The old adage holds that you should follow your passion in your job, but that’s a lot easier said than done. So, we want to know: did you pursue your passion as your career?
Photo by Tim Lucas
Pursuing your passion can mean all sorts of things. It might mean starting a business, or going off the beaten path to find something you love to do. It’s not always simple to do, and as Planet Money points out, sometimes it’s hard enough just to figure out what your passion is. So, let’s hear it: did you pursue your passion as your career?
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16 responses to “Did You Pursue Your Passion As A Career?”
Yep! And now I hate my passion!
For real? 🙁
Yeah, sucks huh? I taught myself to program and I loved it at that stage. I got good enough at it that someone wanted to hire me for a 9-5 job doing it. At the start it was all “this is the coolest thing ever”but after a while, that wares off. Before I could get home and just go straight back to doing my own programming things. Now, I just can’t be stuffed. All my projects are gathering dust and probably never going to get finished.
Do you reckon it’s because you’re sort of forced to do it all the time, that you lose interest outside of work time?
Absolutely. I think if you can make money off your passion without it actually being like work (which in a way is almost a contradiction. If you’re passionate about something then it shouldn’t feel like work, but it does), then that’s awesome. If you love web development and you accidentally make the next Facebook in your spare time and become billionaire, that’s freaking awesome. But doing a 9-5 of what you liked to do, but for someone else, that kills passion.
trying to!
Wouldn’t the world stop working if everyone followed their passion for a job? Nobody wakes up and thinks “I want to be the guy who repairs sewerage pipes” or “I have a passion for selling snuggies and cham-wows!”.
If you can set yourself on a path to do a job you’re passionate about, that’s awesome and you should totally do it. But I’m tired of others looking down their noses at people like me who aren’t able to forge themselves that path, or who are content enough on their passionless job given that it affords them a big screen TV, pay the mortgage, and to pursue the hobbies you love.
It seems to me that the only people turning their noses down at you are the ghosts of your own psyche.
I also work in a job I’m not passionate about in order to obtain currency to pursue my passions. I didn’t take this article as some sort of criticism of that approach, but merely an exploration of what happens when you do attempt to make your passion your means of obtaining income.
If you do generally get the kind of reaction you are talking about then that is unfortunate. If you are happy with your current approach then that’s great and don’t worry about people who think that what is right for you is ‘wrong’.
Nope. My career pays for my passions, but unfortunately is completely unrelated.
Yes and now I absolutely hate IT in any form. I hate it so much that I quit my job, moved to part time in a less stressful IT environment and am looking at other fields to study, most notably film, another passion.
At 35 I’ve learned that being happy and satisfied at the end of every day is a massively huge amount more important to me than any kind of cash reward.
I just hope that the same doesn’t happen at 50 or 55…
So much this. I’ve had it twice. Once in my teens with art, which I had been doing for a good 10 years and then decided to do it during high school, which just destroyed that passion. Now with coding which my current job has just killed my love for.
I think, for me at least, if I can make money off a passion, then cool, but I’m not going to turn it into a career.
I followed my passion as an actor after finishing school and was fortunate enough to perform around Australia and Asia for the good part of 7 years. I loved it but eventually got tired and dare I say it bored. I started to realise that I had accomplished what I had set out to do. Make money from what I loved doing and get paid to travel.
I haven’t worked as an actor now for nearly three years and recently decided to get out there and give it another go pursuing screen work rather than stage work this time. Whilst I found it exciting I also accepted that my passion had declined. I’m now pursuing new study options in a different field.
At first I was kind if sad when I realised I’d lost my passion for acting. I’d look around at all my friends and felt disillusioned at the fact they have solid careers, families of their own and a mortgage to go with it.Then I realised its the 21st century and retraining for a new career is going to be one the norm amongst other gen y’s, I’m just getting a head start.
After being discouraged for almost 20 years— by friends and family with no prior experience in the field or that failed in the field because they generally suck at it —I decided to persue my passion in journalism.
Been published since 2010 and am about to finish a degree in Bachelor of Journalism — loving it!
After 18 years of study I can gladly say yes. Knew what I wanted to do since I was a child. And now I do.
Yes. Although it’s not everybody’s idea of fun, I get to do what I love: Teach music.
Essentially, my job is to meet lots of different, interesting and awesome kids, and aid them along the path of finding that music that feeds the fire in their soul. Then we explore how to best approach performing that music. For me, there is nothing more deeply satisfying than seeing a once-timid, shy student walk onto a stage and bring an audience to tears with their voice.
I really am privileged.
When I’m not teaching, I work as a freelance musician. It’s taken me to 6 countries over the past 6 years, and seen me play some wonderful venues.
As I always say to people, both of these sure beat working for a living!
Nope, wanted to be a Pilot. Eye sight not up to par.