The Passion Assassin

It's a question mark that will probably never quite leave you - from your first thoughts in school about what to do when you "grow up", to your first few jobs and ongoing employer changes, career changes, life changes:

Am I doing what I love?
And if not - how would I make the transition and still earn a living?

For many people, working is separate to what you love doing. This might be for soundly practical reasons: if you are crazy about mountain bike riding, it might be wonderful release to tear off the suit and go bush-bashing on the weekends. Same goes for cooking or graphic design - to make your passion into a career may even end up killing your personal love for it.

But there are opportunities out there to do what you crave, and sometimes it just takes a leap of faith to start your career again in another area that you know will satisfy and inspire you.

Say for example that you've spent several years in financial planning. The money is good, (financial crises aside) your clients are loyal and plentiful and you work for a reputable employer. But....deep down, it doesn't really turn you on in the way that you'd hoped, and you are aware of others in the industry that get a lot more out of it personally than you do. They are in their element, and as much as you would like to be, your daydreams are more often filled with: coffee.

Yes. The hustle of the early mornings, the regulars, the latte art in the lazy afternoon, the steam of the machines, the cake forks and smooth napkins...if only.

Plenty of people spend their lives talking to family and friends about another adventure they never take. They may have run the figures, partners, locations, plans, through their minds a hundred times but can't ever seem to make that leap.

I'm not even suggesting here that we venture as far as going into business for yourself. There are people who have had those dreams before you and set those businesses up already. If you can't secure paid employment in the area you love, try looking for volunteer work. Aspirations are not meant to be kept in a glass box, take them out and use them!

I'm not finished with this. The next entry will be talking about your passion once you decide to experiment with direction, and find yourself in that exquisite interview moment where your life could change for the better...