’t fail at the last five attempts, you just found five career paths that were not right for you.
There’s no harm in trying. Go for it. It beats waiting for something to come to you.