More Thoughts on Passion

I found that article very interesting Jason.

I think one thing that a lot of people aren't taking into consideration is that we are all unique individuals, built and wired differently. That's not a bad thing at all, but what works for finding a passion for one person won't work at all for another.

I also never heard "follow your passion" from school counselors but "follow your aptitudes". We even took tests that showed us what our aptitudes were. In thinking back, mine were in the very things that I call my passions, today. I guess it makes sense that the things we have an aptitude for are the things we enjoy doing because we are good at it, so therefore have a passion for. I mean who has a passion for something that they stink at doing?

I never was asked what my passions were, or even thought about them until I became a member here on the forum. And when confronted with the question, I sort of froze, as I didn't have a clue, lol!

Anyway, what the article says makes sense to me in that way. I also say that I didn't find my passion, but that it found me. It only makes sense once again that it found me as I did those things that I had an aptitude for.

Maybe it would be easier for those struggling to discern what their passion is, if they asked themselves what they had an aptitude for.

Terra

My view on this, which I've written about in my newsletter many times, is that the whole 'find your passion' is, for most people a massive red herring that stops them from being successful.

When I started out online I wasted no end of time and effort worrying about the fact that I didn't have this mystical thing called 'passion' about any monetizable subject I could think of.

Yes, I am passionate about my hobby - collecting 1950's Matchbox cars - but with the best will in the world that is not a niche that would ever make me more than chump change. The only subject I could rouse much interest in back then was Internet marketing itself - and everyone said don't touch that niche with a ten-foot pole until you have lots of honest experience, and even then you'll struggle to cut through the competition.

So I worried that there must be something missing in me.

I fretted that I couldn't get excited about the weird niches that other people seemed to be getting off on.

I puzzled when I should be making money and I dithered when I should be taking action.

My personal opinion is that there are so many newbies caught in the 'find your passion' trap that it isn't even funny. It is very sad that they have been fed a total crock by people who really should know better.

That's not to say that being passionate about a subject - if that subject is suitable - is a bad thing. It isn't. It's great. It is just that hardly anyone is in that fortuitous position. Most of us are on the sidelines looking on in wonder!

I believe that most newbies fail because they get tired of looking for the passion in all the wrong places.

What changed things for me - and in the process started my rise to being a successful Internet marketer - was the realization that the passion doesn't have to be for the subject, it has to be for the process.

Get excited about the process of making money online, the mechanics of crafting a good website, the fun of building relationships with your lists or any of the many other elements that you need to succeed and the subject matter will cease to be important.

Your passion is already there, staring you in the face.

Martin

P.S. As to school advisers, when I was at school in the dim and distant past, the careers adviser called all the boys in one at a time and told us to become accountants. My wife says that at her school all the girls were told to become secretaries. Passion - or even aptitude - didn't come into it!