ARE YOU FOLLOWING YOUR PASSION?

Your profession may be anything from a high-profile job to a lucrative business. It is possible that you have landed there either by planning or by default. Some of you who are fully satisfied with the current situation may still feel that you are actually made for something else or something better. A few of you may compromise and stay where you are today. But if you are ambitious, you are searching for ways to change your path, to do what you think you are really made for. This may relate not only to your career but also to your personal or love life, your hobbies or your passion etc. Sometimes, people may look quite happy to others, but deep inside there may be a disturbing storm fighting for a change?

Friends! At some time or other many of us come under a conflicting situation in life. If everything in life just happens as per our wish then there is no challenge. This may be true for some people but quite often it does not happen like that. The reason is that instead of designing we allow our lives to move on default. At teenage, there is very little understanding of the world and our life is shaped by our parents, teachers, friends or the social environment in which we live. Our world is confined to them. We follow what we learn from them. Sometimes, we are forced to accept their decisions as we are not strong enough to resist. But those decisions ultimately are responsible for our future which may be a combination of something good but something undesired. We are never taught how to adapt quickly in a continuously changing environment. Instead, we are given a fixed set of action plan and are forced to follow it.

THEY FOUND THEIR FIRE

At an early age, we are not encouraged to identify our passion. It is at a later stage only that we find out that what we are doing is not really what our passion is. You may be happy today enjoying your journey. But deep within, you feel that you could enjoy the journey better if it was totally on a different path. I am giving some examples of people who could find their fire at the right time:

EXAMPLES:

• Ritika (name changed) took admission in IIT due to pressure from her parents. She managed her examinations well but did not even appear for campus interviews for job. During her stay for 4 years in a metropolitan city she realized that her passion is singing. She started making you tube videos of her songs. After sometime, she found her fellow students with similar interest and formed a team of experts having interests in playing musical instruments, video recording, editing etc. She is now having millions of followers on digital platform and earning big by following her passion and not through a job in engineering field.
• Gaur Gopal Das is an electrical engineer who worked with Hewlett Packard for some time. His passion somehow was altogether different. He did not speak to his father for about a year due to differences in mind (for which he regrets now). Ultimately, he found shelter in ISKCON and became a monk. He is now a successful motivational speaker. About 200 days in a year, he is travelling in flights. His income is just unbelievable. He has a great following on digital platforms.
• Aruj Garg was a third-year student at Bangalore’s prestigious National Law School. But his passion was something other than law. In order to meet the great demand of quality & healthy food to students in the hostel, he started his venture for takeaway food and named it Bhukkad. He opened several outlets in Bangalore and 6 outlets even in Dubai. Today he is passionately working to provide healthy fast food (not junk) to people in need and not in the field of Law.
• Meenal Rai Shejwar was preparing for her CAT qualification when she met with some serious health challenge. Doctors advised her to avoid any sort of physical and mental stress for few years. So, she decided to do CA. While preparing for her final examinations she felt that her real passion lies in baking. She went for exhaustive training in this field. Today, at a very young age, she owns her own Baking and Culinary Studio and has trained about 1000 upcoming entrepreneurs in the field of baking.

WHAT ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT?

Although a hard-working person can be successful in any profession. But if your profession is exactly in line with your passion, then you can achieve much more and enjoy better. Your energy level will be high and you will do everything with great enthusiasm. You will enjoy the journey. But when your life starts running on default, you just forget what your real passion is. Here are some points which may help anyone to identify his/her passion. You will need to devote some time in a peaceful environment to seriously work upon these points:

• Think, as a child what your dreams were when you were small. May be that you wanted to become a successful entrepreneur, a model, a TV artist, a media tycoon, a musician, an author, a painter, a teacher or an industrialist etc. Think about your childhood and identify your passion.
• What are your favourite topics for discussions with your friends, relatives or colleagues? Identify that topic which you bring out while talking with people even when the basic topic at that time is quite different.
• Where do you love to spend most of your time? For example, if you keep giving lectures to others most of the time, teaching and guiding others may be your passion.
• Ask people with whom you spend most of your time. What do they think about your passion?
• Sometimes, your interests may be very well known to you. But you have abandoned them in the current situation. Bring them back to forefront. For example, a young boy who came to me for counselling told me that his real passion is to become a model. But due to his parent’s pressure he is studying engineering. As his passion was clearly known to him, we worked on ways to gain expertise in that field and make good earning.

FUEL YOUR PASSION

As an engineer I became an expert in the field of vibration diagnosis of large power plant machineries, by default. But after few years I found that my passion is to help and guide people to raise their self-image and grow to unexpected heights in life. I attended trainings from experts in this field and when my confidence was high, I left my 12-hour job to build my life around my passion.I am giving some guideline to follow for those who feel that somehow, they need to tune themselves to their own passion:

• Identify your true passion by following 5 points as described above. And ask yourself: Is it certain that your life will be better if you follow your passion.
• Change in any way can bring some temporary disturbance in life. Decide: Are you serious enough to go for a change.
• Since you have long forgotten your passion, you are not an expert in this field today. Find a successful mentor in that area and take training.
• Start the new activity on part time basis. For this, you need to prioritize your activities and find some extra time. You may have to sacrifice some of your favourite activities to manage time today.
• Your part time efforts must be consistent. No breaks. Failures are a part of the game. Don’t quit. Learn from failures, take Mentor’s guidance and move ahead.
• Compare your new work with the old one. Are you sure you are comfortable in the new work which is aligned with your passion? If yes, then grow enough so that your income is at least 50 % more than that of the old profession.
• If you are happy and your income has been growing in last 12 to 18 months, you are now ready for your dream profession, provided your mentor allows you for the same.

Friends, these steps are well tested. If you follow them, you will get good results and your life journey will become smooth and enjoyable.

TAKE AWAY

Our presence on this planet is not incidental, it is very much planned. God has given us a purpose for this awesome journey. So, identify your purpose, your passion; be an achiever and on the way help others to achieve big.

Dr. Lokesh N Rai

P.S.: Did you find something useful in this post? Please offer your comments in the comment box. Send your email id for a free consultation.