If you’ve been hanging out with me, either through my Wild Spirits community newsletter or via YouTube, as a client or a personal friend, you’ll know I’m all about encouraging people to pursue and prioritise their passion. Doing this goes against the grain of our society, but it comes with huge benefits.

Prioritising a passion brings you joy and helps alleviate stress. It can help you create balance in your life and nudge you towards finding your unique life purpose.

And yet, a lot of people still don’t know their passion. Some who take my Find Your Passion session* actually believe that they don’t have one. The reason for this is that we grow up with some rather misleading ideas of what a passion is, and so we may not recognise it for what it is.

In this article, I’ll show you the 3 most dominant myths that may keep you from finding your passion.

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Myth No. 1: You can only have one true passion

This one’s fairly persistent, and it also plays into Myth No. 3. People think a passion should be something you do for a living, and from this follows that “there can be only one”, to quote the Highlander.

This keeps some people searching all their lives, although they already have discovered things they love doing. Because there are more than one, and none of them sticks out as being the “main” passion, these people think it doesn’t count and they’ll have to keep looking.

There’s nothing wrong with finding new passions during all periods of your life, but please don’t believe you haven’t found “it” yet, because quite simply, passions are not a mongamous relationship. Many people are so-called multi-passionates with a lot of different interests.

Multi-passionates typically also find their passions fluctuating, so that something might completely fascinate them at one time, only to lose its lustre a few weeks or months later. This doesn’t mean you’re a flake or can’t make up your mind, it simply means that this passion has taught you what you needed from it. Multi-passionates are wired differently from others.

Enjoy your multiple passions and give yourself permission to freely pursue whatever catches your interest. If you have trouble finding the time for all your passions, pick two or three at a time, and once a month or every three months, decide which ones you’ll focus on next.

Myth No. 2: A passion is something creative

The next myth is in the category “a passion should be XYZ”, which feels rather restrictive. A lot of people’s passions have a creative element. They draw or paint, make music, write, or pursue a craft.

All this is great, of course, but a passion can be all sorts of things, including some not-so-obvious pursuits. Some are passionate about a particular sport, others love reading up about a topic or field of study that fascinates them. You may have a passion for a random fringe interest that only exists in Subreddits, and you know what? That’s absolutely fine!

There’s no rulebook, determining what you’re allowed to be passionate about. I’m a fan of keeping things simple, and to me, a passion is something that lights you up. Yes, that’s the only criterion. If it gives you joy, if it makes you happy, if you’re enthusiastic about it, it’s a passion.

Myth No. 3: You should make a living with your passion

This one’s almost universal. It’s also the expectation when people come to my website – it’s about passions, right? So it definitely must be about ways to make money with your passion.

And then they see me recommending not to turn one’s passion into a source of income. Why? It’s not that I don’t think anyone should make money with their music, writing and other passions – on the contrary, if this is your dream, I’ll support you whole-heartedly.

However, you shouldn’t feel as though something can only be a passion if it’s going to be your source of income. That definition is way too narrow! It also makes many people’s passions fly under the radar, because they might be something like the above-mentioned fringe interest that you can’t really turn into a business.

Perhaps you’re a beginner. Some people are longing to learn an instrument, or a language, or a sport they’ve always wanted to try. They never take the first step because they think they’re “too old”, and by that they mean: Too old to become a pro. I say, sod that!

I’ll point back to what I said in the context of Myth No. 2: If it lights you up, it’s a passion. It also deserves to be a priority. I’ve just published a video on how damaging it is to think passions need to serve some practical or monetary purpose in order to be prioritised.

Other possible reasons

The above are the three most persistent myths around passions, the ones I come across again and again in my work. Of course there are other reasons, too, why people struggle to find or recognise their passion(s).

One is stress and work addiction, which I have talked and written about before. These are so widespread in our society that they’re the norm, rather than the exception. People are applauded for overworking (and neglecting their health, work-life balance and loved ones).

In the same vein, anything outside of paid work is regarded as trivial. Passions or hobbies and interests are not taken seriously and certainly not given any sort of priority. Many people spend years or decades focusing only on their careers and/or bringing up their children, without ever even asking themselves what they like, what gives them joy.

Changing this requires a major shift in your attitude and approach to life. Don’t think for one minute that it’s as simple as freeing up a little time for a hobby. You have the weight of expectations and your own upbringing on your shoulders and working against you. Succeeding against these odds takes a lot of persistence, but is always worth the effort.

*Find Your Passion is a once-off session costing only 75 EUR. You can book your session at the bottom of this page.