F*ck Chasing Your Passion—Do This Instead

“Fuck chasing your passion” is a sentence I never expected to come out of my mouth in this life; I am the kind of person who devoted her whole life to searching for her “passion,” which is something that turned out not to be as romantic and beautiful as it sounds. Let me tell you why.

By looking for one higher purpose in your life, you’ve already confined yourself to one single thing, which is something you do without even realizing how limiting it could be. The thing is, we are so doused by the beautiful idea of finding that one calling that we were meant to do in this life that we overlook all the other interesting little things that spike our interest along the way. We ignore them because they’re not big enough to be called a “passion” or “calling,” but if I learned anything from my journey of searching for my passion, this would be it: listen and pay attention to the little things that interest you, even if they’re not big enough. 

Explore everything you have a mere interest in and dive deep within it and make something out of it; doing so can create a beautiful life for you that can make you so much happier. Later on, you might discover that these little things you kept on pursuing, when they are combined together, form a higher calling for you or create something that you’re super passionate about. You shouldn’t be one thing; it’s okay to be many things. You can like more than one thing—it doesn’t have to be that one really big thing and that’s it. Free yourself from this “single thing” kind of mentality and let yourself be open to all the diverse options out there.

A lot of people keep on waiting for something that will be so strong that they will point at it and say, yes, this is what I want to do with my life. Even though this might happen sometimes, it doesn’t just happen by waiting for it but by actively engaging in other things that don’t classify as a passion that can lead you to that thing that feels so right for you eventually, and it doesn’t even have to be a sole thing—it can be multiple things.

I saw a post by someone who once wrote, “You never know what job will change your life,” and he was saying how he took a job just because he had an interest in it yet it didn’t classify under the category of a “passion;” however, this job introduced him to the industry of creating events for different causes, which is something he became so passionate and crazy about that later on he even made it his full-time career. Without chasing that little interest in this one job and just searching for this grand idea of one calling that will knock on his door and suddenly be there for him, he found something that he’s so crazy about.

I hope that the idea of finding your calling or whatever you want to name it doesn’t limit you from trying anything else that comes along the way that happens to ignite a bit of your curiosity. I hope you don’t miss out on great opportunities along your journey because you’re too obsessed with chasing an idea that’s too idealistic in your head. I hope you don’t refuse to be many things you like because you think you have to be and do this one sole thing that falls under your idea of what a passion should look like. Sometimes the road to our calling is bumpy; it doesn’t have to look a certain way, and it doesn’t have to be poetic, idealistic, or romantic all the time.