07/28/2023
𝐑𝐄: 𝐇𝐁𝐑'𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 - "Take three months after graduating college to figure out what your passion is about." (Erin Cech) If we know that it takes time to figure out our passions, why are we waiting until college graduation (or, even being in college) to encourage passion exploration?
Just like saving up for a car or house, it takes time to explore our passions. And, justifiably so. Passions reveal our personal values and concerns, skills we enjoy and persist at improving, and peronally meaninful career goals that combine our values, concerns and skills. This process should start in earnest in high school. Not college. And, certainly not after graduating college. What's the point of college then? To get a degree and then declare you want to figure out what you want to be?
Passion, also known as Intrinsic Motivation, is actually the least understood concept in motivation science. The truth is that once someone learns to explore their passions they begin to discover what they personally value and care about the most. This is the "preparation" that everyone must do if they want to discover and use their passions to earn a living.
By college graduation, the amount of pressure grads face in launching their careers often overshadows or feels more important than our passions. Speaking from my professional experience coaching youth to explore their passions and from researching the topic across all age spans, it turns out that the older we wait to explore our passions, the less likely we are to believe that our passions can become viable career pathways.
The bottom line is that until we start teaching young people to explore their passions in depth (more than a passion project, an elective, a lesson, an afterschool program, a hobby, etc.), we will continue to see the job market flooded with "clueless" and "other-directed" college graduates. After all, only 13% of the US workforce is passionate about their jobs. (Deloitte)
In all reality, a society of people pursuing their passions will change the nature of our economy, work structures and relationships, and what humans are capable of doing, consuming, and producing. This, I believe, is one of the biggest problems with passion: How to increase the percentage of the US workforce who pursues their passions at work.
Insisting on doing work you love can have downsides. Finding a job aligned with your passion might take months or years, sacrificing economic stability. What...
