How to Build Your Career Strategy Around Your Passion

“Do what you love and you’ll never work another day again.”  We’ve all heard that phrase before and to most of us it sounds like something out of a Disney movie, a fairytale.  Well Cinderella, I have news for you, to quote Timon from The Lion King, “It ain’t no passin’ craze.”  Okay, enough with the Disney references Joe, let’s get down to business.

I’m gonna say something that should hopefully make you feel good; you are passionate about something and you have a talent.  You may be thinking to yourself, I don’t feel like I have any talent and I don’t feel passionate about anything.  I’m meant to work a 9 to 5 every day, go home, rinse and repeat and do it all again the next day until I retire at the age of 85 and die.

Don’t’ worry, we’ve all had those thoughts before; it’s completely normal.  The difference though between people who are actually living their dream and doing what their passionate about in life and those who are just part of the rat race is that the first group of people spend time doing some self-reflection.

Now, self-reflection may sound like a big fancy therapy word or something only found in self-help books, but I have news for you, it’s something that you can do with very little effort.  Self-reflection is the first step on the journey to building your career strategy around your passion.

If you’ve already done the self-reflection and figured out what your passion is, that’s great, you can keep on reading.  If you haven’t, stop right here, don’t read another word and figure out your passion.

Okay, now that we all figured out what our passion is in life, let’s learn how to build our career strategy around it.

1.     Determine Career Options for Your Passion

Whether you’re just graduating high school or are 10 years into the workforce, there is always time to listen to your heart and follow your passion.  It’s important to think about your passion and how a career can develop from it.

For example, if you are passionate about eating, there’s a few different routes you can take to find a career.  If you have your heart set on being a professional eater, I say go for it if you are financially able to and aren’t forcing your family to live in a cardboard box while you spend your days at eating competitions stuffing your face with meatballs.

If you’re passionate about food, you can think about working in a restaurant, becoming a chef, being a food reporter; the list goes on and on.

You can do this exercise with just about any passion.  Think about the most unrealistic, to the most realistic options and then decide where your heart lies. 

**Important Note**: While evaluating the different salaries for the different routes you can take, don’t let money be the end all be all in the path you choose.  Obviously you don’t want to be making minimum wage for the rest of your life, but don’t pick a role just because it pays the most.  If you pick a role you’re passionate about and actually care about, the money will come.

2.     Make Sure You Gain the Skills You Need

Let’s go back to the passionate about food example.  If you really do want to become a competitive eater, don’t think you’ll become one just because you are passionate about it.  Having passion is great, but you need the skills and experience to be successful.

If you’re a Financial Analyst who’s getting up and going to work every day just to pay the bills and you’ve always dreamed of being a competitive eater, it’s important to find the time on the side to build your skills.  Not to turn this into a blog on how to become a competitive eater, but for the sake of the example, you should be coming home after work and figuring out strategies to help you get that 20th hotdog down just as fast as your first.

It's important to realize that gaining the skills is going to take time.  This is where youth comes into play (sorry old people).  The sooner you realize your passion, the sooner you can build up the skills you’ll need to be able to build a career doing what you love.  If you’re in college, you have unlimited hours to put towards building those skills.  Instead of wasting time playing Guitar Hero or watching the whole series of Lost in a matter of days, be productive.

It's a lot easier to put in the hours building up skills when you don’t have a family to feed and other commitments that take away from your time.  If you do have a family to feed and other commitments that take away from your time, you need to find the time to become an expert in whatever it is you’re passionate about.

3.     Don’t Expect to Get Paid the Big Bucks Right Away

I have news for you; when you’re new to doing something, don’t expect to be getting paid top dollar for your services. 

I started umpiring when I was in 8th grade (13 years old if you’re counting).  I was terrified of the coaches, terrified of the parents, and terrified to make the wrong calls.  I got paid a whopping $25.00  per game.  That may sound pretty good, but if you’ve ever witnessed a 3rd or 4th grade baseball or softball game, you realize very quickly that is extremely low.  With the games lasting for about 15 hours (it felt like) I think it worked out to about $0.50 an hour.  Okay I may be exaggerating a little. 

The point is, I had no skills, no experience, and certainly no confidence to warrant being paid anything higher than that.  After spending years and years getting screamed at by parents, picked on by coaches but liked by players, I finally started getting confidence and my skills improved.  Not to get too off into the sports world, but I had so much confidence that when a coach had the audacity to argue a play at home plate, I promptly threw him out of the game (and the facility).  All because I had confidence in myself and my skills.  I was able to start making my way up the ranks, and before my retirement I was making $125 to umpire a game.

I don’t tell that story just to pat myself on the back and brag about how amazing of an umpire I was, but more to illustrate how long it takes to build up your skills to be able to make the amount of money you feel you deserve.

Can You Really Find A Career In Your Passion Area?

Of course, it’s easy to say that anything is possible right?  The bottom line is, it’s possible, but it’s going to take a lot of work.

I’ll give you another saying (this one isn’t from Disney) that should make you think.  Nothing good in life comes easy.  That may sound harsh, and unfair, but it’s true.  Obviously, there are some people who seem to have all the luck and live on a different planet from the rest of us, but in most cases, you will have to put in the work to reap the rewards.

I’ll be the first one to say it’s much easier to sleep all day, party all night (and rock n’ roll every day) and just go down a path because it’s easy.  You may wind up with a decent paying job and you may even wind up happy.  But, you may have that regret when you’re old and retired, that you never really followed your passion.

On the other hand, you may be trying to follow your passion now and struggling because you’re getting paid less than what you should.  I’m here to tell you that if you’re putting in the work, building your skills, gaining experience, making connections and keeping that fire inside lit, you will succeed.  It may not be today, it may not be in a week from today, but it will come.

Now that I got the Tony Robbins motivational stuff out of the way, here’s a couple actionable items I’ll leave you with to start your career in your passion area today.

1.       Research all potential job options in your passion area.

2.       Find a mentor in your school, your LinkedIn Network, your town center, etc., to help guide you along your journey.

3.       Volunteer in your passion area to help you gain experience and meet people that can connect you to where you want to be.

If you follow these steps, you’ll be well on the way to living your dream.

Still need more clarity after reading this blog.  The coaches here at Your Career Strategy (yourcareerstrategy.com) can help guide you on your path to success.

Come back and tell us in the comments section below about how you got on your path to a career in your passion.  We’d love to hear from you.