Trying to find your passion when you don’t know what to do in life can seem like searching for that needle in a haystack!

But don’t despair …. There are some clues you can follow to help you find out what truly makes your heart sing and it’s not as tricky as it might seem.

Once you start asking yourself better questions you might start finding you give better answers which in turn will get you on the right path.

1.     Who inspires you?

Start by asking yourself ‘Who do you look up to?’ and ‘Who are your role models?’

There must be people you admire ….

Put a list together – who are the 5 - 10 people you can think of that you respect and admire right now that you would want to be friends with?

What is it in their life or career that resonates with you and what is it that they do which draws you to them?

What makes them interesting to you?

Do some analysis of those people and see what things they might all have in common to work out if there is a thread that brings them together.

This might start to show you what area it is that really lights your fire.

2.     Enjoy the journeys as steppingstones

Don’t stress yourself if you don’t find it straight away or if it’s not immediately obvious.

Sometimes you might have to try different things. Where you start out is very rarely where you end up in life.  A career for life is now a thing of the ‘olden days’.  Gone is the single job where people spend 45/50 years doing the same thing day in day out, progressing up one company ladder and get a carriage clock on their day of retirement!

Different career paths are much more common these days and being open to opportunities is important if you don’t feel you have ‘found your thing’.

Say yes and go on a journey, multiple journeys with lots of detours and double backs. That is ok.

Be open to where it might take you.  Rarely do people leave school at 16 or 18 and feel 100% confident in the choice they have made in their ‘chosen’ career – this is the minority of school leavers not the majority.

It’s common not to know at that age – or even at any age – exactly what you want to do in your life.  We all face different challenges and have different opportunities available to us at any particular time in life.  So, we are not all on a level playing field. 

But the commonality is often found in the uncertainty of what we want to do, and your background doesn’t bulletproof you into knowing what your passion is right from the get-go.

3.     Don’t give up and give yourself time to find it

Keep searching until you start to feel you are resonating and feeling an energy that makes you feel good.  This is a clue you are nearer to finding your passion! 

When you finish doing something and you feel really energised – examine what it is you were doing that made you feel so great!

Why did you get so absorbed and not notice the time? What was it you were doing that left you with a big smile on your face and like you were really happy!

It can take years to really reach the point where you get to recognise and engage with your passion on a daily basis.

And the ultimate place is where you can make a living and a good income from your passion. As that collision of passion plus money means you will never work another day in your life and that each day is spent doing something you really love.

That is not to say that there won’t still be ups and downs – even when you are engaged in doing what you love there will still be rubbish days!

But the difference is that once you find your passion, you will shine at what you are good at.  And the world needs more people shining their lights for others to see.

When you meet someone, who is fully engaged in what they do, it shows immediately. You feel their energy and their passion is infectious and uplifting and exciting to be around.

We all deserve to spend our life on this earth doing something we feel is worthwhile and rewarding. Once you find your passion you are much more likely to feel content, satisfied, fulfilled, happier and better able to function in your life from a place of security and confidence. Doing what you love is a gift, not just for yourself to find but for others to benefit from what you offer.

Don’t deprive the world from seeing your light. Keep on searching until you find what it is you love and then shine your beacon brightly and allow others the opportunity to really see your gift.