Inspiration Behind The Passion Project

Now you are/almost at school, I want to share some insights with you about following your passions and eventually finding a career that suits you.

Apparently some people know from an early age exactly what they want to do with their lives and take an uninterrupted path there. That’s great, but it’s not the case for most people, it wasn’t the case for me, and it might not be the case for you.

Most people actually spend a fair bit of time struggling to answer the question: What should I do with my life? This means that, like me, along the way they can find themselves caught in some common traps.

• *  Struggling with a career choice because they have no idea of their deepest life interests.

• *   Feeling they have to study something like law, medicine or engineering because they got the marks and the jobs sound good, when what would really make them happy is something different, perhaps journalism, teaching, being an artist, or building a company.

• *   Grinding it out in a job that doesn’t suit them which they chose mainly because of the pay and status, or because they thought it was what was expected of them, or because it’s the job one of their parents did.

• *   Managing lots of people when what makes them happiest is solo work (or vice versa), or analysing numbers when what makes them happiest is mentoring, counselling and teaching (or vice versa).

  
  

  To help you avoid some of these traps, I’ll tell you the story of how I worked out what I wanted to do with my life. Over time you’ll hear other stories about how other people answered the same question. From these stories, I hope you’ll see a few things.

  First, I hope you’ll see that school isn't just about getting good marks, but also about finding your gifts, your deepest interests, when you are most in your element, and who you want to be. Also, as there are many ways that people learn, think, and express themselves, school is a great time for you to become aware of your personal preferences in these areas. Start finding and noticing these things in yourself now; don’t leave it to when you reach Year 10.

  Second, I hope you’ll see that the concept of “what interests you most deeply” isn’t about what you’re good at or your hobbies or pastimes. It’s more about a calling or a passion or a state of flow. It’s that elusive part of your personality that, when you’re using it, you don’t notice the hours passing by and you feel you’re in your element. It’s the thing you feel you were built to do, and that you can’t believe people would pay you to do. It’s what you’re instrinsically motivated to do.

  Third, I hope you’ll learn what various jobs are really like on a day-to-day basis, so you don’t make subject and course decisions based on idealised notions of those jobs.

  Fourth, I hope you’ll see that it's normal for a career path to have twists and turns, and to rely on guesses, coincidences and chance. Expect to make career mistakes along the way, but use those experiences to make a change and try something else. In other words, try lots of things, keep what works, and discard what doesn’t. Rinse and repeat, as often and quickly as you can until the lightbulb goes on.

  Fifth, there will come a point in your working life after which it becomes much harder to make a career change (e.g. when you reach a certain age, or when you start a family). I hope that by the time you reach this point you are so happy with your career path that you wouldn't change much about it if you suddenly had $200 million in the bank.