Passion is the energy, the enthusiasm, the motivation that comes from within. You don’t want to feel passionate about your job; you have to put passion in your work. You want to put all your energy into your work. Passion is important because when you put in passion, you get passion back. And who doesn’t want to work in an environment that has energy and enthusiasm for what they do. Passion inspires others constantly.85% of the people are unhappy with their jobs, because they do not follow their passion in their life.
Does that mean that you need to choose a career of passion? No. You can even choose to follow passion in the hobby as well! In fact, even organizations do not want people who are not passionate about what they do, because it impacts the environment and the work output negatively.
Let’s look at the current scenario of employees in the world. As per the survey done by Deloitte, 85% of the people are unhappy with their jobs. Deloitte is a multinational company that works in the domain of audit, consulting, tax and advisory services. Isn’t this number alarming? People are working day and night. Still, they are unhappy! Let’s check out the reasons.
So, what we missed with such an alarming number of unhappiness at workplace?
As per Narayanan Murthy, the founder of Infosys, India has not given any invention or earth-shaking idea in 60 years. If we check the list of 100 World’s Most Powerful People, there are just 2 Indians in it. We are very short of visionaries. As per the Livemint Report, only 1.5% of India’s population volunteers for social activities.
Existing wrong practices –
Unaware of the passion, unaware of self- capabilities, strengths etc, wrong guidance- example of following a career path of a cousin without knowing any better. The biggest reason is that people are stuck in the jobs they don’t like! Imagine if Sachin Tendulkar was to sing a song and Lata Mangeshkar would have been a Cricket Player! Both would have been terribly failed in their career. People don’t know what their passion is. That’s the reason that they end up taking ANY job. People sometimes are not even clear about what their life is for.
Also, most of the times, people are in the wrong job because of wrong guidance. They join the jobs because friend was in the same field or peer pressure. But, ultimately end up in depression
Ideal career
- Things I get paid for: Skill
- Things I love to do: Passion
- Things I am good at: Values
How to get career clarity
- What all you are passionate about
- Being aware of the various streams
- Mix of passion and career choice- zeroing down on what you want to become
- Career counsellors
Example – A CA who enjoys travelling can choose consulting and travel as a hobby
Passion & Career
- Get clarity between passion & career
- Passion needs to be researched to see if it can be pursued as a career
- Road map
There is lack of innovation because there is lack of passion. But, a question remains: Are all passions good that they can be converted to career? What can predict your success or failure if you follow your passion?
Let’s take one passion for example: Business. Do you know that as per the statistics of 2017, there are 19,000 startups in India? But there is a study from Forbes that says 90% of the startups fail in the very first year! What happened that made people who worked on their passions fail? You will see many such examples as well around you. The people who followed their passion and failed very hard! So today, we will be doing an activity and working on our passions that can be transformed as our career. One thing here; be 100% true to yourself. There’s nothing right or wrong at all here in the activity.
We will be evaluating our passions on 4 important aspects of career.
Consistency
When you have to take something as a career, you have to do it 8 hours a day, daily, for the next 40 years of your lives. Also, sometimes 20+ hours a day too! Now, go through your list of passions and check each of your listed activity. Can you really do them consistently? 8 hours a day? For the next 40 years of your life? Share some example out of your passions which you cannot do consistently. Mark them with a tick if you can or a cross if you are not willing to be consistent on it.
Perfection
Whatever career you choose, you have to be flexible and perfect in it. By flexibility, we mean here that we cannot stick to just one side of that activity. If singing is my passion, then I have to be flexible enough to sing a happy and fast beat song or some lazy slow sad songs. Taking an example: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a perfectionist in Qawwali themed songs. He cannot sing Char Bottle Vodka like Yo Yo Honey Singh. Similarly, Lata Mangeshkar is a perfectionist in slow themed songs. But, her sister, Asha Bhosle has sung in various genres, like love duets, pop songs, disco songs. Share some example out of your passions which you cannot do with perfection and flexibility. Mark them with a tick if you can or a cross if you are not willing to be flexible or perfect on it.
Learning ability
Whatever career you choose, you have to be open to learn more and more of it, throughout your life. Are you willing to learn more about that passion of yours? Do you have enough resources available? Let’s take an example: I like to fly an aeroplane. I want to be a pilot. But, my family cannot afford the fees of the pilot course. So, of course, I cannot learn it by just viewing videos on YouTube! Share some example out of your passions which you cannot learn. Mark your passions with a tick if you can or a cross if you are not willing to be flexible or perfect on it.
Usefulness
What so ever you do, you cannot earn until it is helpful to the people out there in any way. It can be helpful for them in their career or day-to-day life. Taking an example, no matter how good you feel while singing. It can only be chosen as a career if it pleases to the listener. If your business idea is not helpful to people, they won’t buy it, simple as that. Share some example out of your passions which are not helpful. Mark your passions with a tick if it is helpful to people in any way or cross if it is not helpful to people at all.
Road to Success
Now as we have chosen our career out of passions, it is important that we should get success in it too, right? So, what is the first step to success? It’s Planning. As per Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Father of USA, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
It is important to create a plan to reach our goal. In the very beginning we will set up our milestones. We have a starting point, which is today. Now we will be creating Milestones of it till our final goal. Taking an example, I want to be a Web Developer. I am currently in 11th class. I can go for BCA, then MCA. Also, I can do some diploma course from NIIT, near my house. After 6 years, I will be a Web Developer and reach my destination.