Are You Passionate About What You Are Doing In Your Current Job? If not, What Type of Work Would Make You Feel More Passionate?
Ken Fisher accepts the National Medal Award for the Arts from President Obama.
For several years I have worked with Ken Fischer, who has lead the University Musical Society for the past thirty years. His passion has always been clear: to thrill audiences by bringing amazing musical and theatrical arts to Ann Arbor. He inspires his crew at UMS. Last year President Obama presented Ken, as the leader of UMS, the National Medal Award for the Arts in 2015. Ken is one of the lucky ones who discovered his passion early and has been able to pursue it throughout his career. I will have the pleasure of interviewing Ken next week at Leaders Connect.
While we cannot all be like Ken, here are a few of my questions to inspire you to discover your own unique passion:
- What do you deeply care about? For example: What do you read about? Talk about? Think about?
- Notice what brings you the most joy in life. This is a key clue to understanding your passion.
- Ask yourself, “When I have had a great day, what was I doing?”
- Over your lifetime, what is the theme or activity that has always resulted in you being highly engaged?
- What topic most evokes a strong emotional reaction? Passion is about emotion.
- Ask other people, what do they think you are passionate about? You might consider sending an email to people who know you well to ask them what they see you most passionate about.
- I always tell myself that anything worth achieving requires facing distinct difficulties, experiencing internal struggle, and facing big risk. For what goal, are you willing to risk everything?
- Is there a societal problem for which you would like to contribute a solution?
Once you figure out what it is you are passionate about, take the time to make sure your career is aligned with your passion. When we engage in work that we do not feel passionate about, it is easy to become complacent and stagnant.