How to Choose a Career When You Have Many Passions

Some people don't know how to choose a career they can feel good about—because they're passionate about so many different things!

Let's take one of my former clients, Mike (not his real name). Mike was bored in his job so he really wanted to connect with his passion. But, as a naturally curious person, he had so many things he was interested in that he couldn’t decide which one to pursue.

His head was spinning and he felt like he was driving himself mad.

Mike's predicament reminds me of a show called "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." (some spoilers for Season 4 ahead).

In this show, an entire team of agents (except one person) vanishes without a single trace. The only remaining team member, a super-intelligent scientist, gets captured. The tough woman in charge of his abduction wants answers, so they put him through one intense interrogation after the other to try to figure out what happened to the rest of the team.

But since the team was literally abducted by aliens, the scientist has no answers for his interrogators other than "I don't know." It doesn't matter how often he gets asked the question, he still doesn't know.

For people with many different passions, trying to figure out what to focus on can feel a bit like that, like they're torturing themselves with questions that have no answers.

For instance, in our first conversation, Mike mentioned that he had been considering his passions for a really long time (we're talking years) but just couldn’t figure out which one to focus on. He thought that once he had that figured out, he could take action.

It’s actually the other way around. The path to anything becomes clearer once we’re on it.

This also applies to finding one’s passion or deciding which career to focus on. In other words, you can't find your passion by thinking about it because your mind is like the super-intelligent scientist in the show. It doesn't have the answer for you.

When people continue to think about their passions and interests without taking external actions, at some point it turns into a mental loop (which feels very uncomfortable).And yet, like the interrogator in this show, it's hard to stop asking the questions because it so feels like they need to have answers.

The way to break that mental loop is by taking external action to deliberately explore what you’re passionate about, one interest at a time.

Just like the super-intelligent scientist in the show, your mind is a great resource for finding answers to your questions. But, you need to give your mind actual food for thought. And the way to do that is by taking action.

Grab a sheet of paper and a pen. I recommend doing this the traditional way instead of taking notes on digital devices because the act of manually writing something down engages us at a deeper level.

Write down 3 things that you feel passionate about or that you’re really interested in. If you’re reading this article, chances are that you’re a multi-passionate person so it might be challenging for you to keep it to 3 items only.

Example: “Hmm, so I just love to draw. That’s something that’s really important to me. So, I’ll put that on the list. Also, I really care about environmental stuff, in particular, renewable energy. Reading about renewable energy just makes me happy. So, let’s add that to the list. Lastly… hmm, I have so many things, which one to pick? How about conscious business? I really like finding out more about that.”

So:
1) Drawing
2) Renewable energies
3) Conscious business.”

Pick one time from the list and commit to exploring this for two weeks. If you have a hard time deciding, pick the first one you mentioned.

Example: “I think I’ll go with conscious business. I’d really like to learn more about that.”

What’s one small step you could take today to start exploring the thing you picked? This is supposed to be a really small step, such as a web search for courses on the topic or ordering a book about it.

Once you’ve decided on a small step, immediately do it. If you have a hard time completing it today, pick a smaller step.

Example: “I’ve heard some people talk about Fred Kofmann’s book Conscious Business. So, I think I’ll order that today.”

Continue to take small steps to explore the passion or interest you picked. While you do this, be very open to the feedback you receive, both internal and external.

For instance, does it light you up when you spend time exploring the topic? Or does it feel more like a chore? What’s it like for you to interact with people who are interested in the same thing?

How do you feel about your passion/interest after having explored it for two weeks? What do you want to do next? Stick with the passion you picked or explore a new one?

Example: “So, I enjoyed reading the book about Conscious Business and engaging with some people who have similar interests on Twitter. But, honestly, I don’t think I’m that interested in it, after all. Not enough to want to deal with it every day. I think I’ll explore renewable energy next.”

 Asking your mind to tell you which of your passion and interests to pick is like the interrogation of a clueless character on TV. It doesn't get you any closer to answers.

One’s passions exist in the world, not in one’s head. That’s why it’s impossible for you to figure out how to pick a career in your head alone.

By taking action to explore your interests one at a time, you'll get more information on which one(s) make the most sense to pursue. And, sometimes that information can be very surprising.

I think Mike’s story is a good example of how someone’s path becomes clearer once they start walking it: When I asked him to tell me about his interests, he mentioned A, B, and C. Guess which of these interests he decided to fully commit to after exploring them for a while?

Interest D.

One Mike hadn’t even mentioned. One that wasn’t on his radar. But, without his conscious exploration of interests A, B and C, he might not have run into the person who talked to him about D and got him excited into learning more about it.

If you can relate to Mike's initial predicament, how would you feel about moving from interrogation to exploration?

I love helping people gain clarity on which of their many interests or passions they want to pursue more fully. You can read more about what I do here.