Turning Passion Into a Career
Turning passion into a career is a constant struggle between oneself and the rest of the world. It requires making those around you believe in you when you are unable to confide in your own abilities; convince that you are worth more than rejection when you are beginning to lose hope altogether. And somehow, amidst all of this, you have managed to curb your passions, creating a conflict between what you want to do and what is expected from you.
But what if the dreams we visualize as impractical, among the conventional career options hurled at us, could possibly be true? If you are caught up in a similar conflict and are venturing to make a career out of your passions, these are some things you could consider.
Hobby Versus Passion
To put it simply, a hobby is something that we do for leisure, something we would do when we have spare time in our schedules. A passion, however, is something we cannot separate ourselves from; something we will make time specifically for while juggling through school, assignments, and other commitments.
While this might give a general basis, so much of it depends on our circumstances. Deterioration of our mental health, for example, might disallow us from the energy to pursue anything at all and the inability to invest in time does not diminish how passionate we are.
Distinguishing between a hobby and passion, at times, might involve more self-introspection than we think and that’s okay. It’s only up to us to lay out what works for us and what we arrive at doesn’t have to necessarily fit in with these definitions.
The Demand
Do your research about the monetary value of your passion. Be open to a flexible path. Consider careers that require the skill set and are closely related to the field you are looking to go into even if it is projected in a way different than what you originally visualized.
The Personal Expectations
A common approach to reach one’s desired goal is to set out for a career similar to what we wanted: that sets out a route for us to achieve it while simultaneously receiving the paycheck we need. But there is no one specific linear path that works unanimously.
Does the alternative you choose exhaust you, thereby depriving you of the energy or is acting like a learning experience that prepares you for what is to come? It all boils down to your personal expectations and what actually fulfills your passion.
None of this is going to be a smooth process. Despite consistent efforts and meticulous planning, somewhere, something might come to prick us but that is true for any path we take. As it is said, life is not a bed of roses. But can we at least choose what thorns to cross?
