3 Important Things To Keep In Mind When Searching For Your Passion

It seems like wherever you look, everyone knows exactly what they're passion about and maybe you're still figuring out your "thing."

In her book, "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance", Psychologist Angela Duckworth offers valuable insight on how to go about navigating passion.

You have to be proactive to develop your passion:

Most people don’t start off knowing what they’re passionate about.

You have to actually develop your interests and this can take time. Be patient, but understand that passion doesn’t just come out of nowhere.

You have to actively do the work to create and develop your passion. Be committed to sustaining whatever you're interested in and deepening that interest.

Try different things out and find supportive people.

Effort is way more important than talent: 

Talent distract us from the amount of effort needed to reach mastery.

People are often more impressed by one’s talent and assume that talent alone is how they got to where they are. That mindset can lead you to let yourself “off the hook” and make you decide that you aren’t talented enough to even try to pursue your dreams.

Next time you’re in awe of someone’s talent, reflect on the amount of work they did and probably continue to do in order to be where they are. Remember, you can do the same.

Improvement and mastery come from deliberate practice: 

Give your full concentration on specific aspects of what you’re doing and put in all your effort.

Get feedback, whether its positive or negative so that you know what your weaknesses are and work on them. Make sure that you make a habit out of this.

Determine when and where you’re going to be the most comfortable practicing your craft so it becomes automatic. Hone in on very specific skills to further develop them and make the most of your practice.