5 Debilitating Myths About Discovering Your Passion

18 May 5 Debilitating Myths About Discovering Your Passion

Sunrise over Malolo Island, Fiji

Find your passion! Live on your own terms! Pursue your dream life! Do what you love!

How often have you heard those phrases being thrown around the online world? And how many times did you beat yourself up for not being super clear on what your life’s purpose was? How often did you make yourself feel “less than” for having no clue what your passion was?

Four years ago, neither of us had any clue what our passions were. Zero. Everyone else around us seemed to have it all figured out—maybe they were clear that they loved fitness, cooking, kids, the environment, teaching, nutrition… whatever their situation, it seemed they at least had an inkling!

And here we were working 9–5 jobs, having followed the very predictable and expected path—and nowhere along the way were we ever encouraged to find something we loved or to figure out what our passion was. It wasn’t even on our radars!

We truly believed that we were just people who simply didn’t have a passion, it wasn’t installed at birth. And so it always felt like this huge thing, this great pressure—and we secretly hoped it was just hiding under our beds waiting to be found.

Have you ever felt that way? Like you should have it all figured out? Like you should just have this passion for something, yet you have no clue where to start?

It can be seriously debilitating when you feel like you missed the passion boat. So that’s why today we are going to share some huge myths about passion that we’ve discovered along the way. So that you can set yourself up for success by releasing expectations and actually enjoy the process of discovering your passion…

5 Debilitating Myths About Discovering Your Passion

Myth #1: Finding Your Passion Is a Result

Passion is an experience, a way of being, a discovery, a feeling—not an outcome. And it’s ongoing and evolving always.

We human beings are multi-dimensional and always changing, growing and developing—and so are our passions. Another word for “passion” is “interest” and it’s quite normal to have a whole bunch of things you are interested in, enjoy and feel passionate about.

And passion is something that can be experienced every single day. Because it starts from within YOU. Just add hard work!

Myth #2: That You Will Miraculously Be Enlightened and Trip Across It One Day

We can’t tell you how many times we tried lying in a field somewhere, staring at the sky and hoping for enlightenment to strike. While relaxing, it was fruitless and frustrating all at once!

Discovering those things that light you up and where you feel a sense of passion require space, work, perseverance, inward reflection, and gathering data. It is very unlikely that your passion will strike you like lightening. Which is exactly why we’ve created our latest course about Discovering Your Passion, 21 Days to Discover Your Passion. 

Myth #3: Following Your Passion Means Leaving Your Day Job

It can be easy to fall into this kind of black-and-white thinking that your passion currently must exist outside of your current day job or situation, but that’s not always the case…

One of the first things we attempted while in discovery mode was transitioning roles within our day jobs. For Naz it was moving from arresting people on the streets of Sydney as a police officer, to running leadership training and boosting employee engagement. For Leah it was running mini-workshops at her team meetings about leadership, mindfulness and productivity.

It’s easy to accept our roles and jobs, but explore whether there are other opportunities for transitioning within—at worst you will show your employer that you have initiative and a desire to do passionate work and at best you could find a different role that suits you much better!

And in addition to that, following your passion while still at your day job is highly recommended. Enduring the weight of financial pressures often can be a huge disservice while you walk through the passion discovery process.

And that’s why in our latest course, 21 Days to Discover Your Passion, we cover everything from Unhating Your Job to Defining Success to What Change Looks Like for You.

Myth #4: That When You “Find” It—You Have Reached the Pinnacle and You Are Locked in for Life!

So if passion is an experience, a feeling, then it really can look any which way and this means that you will likely go through various iterations of where your passions are focused.

There is a huge myth that passion is this one thing, and that when we find it we cannot put it down even if we discover it isn’t really one of our passions. Talk about pressure!

Between us we have experimented with selling baby food, working in nutrition, selling designer infant clothes, being a “get organized” consultant for new mums, network marketing health foods, and more!

Imagine if we had felt locked into any one of these things even though we knew that it wasn’t quite right long-term… we probably wouldn’t be writing this post!

Myth #5: That Passion Even Exists

Passion is a “state of being” created by us. Why? Because generally we enjoy life much more when we experience this sensation we call passion. When we experience passion, we experience fulfillment. And if you have a life filled with achievement but those achievements aren’t actually fulfilling to you, then you will always be seeking more.  

And we all know that “more” or “later” are some of scariest words out there.

Happiness not spent today does not equal more happiness tomorrow.

If you aren’t fulfilled with what you are doing now, do you really think adding 20 more years in that same job, working and waiting for retirement, will make you happy… someday? It’s nice to think that it’s as easy as that, but “more” and “later” are safety belts that allow us to lie to ourselves that we are suddenly going to “get there” one day.

But “there” does not have to be some far off distant place, that requires endless hours of unenjoyable work. Living a life fueled by passion is available to you—right now, in this very moment.

So if you’re ready to take your life with two hands and begin that process of discovery, to walk an uncertain path, to quit over-thinking it, to stop searching outside of you and begin looking inside, then tune in next week when we share the 4 required steps everyone must take to discover their passion!

Because, simply put, it’s never too late to pursue a life of aliveness…

– Leah & Naz

P.S. Don’t forget to sign up to get a special bonus and be the first to know about 21 Days to Discover Your Passion, which will be coming your way next week!