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Hacker News
If there is something that, once you start doing it, you often lose yourself in it—for example, before you know it, you’re busy until it gets dark—then that is the thing you truly passionate about.
by BearBest
Passion can be misleading; the literal definition of passion is something you'd suffer for. You can be passionate, productive, and deeply unhappy.
The nature of work also combines passionate with non-passionate stuff. We may love writing high quality code, but most of the day requires hacky low quality code, meetings, or digging through documentation. Or part of a pipeline of gathering, cleaning, and selling data to a financial institution that uses it for medium interest loans.
The better measurement is find out what work energizes you. You might not feel any flow or fun. You might not feel any emotion whatsoever. But you get out of it like a good workout - both tired and energized.
by muzani
You could find a job coach or head hunter and they might be able to ask you helpful questions to guide your search. A job can give you meaning but not necessarily happiness. A job can give you joy/fun but not necessarily meaning. It might help to distinguish what you want. A journal might help your thinking and soul searching.
You could walk. If you have a lot of money and time, you could do some or all of the Camino de Santiago. Or you could do daily walks around your neighborhood. Movement helps the brain/spirit do their thing.
Good luck!:-)
by alquinsmiles
Talk to people. Find out what interests them. You might pick up a really enjoyable hobby or two, or latch on to an exciting project. I can't imagine Jobs without Woz.
I didn't find my complement, but didn't mingle widely until later on, when jobs put me in contact with many.
A friend I met after changing coasts liked trains, but it was a good excuse to carpool to fishing locations near those lines. I couldn't fish worth a damn, but those were beautiful locations, and they revived my photographic bug.
Things do connect, but not in isolation. Hobbies, either by association, or just getting out, create opportunities.
by k310
In my own experience, which I'd recommend you disregard if it isn't useful for you.
Try lots of things, see if something sticks, it might take years, or decades, but the variety of trying many things is interesting in itself.
Try to connect the dots in your own life, for example what were you like as a kid, what interested you, has any of this followed into your adult life, what about looking forwards e.g. where do you want to be 30 years from now and can your current or new interests get you there.
Having kids will certainly give a person purpose and eat up all of that free time if that's in the plan for you.
by smarri
Take a vacation, and after a few days, think about what your mind naturally drifts to when there's nothing that you have to do in particular, and no special obligation. Maybe that will help point you in the right direction.
Something that helped me in the past, at a period where I was lost; is to take a notebook and write every night what part of the day actually gave you energy.
Can be a sub-part of work, or something outside of work, whatever.
What helped me is that there is usually a difference between what you are naturally good at, which is what you will tend to gravitate towards because you get results, vs what actually gives you energy. Over time, you can see trend and find a sport where both are true at the same time.
Oh, and also internalize that fact that those things may change over time as you grow as a person :)
by jlengrand
Maybe thinking in terms of your "obsession(s)" will lead to more clear and long-term answer. Obsession is something you love and hate at the same time, but still continue with it and in the end don't want to quit. Obsession also protects more strongly from loss of motivation and loss of "passion", because it tend to return you back to it again and again. It's like true love, which survives all the hardships.
by 0xCE0
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- Hacker News
- If there is something that, once you start doing it, you often lose yourself in it—for example, before you know it, you’re busy until it gets dark—then that is the thing you truly passionate about.by BearBest
- Passion can be misleading; the literal definition of passion is something you'd suffer for. You can be passionate, productive, and deeply unhappy.
The nature of work also combines passionate with non-passionate stuff. We may love writing high quality code, but most of the day requires hacky low quality code, meetings, or digging through documentation. Or part of a pipeline of gathering, cleaning, and selling data to a financial institution that uses it for medium interest loans.
The better measurement is find out what work energizes you. You might not feel any flow or fun. You might not feel any emotion whatsoever. But you get out of it like a good workout - both tired and energized.
by muzani - You could find a job coach or head hunter and they might be able to ask you helpful questions to guide your search. A job can give you meaning but not necessarily happiness. A job can give you joy/fun but not necessarily meaning. It might help to distinguish what you want. A journal might help your thinking and soul searching.
You could walk. If you have a lot of money and time, you could do some or all of the Camino de Santiago. Or you could do daily walks around your neighborhood. Movement helps the brain/spirit do their thing.
Good luck!:-)
by alquinsmiles - Talk to people. Find out what interests them. You might pick up a really enjoyable hobby or two, or latch on to an exciting project. I can't imagine Jobs without Woz.
I didn't find my complement, but didn't mingle widely until later on, when jobs put me in contact with many.
A friend I met after changing coasts liked trains, but it was a good excuse to carpool to fishing locations near those lines. I couldn't fish worth a damn, but those were beautiful locations, and they revived my photographic bug.
Things do connect, but not in isolation. Hobbies, either by association, or just getting out, create opportunities.
by k310 - In my own experience, which I'd recommend you disregard if it isn't useful for you.
Try lots of things, see if something sticks, it might take years, or decades, but the variety of trying many things is interesting in itself.
Try to connect the dots in your own life, for example what were you like as a kid, what interested you, has any of this followed into your adult life, what about looking forwards e.g. where do you want to be 30 years from now and can your current or new interests get you there.
Having kids will certainly give a person purpose and eat up all of that free time if that's in the plan for you.
by smarri - Take a vacation, and after a few days, think about what your mind naturally drifts to when there's nothing that you have to do in particular, and no special obligation. Maybe that will help point you in the right direction.
- Something that helped me in the past, at a period where I was lost; is to take a notebook and write every night what part of the day actually gave you energy. Can be a sub-part of work, or something outside of work, whatever.
What helped me is that there is usually a difference between what you are naturally good at, which is what you will tend to gravitate towards because you get results, vs what actually gives you energy. Over time, you can see trend and find a sport where both are true at the same time.
Oh, and also internalize that fact that those things may change over time as you grow as a person :)
by jlengrand - Maybe thinking in terms of your "obsession(s)" will lead to more clear and long-term answer. Obsession is something you love and hate at the same time, but still continue with it and in the end don't want to quit. Obsession also protects more strongly from loss of motivation and loss of "passion", because it tend to return you back to it again and again. It's like true love, which survives all the hardships.by 0xCE0