We all know the quote from
Confucius: ‘do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life’.
It has become a mantra in career guidance.
Although I am a big fan of career
counselling, the thought that the key to having a great career is to identify
your passion and pursue a career involving that interest, gives me the creeps. I
cannot help but wonder whether matching people with the right job is my true
passion or is it something I became passionate about over the years because
through experience I became good at it?
The problem
is that we talk about passion as if it is something that exists deep within
ourselves. It is there, just waiting to come out…. if only we give it a chance.
But most of us are not born with one clear out passion. And our passion may
evolve over time. Or maybe you are not great in what you are passionate about.
Passion may create an intimidating standard that you are not likely to meet.
So, if you've been feeling like you are destined for mediocrity because
you can't find your one true passion, relax. Many successful people are passionate
but when you take a closer look, their passion often developed alongside their
success, rather than coming first.
So maybe it is time that we define passion within the context of a
career in a different way. Maybe it is time we start focusing on interests that
you find compelling and things that you do really well. If your
work helps others, you practice to excel at it, you work on engaging tasks, and
you work with people that inspire you, then you are likely to become passionate
about it. Very often, the ingredients of a dream job are all about the context of the work, not the content.
Maybe doing what we love has more to do with learning and further
developing the characteristics that we naturally good at and integrating those
onto a job where you have a sense of purpose, a job where you feel that you
contribute to improving the life of others. With the further development of
those skills we might create that passion that makes us feel like we are doing
what we love to do.
In the end, the
goal is to be happy with what you do. But does passion really play a
significant role in this? Or is there a difference between following your
passion and having work that you are passionate about?
I look forward to hearing from you,
Isabel
Through a personalized and
tailor-made approach, Ingenium Executive Search aspires to assist you in
attracting the right talent that matches the DNA of your company
Check out our website http://www.ingenium-search.be
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