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To Find Work You Love, Don’t Follow Your Passion
Benjamin Todd
Key Takeaways
Mainstream career advice tells us to “follow our passion”, but this advice is dead wrong. Research shows that people who take this approach are ultimately no more likely to enjoy or excel at their jobs.
Instead, if you’re looking for a fulfilling career, here’s a new slogan to live by: Do what’s valuable.
How does follow your passion apply to you?
1. Identify your greatest interests
2. Find careers that match those interests
3. Pursue those careers no matter what
Matching your passion should lead to success and a fulfilling career, but the data suggests otherwise. Your present interests are not a solid basis for career decisions.
The research shows how 90% of students in Canada were passionate about arts, sports, and music. The census data shows how only 3% of jobs are in sports, art, and music, so even if only 1/10 people followed their passion, the majority would not be successful.
Even if you match your passion with your work and become successful, you may still fail at having a fulfilling career. That’s because you might not find the work meaningful.
Do whats valuable. Focus on getting good at something that genuinely helps others and makes the world a better place. That’s the secret to a fulfilling career.
Professor of psychology Martin Seligman aimed to sum up the last couple of decades of research into what really causes people to be satisfied and happy in their lives.
Two of the key ingredients he identified are doing whats valuable:
1. Achievement or mastery working really hard and getting really good at something
2. Meaning striving to do something greater than just make yourself happy, making the world a better place
How can you do whats actually valuable in your career?
1. Explore Learn all you can about the world and test yourself out in different things.
2. Improve flexible Skills skills that are in demand and can be used in many areas.
3. Solve pressing problems Find some pressing, social problems and use your skills at solving them.