Ever feel the pressure to find that one job you love so much, so that “you will never have to work a day in your life”? Doesn’t matter how many times you change degrees or try different courses, you always have that underlying frustration over the fact that every field of interest to you always feels like “work”?

Well, you can stop stressing, because we’re here to explain just why finding your so-called “passion” is overrated. 

Passions Can’t Always Pay

I used to listen to so many people talk about how you need to make a living out of that one thing you absolutely love. It made me feel lost — the one thing I truly love doing is travelling with loved ones. How on earth could gawking at the Trevi Fountain with my fiancé ever be my job?

I knew it wasn’t practical, obvs, but I still felt a little resentful because I couldn’t think of one thing that I loved to do more than travel — and, therefore, how was I ever supposed to be happy settling for anything less as a stream of income? Then, magic happened. Well, not magic — my insta feed happened.

One morning, last year, I stumbled across a post on Instagram that I found truly inspiring. It talked about how, in life, you need three hobbies: one that generates income, one for your creative side, and one for your health and wellbeing.

After reading that I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I could relax; there was no need for me to discover how to make a salary from my next trip to Italy. Travelling became one of my three hobbies, and later that year I would stumble across an elective at uni that I would then decide to pursue as my hobby to generate income.

The Thing That Makes You Tick

I tried almost every elective under the sun throughout my degree (one of the many benefits to studying arts)— Psychology, French, Ancient History, Forensics, Literature, Linguistics, Sociology — in an attempt to find my passion, and I couldn’t understand why the subjects that I was actually thoroughly interested in all still took hard work and dedication. The whole “never having to work a day in your life” fiasco just wasn’t resonating with me.

Even travelling (not holidaying or vacationing) is no picnic. There’s minimal sleep, too much walking and many bad attempts at speaking French involved — I could argue that that was hard work, even though I loved it.

I started avidly listening to The Minimalists’ podcasts, and came across an episode in which they spoke about finding the thing that makes you ‘tick’ — where you become so invested and present in your work that you lose track of time and hours fly by. It may not always be thoroughly exciting, and it will still get exhausting, but you feel content when working and are proud to be dedicating so much of your time and effort towards your work. After listening to that podcast, I realised that my course in creative writing and editing was going to be a lot more for me than just an elective.

Excitement comes and goes in whatever you do or whomever you’re with (I’m sure that your partner/parents/children/BFF aren’t always a cup of tea, even if you love them with every bone in your body) — and the same thing applies to your career.

There is no special passion that is out there waiting for you to discover it. Try cultivating your passions instead of following them.