To The Ones Who Feel Lost In Life, Start Getting Clear On This First
It is very common to find people in the early 20's, especially the ones who are going to be graduating from university soon and the ones who start to find themselves stranded in the competitive environment that is the workforce, encounter this conundrum that Life has to offer, but the current education system never quite prepares us for: "My passion is in doing THIS but I can't seem to find a good use for it in this society, what do I do?". Before delving into this topic, it is important to understand the difference between Talent and Passion; many of us assume that Talent and Passion are the same. However, Talent often seems to mean a natural tendency to perform a particular task very well without much guidance. A God's gift to you, if you will. However, a particular skill that you are able to master almost effortlessly does not necessarily mean you are passionate in doing it every waking moment of your Life; it does not necessarily mean you have the motivation to take it up a notch to perfect it; and it does not necessarily mean you feel a sense of delight and pleasure in doing it.
Take me as an example, I kind of have some talent in technical subjects such as Mathematics. I literally aced all Mathematics related subjects in my undergraduate days and my career being an Engineer for nearly the past 5 years has been relatively smooth-sailing. It is because of all the things that have happened to me rather favourably that I do not seem to quite have the motivation, nor am I feeling the need of being challenged in delivering more than what is required. Hence, to a certain extent, I convinced myself that "I do not quite have passion in this role that I hold."
Two main conclusion can therefore be derived. First, Talent and Passion are to be treated separately. Talent is something we somehow possess within ourselves intrinsically and we are able to execute it well with much less effort than others would have to put in. Passion is something that gets us excited and motivates us into doing it. These two are NOT the same, just like how I might be good at solving mathematical problems well but I am certainly not very passionate about solving them. More importantly, the second takeaway is that very often, almost all of us do not feel passionate about the things we have some form of talent in. This is likely one of the reason many young adults in their 20's feel delusional about their Life ahead early on despite having already acquired the skills and knowledge in which they are often good at. Some of us may have grasped the know-how in our own role with only a few years in and some may even performed exceedingly well in it. This eventually leads to many of us not feeling challenged and the motivation to improve along the way. Soon, they will find themselves dragging to even outperform their current standards due to a lack of intrinsic motivation.
Hence, natural talent and passion do not have any direct relationship with each other. Many young adults who raise these kind of questions because during his schooling days, he found out for himself that he may be inclined towards something in terms of interest while knowing he has a certain natural ability to perform well in another. When he steps into the society in time to come, he starts to get worried if he will ever get to utilize his talents to serve a certain purpose, and at the same time, he is also concerned whether his passion or self-interest will be snuffed out once he enters the society. It is hence important to inculcate the difference between these two.
The following couple of questions young adults would then need to ask themselves is then, "How do we go about discovering this passion of ours?", "If we discover where our passion lies and the work we are involved in does not have direct relationship to it, does that mean that our lives will forever be dull and meaningless?". I, for one, do not think so.
If you have ever come across any of the mainstream motivational courses, spiritual studies, success speeches or articles by some of the most famous and influential people in the world, you would realize a recurring theme across most of them, and that is "you must love what you do in order to be successful". We are thus being influenced with a misconception, and will likely start to imagine that if we cannot find the work we love to do, or if we are unable to find a way to make use of our personal interests in our everyday lives, then we will not be deemed as successful in the eyes of society. As a matter of fact, it may not necessarily be that case. It is also important to note that success comes in many forms and these successful people often tend to over-generalize the notion of success given their influence over the masses. Their advice may provide a blueprint, but you will ultimately still have only yourself to figure out the details and roadmap that cater specifically for yourself through personal Life experiences that come from everyday conscious living.
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| What if you are a doctor, but your lifelong dream is to be a chef someday? |
Take me as an example, I kind of have some talent in technical subjects such as Mathematics. I literally aced all Mathematics related subjects in my undergraduate days and my career being an Engineer for nearly the past 5 years has been relatively smooth-sailing. It is because of all the things that have happened to me rather favourably that I do not seem to quite have the motivation, nor am I feeling the need of being challenged in delivering more than what is required. Hence, to a certain extent, I convinced myself that "I do not quite have passion in this role that I hold."
Two main conclusion can therefore be derived. First, Talent and Passion are to be treated separately. Talent is something we somehow possess within ourselves intrinsically and we are able to execute it well with much less effort than others would have to put in. Passion is something that gets us excited and motivates us into doing it. These two are NOT the same, just like how I might be good at solving mathematical problems well but I am certainly not very passionate about solving them. More importantly, the second takeaway is that very often, almost all of us do not feel passionate about the things we have some form of talent in. This is likely one of the reason many young adults in their 20's feel delusional about their Life ahead early on despite having already acquired the skills and knowledge in which they are often good at. Some of us may have grasped the know-how in our own role with only a few years in and some may even performed exceedingly well in it. This eventually leads to many of us not feeling challenged and the motivation to improve along the way. Soon, they will find themselves dragging to even outperform their current standards due to a lack of intrinsic motivation.
Hence, natural talent and passion do not have any direct relationship with each other. Many young adults who raise these kind of questions because during his schooling days, he found out for himself that he may be inclined towards something in terms of interest while knowing he has a certain natural ability to perform well in another. When he steps into the society in time to come, he starts to get worried if he will ever get to utilize his talents to serve a certain purpose, and at the same time, he is also concerned whether his passion or self-interest will be snuffed out once he enters the society. It is hence important to inculcate the difference between these two.
The following couple of questions young adults would then need to ask themselves is then, "How do we go about discovering this passion of ours?", "If we discover where our passion lies and the work we are involved in does not have direct relationship to it, does that mean that our lives will forever be dull and meaningless?". I, for one, do not think so.
If you have ever come across any of the mainstream motivational courses, spiritual studies, success speeches or articles by some of the most famous and influential people in the world, you would realize a recurring theme across most of them, and that is "you must love what you do in order to be successful". We are thus being influenced with a misconception, and will likely start to imagine that if we cannot find the work we love to do, or if we are unable to find a way to make use of our personal interests in our everyday lives, then we will not be deemed as successful in the eyes of society. As a matter of fact, it may not necessarily be that case. It is also important to note that success comes in many forms and these successful people often tend to over-generalize the notion of success given their influence over the masses. Their advice may provide a blueprint, but you will ultimately still have only yourself to figure out the details and roadmap that cater specifically for yourself through personal Life experiences that come from everyday conscious living.
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