3 practical steps to identify your passions
around seven years back
when i was celebrating the end of a
major project a mentor told me
rohan you are smart but you need to be
more interesting
you need to have a passion in life i was
surprised by the comment
what was my passion how do i find my
passion
and wait a minute before we go down that
route what did passion even mean
i literally spent a whole day just
thinking about that
and i drew a blank nothing at all
and then i came across a quote by robin
williams
from dead poet society robin said and i
quote
the human race is filled with passion
medicine
law business engineering these are noble
pursuits
and necessary to sustain life but poetry
beauty romance love these are what we
truly stay alive for
that moment was a wake-up call for me i
was living my life
completely immersed in academics focused
on charting out a great career path
which is not wrong but i realized i was
losing out on so many aspects in life
i thought for a moment could i call a
cat makes my passion
after all many researchers are extremely
passionate about their area of interest
but in my heart of hearts i knew that i
was just kidding myself
for me academics was simply a means to
an end
and not something that truly defined me
and that is when i decided to explore
as many facets of life as i could in
pursuit of my passion
in the past seven years i’ve done
exactly that
i’d never traveled outside india in the
past seven years
i have been to 32 countries most of them
being solo backpacking trips
on a tight budget and i can’t even begin
to recount the experiences
be it spending a whole night chatting
with a refugee in geneva
hiking across the alps along the border
of germany and austria
having delicious hot chocolate in the
foothills of slovenia
walking the corridors of the game of
thrones landmarks
in croatia spending a new year partying
all night long with a bunch of
absolutely crazy hungarians and so many
more memories
traveling has taught me more about life
than books ever could
believe me when you travel you realize
how large and diverse the world really
is
and how small a place you occupy in this
world you realize
that at the end of the day you are
nothing but a speck of dust in this
world
i had never imagined myself as a
traveler but once i started traveling
i realized i had always been an explorer
at heart and that is when i found my
first passion
a couple of years back i realized why
restrict my love for traveling just to
the land covered areas
i decided to enroll for the open water
diver certification in cambodia
yes scuba diving why scuba
i was asked on the first day of the
course and i couldn’t help but realize
that i had
always been attracted to the seas in all
of my travels
i had spent a major amount of time
either on cruises
or just sitting near the lakes and
beaches in europe gazing at the sea
scuba introduced me to a hidden world
which was so
close yet so far when you actually go
deep inside the sea
and find yourself surrounded by fishes
and other marine animals
you realize you have entered a
completely different world
you simply can’t help but smile when the
fishes come near your face
and look at you with curiosity i
realized
that the marine world is not just
beautiful but adventurous
wild and free and that’s all i ever
wanted to be
and with that i found my second passion
during one of my trips when i was in
frankfurt a few spanish friends decided
to attend a salsa event happening in a
pub
and they just dragged me with them i had
never danced in my life
not even in family functions in fact i
used to actually run away at the mere
mention of dancing
but that one night introduced me to a
world of latin music and dance speeds
i realized how much i enjoyed salsa and
i decided to start learning salsa right
away
i trained in salsa for a couple of years
and i also attended salsa festivals
all over the world in fact i also
started learning bachata
kizumba and even attended a few
workshops in ballroom dancing
just imagine me doing ballroom dancing
i’d never thought i would find my
passion in dancing but if i think back
now
i simply cannot imagine my life without
dance
in fact i look forward to the weekends
when i can
actually dance to my heart’s content in
fact
a couple of years back i also
participated in the india international
dance congress
with dancers from all over the world
from somebody who used to shy away from
dancing
even in family functions to somebody who
was dancing and competing on stage
life has definitely taken a full u-turn
and just like that
before i knew it i’d found my third
passion
i’d always been a reader but a few years
back
i discovered my love for writing the
journey started
with sharing my travel stories and life
experiences
on a platform called quora to my
surprise
i received an enormous amount of love on
the platform
so much that i ended up sharing my
experiences on other social media
platforms as well
like linkedin and instagram and actually
just a few months back
i decided to take my writing journey
even further
by pending down my first novel the
promises we made
from somebody who was always immersed in
books to somebody who has now published
a romantic novel
this has been a journey of a lifetime
and yes
a journey that started with an innocent
sharing of my experiences on quora
has now turned into my fourth passion
you heard it right seven years back i
had embarked on a journey
in pursuit of my passion and i ended up
finding passions worth a lifetime
without affecting my career in the
slightest how did that happen
let me break down the ambiguous concept
of passion
