How do you know it's a passion?

A counter-intuitive thought exercise to identify your passion

If you are having trouble identifying your passion, this counter-intuitive thought exercise might help you. It unblocked my thinking and helped me understand what I'm passionate about.

Firstly, why explore your passions? Because knowing and cultivating your passions makes intuitive sense. If you're looking to optimize your personal fulfillment, joy, and impact, it helps to know what you deeply care about and fulfills you, aka your passion.

And it's backed by science. A 2015 research study found that pursuing your passion both lowers stress and contributes to greater overall happiness.

So, what do you do if you enjoy a number of activities but don't know how to differentiate between a hobby, recreation, and passion?

Ask yourself this: Will you suffer for it?

For example, will you do it if after a long day and when you're exhausted? Will you still do it if you're ignored, or not appreciated for it? Will you cold call a set of strangers for it? Will you fight to reclaim it if it was taken away from you?

Remember that pursuing your passion is not the same as the pursuit of pleasure (hedonism). Having a passion for something might entail hardship, long hours, and stress. Having a passion really means that the joy you obtain from doing it is materially higher than the pain you undergo.

When the pain of not doing it is worse than the pain of doing it.

When you're excited to do it even if you don't know if it will further your financial, professional or social standing.

When you enjoy the process more than any eventual outcome.

These are all good signs that you have found your passion.

Alternatively, knowing what you are not willing to suffer for is an effective way to differentiate a passion against a fun or interesting activity that you will abandon after encountering hardship.

I used this exercise to find that I'm passionately curious about investigating the world around me, distilling my findings, and sharing them with others. I’m willing to put in the work to create and publicly share content so that others may benefit from insights that I’ve gained. I don’t know what will come of this, except that I’ve always enjoyed this process and the work. My two little kids can read this one day and use it a guide. I find this fulfilling and joyous; my passion.

P.S: The origin of the word passion comes from Latin "passio" meaning literally "to suffer". Originally used in Christian theology to describe the suffering of Christ ("The Passion of the Christ"), "passion" made its way into common English from French and the 11th century Norman conquest of England, and eventually came to mean a strong emotion.