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Don’t Follow Your Passion – Here’s Why

Career Coaching

Following your passion is often touted as the best way to find meaningful work and long-term career success. We’ve all heard the phrase “follow your passion,” but is it the key to a successful career?

Passion does not always equal success or even financial security. It takes hard work, dedication, and perseverance to succeed in any field regardless of how passionate you are about it.

Many people have failed after jumping into something they were passionate about only to discover that their skills weren’t up for the task at hand or that there simply wasn’t enough demand for their product or service.

The idea that you should follow your passion when making career decisions may sound romantic on its surface. Who wouldn’t want to do something they love every day?

But if we dig deeper we see that this advice has some serious drawbacks. Read on if you want to know if pursuing your passions is not the best piece of career advice.

The Problems With “Follow Your Passion”

The biggest issue with this phrase is that it leaves out two key components of building a successful and fulfilling career.

  • Hard Work
  • Luck

While some people may be passionate about something, they still must put in the hours to make their dreams come true. Hard work will take them further than passion alone ever could. Additionally, luck plays a huge role in any career path; countless talented individuals never get the opportunities they deserve because of bad timing or other factors outside their control.

Following your passion can often be difficult and poorly advised. The idea that “if you follow your passion, everything will work out” is false. Following are a few problems that can arise when people follow their passion as a career choice.

Passions Don’t Change With Time

Evolving with time is one of the most important aspects of a successful career. With time, new technologies and trends come into play that can hugely impact the job market.

But passions don’t necessarily change with the times, so they may become irrelevant in a quickly changing world. And it can be hard to stay motivated when your passion fades with time.

Lack of Financial Stability

It’s no secret that many people who follow their passions often struggle financially as they do not have the necessary skills to monetize them.

This lack of financial stability can lead to a lot of stress and insecurity, negatively impacting overall happiness and job satisfaction in the long term. Which is not something you want when trying to pursue a career.

Passionate Doesn’t Mean That You Are Good at It

Having passionate about something doesn’t always mean that you are good at it. Passion is a great starting point when considering a career.

Still, it should not be the only factor taken into account. Before diving into something new, you need to assess your skills and experience in that field. Taking the time to understand what it takes to be successful in that profession is key to achieving career success.

There Is No Guarantee Of Success

Following your passion can put too much pressure on you to succeed, leading to burnout and feelings of failure if things don’t go according to plan.

After all, if something has become a passion for us then we naturally feel more attached to it and have higher expectations for ourselves than we would have for something we weren’t passionate about in the first place.

When these expectations aren’t met (as will inevitably happen at some point) this can cause us to give up altogether rather than keep trying and adjusting our approach until we reach our desired outcome.

Missing Other Opportunities

There is a good chance that while you are pursuing your passions, there are other great opportunities out there that you are missing out on.

If you limit yourself to only following one path, there is no way to know what those might be. And it can be difficult to find that balance between pursuing your passions and being open to new opportunities.

You Don’t Need To Follow Your Passion To Be Successful

Just because someone tells you that following your passion is the key to success doesn’t mean it is. There are numerous examples of successful people who never followed their passions but instead focused on their skills and interests and built successful careers out of them.

As long as you honestly understand what motivates and excites you, that should be enough; there’s no need to follow some arbitrary rule about having a “passion” for success or fulfillment in life.

So If your goal is to find financial stability and long-term growth opportunities, then should you consider that you can achieve all these goals by following your passion?

If not, then it is important to explore other career options that have the potential for success. Researching the job market and talking to people in the industry can be a great way to determine which job paths are more likely to provide you with stability, growth and satisfaction. 

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