Jan
12

You Don’t ALWAYS Have to Pursue Your Passion Full-Time

Don’t get me wrong. I am all about figuring out what makes you happy, vigorously taking control of your career, and making changes so that you don’t get run into the ground doing work you don’t like, love or -gasp!- aren’t passionate about. This might sound hypocritical given my general stance on doing what you love, but I want to acknowledge that there is a time and a place for pursuing your passion full-time, and it’s different for everyone.

I admire full-time bloggers, writers, artists, coaches and self-employed entrepreneurs. I also love the message from the guys at Pursue the Passion who interview people “living the dream.” And I still choose to go to work every day at my full-time job, working for “the man” even though my dream is to have my own company one day. No, work is not my most passionate passion. But that is OK. Don’t feel bad if you are working to pay the bills. Work is called work for a reason – it’s fun if you’re lucky, but if you’re learning more and more every day, that’s where you really get a return on your investment.

During my two week vacation over the holidays, I spent almost every waking hour of the day working on my book, writing blog posts and doing a coaching session here and there (all passions of mine). But I also missed the chaos and camaraderie of working at Google.

I confirmed my hunch that I wouldn’t be happy without my full-time job in my life right now, and I’m still learning so much every day that it feels incredibly worth it to spend so much time at work. Plus, it gives me more to blog, write (and eventually) coach and consult about. It will probably make me a better business school candidate. Without entry-level experience at the start-up and without a full-time job learning how to be a manager right now, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today in terms of business skills, knowledge, self-management and people-skills. The pace of learning far outweighs the trade-off of not pursuing my passion full-time right now.

So here’s the bottom-line: there’s a lot of talk in the blogosphere about pursuing your passion and quitting your job to follow your dream. And I think that is fan-freaking-tastic whenever you are READY for it. Don’t feel bad if you’re not ready today. Don’t let fear hold you back, but learn to separate fear from actually getting value out of where you are now.

And that doesn’t mean throwing your passion out the window – commit to carving out time every day and every week to cultivate activities and start building a vocation you really love.  If it’s volunteering, do it! If it’s writing, do that! If you can figure out how to do these things within your job description? Even better! It’s not a zero-sum game – you don’t have to pursue your passions full-time in order to have them in your life.

Are you new to Life After College? Welcome, and thanks for visiting! If you liked this post, consider subscribing via RSS, subscribing via email, or following me on Twitter. Want the inside scoop on my book project (email updates with personal stories, tips and resources)? Sign-up here. I look forward to keeping in touch!

Related posts you might like:

  1. “Skills are Cheap, Passion is Priceless” (Job Transition Part Two) I owe you a “Part 2″ post on how I...

Posted by Jenny Career, Life, Work Subscribe to RSS feed Print This Post Print This Post
  • Akirah - so true, and happy to hear you're able to make time for both - that's huge! Not everyone can say the same, so way to go after what you want in a way that works for you. :D
  • This is incredibly encouraging, given the fact that while I enjoy my job, I'm far from passionate about it. Even so, I am learning great things and am still able to write in my free time. So I can't complain too much. And one day, I know I'll be able to pursue my actual passion. But I've gotta enjoy the journey, not just the destination.
  • Emily - thank you so much for your comment! Working at the start-up was one of the best experiences I've ever had, and you rock even more for doing it in Chile. I think it's so true that before you can follow your passion you have to know what it is in the first place! And even then, it's all about managing risk at a level that works for you - you leap when you're ready, and realize that you're doing such great things in the meantime!
  • Jenny, I loved this. Lately I've been thinking a lot about what my passion actually IS. I know it's not my current job, but I'm not exactly sure what it is quite yet, so it doesn't make sense for me to quit and go wander around aimlessly. Working in a start up is giving me valuable experience, and depending on how the company grows, who knows, it could end up including a job that turns out to really fulfill me! So for now I'll stick to having co-workers I enjoy, getting good experience and the ever important paycheck and in my case work visa. I think it's great that people my age already know what they want to do and are working toward that, but I don't need to stress about the fact that I'm not quite there yet.
blog comments powered by Disqus