Figuring out what my passion

I was chatting with a couple of people about work at a party, talking about what we do, drawing commonalities, and I started thinking what makes me passionate about my career.

We were talking specifically about job interviews, and the conversation went from coding skills through side gigs to my realising that my passion lies in being around people who see see and interpret world in a way it’s novel to me.

That’s what I wake up every morning to.

That’s why I love asking questions to draw connections between completely random subjects.

That’s why I crave information, knowledge, stories like a junkie.

That’s why I relish the incredibly rare moments I’m so, so, so out of my depth, that my mind meets the nirvana where it stops making connections and just, for once, completely focus on the now.

That’s why I travel, read, watch stories, and observe people.

That’s why I love sitting in rooms where people have the stage to speak about things they care about.

For a long time, I thought I wasn’t really passionate about anything.

If I can be interested in anything and everything, how can I be passionate about something?

Then I finally realised that being interested in what other people are interested is a fucking great skill that is to have.

And that it is my passion.

If I’m lucky enough to have this huge empathy and curiosity about others, what interests them, their stories, struggles and ambitions, and if, by being vulnerable, I get people to talk earnestly to me - then I should embrace it, and make something out of it.

Because that’s something else that gets me going.

Sharing privilege. Making information, knowledge, solutions, creativity… more easily accessible.

Getting something out of what we have and making more of it.

So, it’s not just about being passionate about people and the way the see and navigate the world - it’s also about how I can amplify that and its impact. It’s more than absorbing the stories, it’s learning from them, and finding ways to make them resonate and be interesting to others too.

It’s an ever evolving process.

Do you get it?