in the form of three practical steps
that all of you can follow to discover
your passions
step number one be ready to experiment
all of us have a comfort zone and
there’s a very natural resistance
against moving out of that zone believe
me
i can completely relate to it i had
never traveled alone before and
especially not outside india
i used to be someone who would prefer
sitting in my room reading a book
as compared to talking to strangers it
took a lot of courage for me to venture
outside my comfort zone
and take that first step towards
traveling seven years back
when i went to switzerland for my
internship and believe me
that one trip opened a world of
possibilities for me
i realized that contrary to what i had
initially imagined
i really loved hanging out with
strangers in exotic places
and making new friends from all over the
world
a pro tip if you are ever planning to
travel stay in hostels with other
travelers
and there’s so much more you will learn
about history culture
and life let me share another example
like i mentioned i’d never ever danced
before i used to run away from dancing
i decided to experiment with the latin
dance forms and today
i simply cannot stay away from dancing
of all the activities in the world i
never thought i would find a passion in
dancing
and that’s only because i decided to
experiment
with dancing if you haven’t discovered
your passion yet
the chances are that the passion might
lie outside your comfort zone
be ready to experiment with new
activities and you might just discover
your passion
take a pledge today that you would try
at least two new activities
every year and i guarantee you that you
will discover your passion
step number two give time for your
passions to develop
and activity does not become a passion
until you actually spend enough time
pursuing the activity
just as love at first sight is a myth
passion at first sight is also a myth
you might like an activity the first
time you try it
but until you actually take out enough
time to pursue that activity
you might find yourself either losing
interest or feeling frustrated
a couple of years back i was in a phase
where i was absolutely loaded with work
i had not danced for weeks and i found
myself getting burned out and frustrated
at one point of time i simply decided to
take a sabbatical for 45 days
and travel to europe 45 days
i had absolutely no agenda in mind apart
from spending those 45 days
visiting the fjords of nordics and
attending salsa festivals in every
country
i actually spent 10 days in a scenic
little town in croatia called ravinch
with thousands of dancers from all over
the world had come to just dance salsa
all day and all night in fact
those 45 days of sabbatical gave me
memories for a lifetime
and that was possible only because i
took out enough time to actually
discover
and rediscover my passions
let me share another example when i
first decided to participate in the
india international dance congress
a couple of years back for two months
my dance partner and i sacrificed our
sleep to take out time to practice
both of us were working in tough
corporate shops which did not leave
enough time during the day to practice
we would practice early in the morning
just before leaving for office
and late in the night after coming back
from office and we did that
every single day for two whole months
looking back now those two months have
green some of my most memorable times
give time for your passions to develop
and you will find yourself loving each
step of the journey
step number three persist against all
odds
an activity also does not become a
passion if you do not persist
when i first started writing on quora i
had zero followers and zero views on my
content
the first few posts did not receive any
response
but i still continued writing seven
years down the line
my content on quora has received more
than 30 million views
yes from zero to 30 million views
it all became possible because i
persisted
the thought of writing a novel had first
cropped up in my mind a couple of years
back
and i had actually even started writing
the novel but then i hit the writer’s
block
i became busy with my work and the
writing went on a back seat
until one day i realized i was doing a
grave injustice to myself
by keeping myself away from my novel i
started setting daily goals for myself
to write a few hundred words every day
and a few thousand words every weekend
and i adhered to those goals
learning any activity is going to take
time and effort
especially if you want to excel in that
activity on the first day of my scuba
diving course
i ended up failing miserably i was
breathing too
fast inside the water which ended up
depleting the oxygen in my cylinder
at a much faster pace as a result
while others could spend a full hour
inside water i had to come out of the
water after just 30 minutes
but you know what i did not give up i
persisted
and i started actually controlling my
breathing speed and on the last day of
the course i succeeded
persist against all odds and you will be
able to master any activity
and once you do that before you know it
you would have discovered your passion
passion while it might sound like a
fantasy is actually not that difficult
to discover
if you really follow these three very
practical steps
be ready to experiment beyond your
comfort zone give
time for your passions to develop and
persist against all odds
to emerge as a winner so what are you
waiting for
go out there and discover your passion
and while you do that
if we ever happen to cross paths during
the journey i would love to hear your
story
thank you