I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I have never really had any passions. Sure, there are things I like and am interested in… sex, drugs, travel, death, writing, science, philosophy… but none of those get me up in the morning excited. When entrepreneurs, artists, or whomever talk about how they are passionate about a subject or product I have now personal frame of reference. Nothing drives me that way. I just can’t relate, and this lack of passion used to keep me in places that I didn’t like. How could I leave a place when I didn’t know where I was going?
There are two sides to everything, and sometimes when you are stalled out in life you need to look at things from the other side. Instead of figuring out what I was passionate about and pursuing that, I figured out what I hated and avoided those. For me, it was wearing a suit, living in a big city, commuting to work, going to an office, being bored at work, working more than 20 hours or so a week. So, I changed my life to avoid those things. The direction I went after that was inconsequential as long as I was moving away from the things I hated. The worst case scenario was the path I choose didn’t make me happy and I had more information about what wasn’t my passion.
I feel like I am not alone in this. Not everyone knows what their passion is, and maybe they never will have a passion, but that doesn’t mean they need to be miserable. Avoidance of pain is a motivator, just like the pursuit of pleasure. And, as someone said on Isaac Morehouse’s podcast recently, “motion brings clarity”. Motion literally gives you a new perspective on your life and the problems you are facing. If you are unhappy but staying in the same place, visiting the same stores, working at the same job, walking down the same streets, and hanging with the same friends, then you will never escape the rut. You may not know what you want to do, but by traveling or quitting your job (you should probably quit your job, most people should) or joining an intramural sport or going to Burning Man you will at least gain clarity on what you shouldn’t be doing. Sometimes the first step is to know what you hate and run away from those things, even if you don’t know what is in that direction.
Life is too short to stay idle. Even if you never find your passion at least you will have tried.
Wandering Oak 