How to Find Your Passion

Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your lie.

Career experts debate whether this adage is great advice for charting a professional path, but the question then becomes: What am I passionate about?

Whether your goal is to find a career that excites you or to enrich your life with a hobby, identifying a passion is a natural inclination. In several studies researchers have found that passion is a critical component of psychological well-being, goal-accomplishing and effective leadership.

Ask yourself these questions to determine what invigorates you.

What interested you when you were young?

Manon DeFelice, founder of Ink Well, a recruiting agency that helps high-powered women stay in or re-enter the workforce, asks clients, “What was the topic of your high school senior thesis?” The answer often surprises people with the precision with which it points to a current passion.

What causes do you care about?

Chris Dorsey, profiled right, was passionate about environmental conservation from an early age. He used that enthusiasm to create what would become one of the biggest reality-TV production companies, with a mission to support the outdoors and conservation. “It’s remarkable how the more I give to conservation organizations, the more good things happen to me and my company,” Dorsey says. “That has happened too many times to be coincidence.”

Do something scary.

Feeling stuck, unmotivated and unsure about how to reignite your sense of wonder? Take a risk and scare the heck out of yourself. Always considered yourself a klutz? Join a recreational sports team. Terrified of public speaking? Take an improve class. Jolt your psyche to a place it has never gone.

Take money out of the equation.

If you suffer from paralysis under the pressure of finding your moneymaking passion, take the money part out and focus on the zeal you feel for the activity.

Passion is a critical component of psychological well-being.