Physics, music, finance, cricket, teaching what do all of them have in common? At different points of my life, I thought each of them to be my Passion. Well safe to say I was wrong about all of them, as right now all I want to do is to make films for YouTube.
But I’d never have arrived at this point, if I hadn’t tried each one of the things I mentioned at the start.
When I was just starting my teen years, I loved science, specially physics. I’d read physics books, do science fairs and dream about becoming a scientist someday… but then I one day I borrowed an Mp3 player from a cousin. I instantly fell in love with music listen to music 24/7. I started to pay attention to how different composers made their songs. Soon I learned to mix songs and then to make my own music. But I was fat and got ridiculed often. So, I decided to shed some weight and started going to the school playing field more often. There I fell in love with cricket. I got admitted into a cricket coaching school and dreamt of being a cricketer someday. That didn’t last either, I fell out of love form cricket. At this time in my life, I’ve had many amazing teachers at my school. Also, people often tell me that I can explain concepts well. So, I started to think I’d be a teacher someday. But the life I wanted wouldn’t allow me that, teachers don’t make much money, at least they didn’t in those days, SO I got interested in the stock market. And eventually in finance. I got took finance and banking as my major a year later. I studied hard and won a national level championship on finance with 3 other teammates. But, something in me wanted freedom of expression. I was tired of thinking about money and profits all the time. I wanted creativity in my life. And I fell in love with films and Arts. This started with watching YouTubers like nerdwriter1 and full fat videos… then it transitioned into loving what Casey Neistat, Peter McKinnon, matt D’avella and many others like them do.
But were all my experiences prior to this wasted. No! not at all! My experience in music lets me edit better videos. I still play the guitar and keyboard for time passing, my experiences in finance gives me confidence that no matter what I do, I will find a way to monetize my work, my experiences in the playing field taught me how to work hard, my love for science has shaped who I am till this day and my passion for teaching has let me define my voice. The films I make, I try to explain something I think will help others.
And most of all, If I didn’t pursue all of them, I wouldn’t even know what I truly want to do.
People say that they find it hard to find their passion. This baffles me. How can you not know your own likes and dislikes? I mean you know what your favorite color is, what your favorite food is, who your favorite people are. etc. etc… you also know which people you don’t like, what food you’ll never eat and what tv show bores you to death. We are very good at knowing what we like and what we hate. But let’s say you still don’t know what you want to do with most of your time, that you don’t know your passion… then maybe the next set of thoughts will be helpful to you.
Let’s think about scenario 1, 2 and 3. In scenario 1 you fail miserably at life. Nothing you tried ever worked. You lost everything. Your friends, money, health etc. This is the worst you can do.
No think of scenario two. This is the life where everything is normal. Nothing extraordinary happened to make you an instant millionaire. on the other hand, nothing so disastrous happened that it destroyed your life. In scenario two, everything is good enough. Enough is the keyword here. Things still bugs you; you must still sacrifice and compromise when you don’t want to, but at the end of the day, you are comfortable enough. Scenario two is where most people live.
You probably have an idea what scenario 3 is going to be like. It’s where your dreams come true. You’ve got the house you wanted, the place you wanted to live in, the type of life partner you wanted, the amount of freedom you wanted etc.
Now think of What needs to be done, for you to move from scenario 2 to scenario 3? What professions, what ways of making money is compatible with your dream life? Make a list of such works. And now select the ones that you wouldn’t mind to do. Select the ones that sounds enticing, exiting, that sounds fun, that you could do, and you would do!
There you go! Those are a very short list of your potential passions! All you have to do is just to pick one.
For example, if your dream life, your scenario 3, consists of you staying at different countries to learn their culture and language and spend your time like a vagabond, then a 9-5 job, where you must show up to a specific place (office) every day is not compatible. you have to find ways to monetize your work through the internet.
You can leverage platforms like Upwork, YouTube etc. or make your own website to sell products or build a following there. You still have the flexibility to do what you like to do, I have seen Carpenters make money from YouTube, doctors to have millions following them online, filmmakers, gamers and musicians are abundant. There is no limit to what you can and cannot do if you are providing a lot of value to a lot of people. You will be compensated for your efforts.
So, there you go. Finding your passion doesn’t have to take more than 5 minutes. If it is taking more than 5 minutes then maybe you didn’t get my message properly. Now stop watching this video, take 5 mutes to think about what your passion is. Another thing, if you are young, like under 30, then don’t worry too much and just give one field of work your hundred percent. It’s probably the rule number two in Jordan Petersons next book, which I can’t wait to read! The rule urges readers to give one thing hundred percent and see what happens. I would say the same. Do that, and if after 3 months down the line you feel like you are not enjoying this, then choose something else to do. But never sit idle and just daydream. Daydreaming is good only if you work 4-5 times as much as you daydream. work is gold. Work is the only thing that is between you and where you want to be. That’s all I wanted to say here.
RaihanRiad 