Finding Your Passion(s)

This one goes beyond career, but it's very important to have a good work-life balance.

I had a quarter-life crisis a few weeks ago that essentially got me thinking about my current passions. (Which eventually culminated in purchasing very expensive sailing lessons.)

Needless to say, I'm still discovering what I'm passionate about every day and my passions are constantly changing. When I left Time Inc in 2010, I was ready to conquer the world. I half considered moving to Europe and working on communal farms for a year (this did not happen, thankfully). During my quest to conquer the world, I got to thinking about what I loved to do and how to go about doing it. The problem was, while I identified things that I was interested in, I actually never set out to do any of those things.

I tried to work on previous interests and try new things - photography, yoga, reading business books. Reality was, passions are not easy to find. Often times you can try to choose them, but they choose you just as much.

I started a new career in 2011 in the ad tech industry, and it forever changed the way I look at what I do. Instead of a job, I now have a CAREER. It's something that I absolutely love doing and I'm incredibly fortunate to be doing it. I tell myself everyday that I'm very lucky. But the story of what I do is for another day. The point is (phew, it only took 4 paragraphs to get here), I'm very passionate about my job, but a few weeks ago, I realized... I need passions outside of work. I work too much.

So I literally plugged into Google "finding your passions."

There is a MULTITUDE of articles about this. But I think finding your passions boils down to a few things:

1. Think about when you are most happy, can you identify what you're doing as a passion?  For me, I find that I am most happy when I'm with friends at a restaurant or when I'm traveling to a new place.
2. What activities do you lose track of time doing? I lose track of time when I'm reading, eating something delicious, or mentoring someone. I devote a lot of time to finding new novels, finding new restaurants to check out, and joining mentoring programs (and finding mentees).
3. What gets you excited? I think because my interests are so varied, when I'm trying something new I'm really excited. This is probably why I have very ill-defined passions, but at the same time, it gives me a multitude of things to be at least semi-passionate about.
4. Eliminate excuses. Just go out there and do something or try something, if you're not taking action, you aren't getting any closer to discovering what you're passionate about.
5. Never quit trying. Finding your passion isn't easy, but be patient and you'll stumble upon it.

I try to follow these steps to discovering my passions, but it's easy to hit a roadblock when you don't have time to look for and develop anything. Luckily, there's always sailing.