Question Your Way to Finding Your Passion

In this post I’m going to move away from my usual photography tips and hints and risk “getting deep.”  I want to explore a word that is somewhat cliché and often overused: PASSION.

Just imagine if everyone you knew was doing exactly what they were placed on this earth to do.  What if people of all backgrounds and disciplines were working at what comes most naturally to them?  Don’t you think the world would be a better place?

For a long time I felt as if I was swimming upstream, working incredibly hard at a number of jobs that I was attempting to force fit myself into, because they were “right” or what seemed like I was supposed to be doing at the time.  I grew up in the restaurant business, and had several foodservice establishments of my own.  I was very good at what I did and proud of the businesses I had developed, but it sure didn’t feel natural and I was often miserable and rarely content because I knew it wasn’t my true calling.  Perhaps you know the feeling.

From the time I took my first international trip to Europe at age 15 – to study abroad in Spain for a summer in high school – I knew I had to find a way to make a living from travel, and specifically from travel photography.  I floundered for many years trying a number of careers, from foodservice to real estate to being the Marketing Director for a division of a Fortune 500 company, and others in between, but none felt quite right, and I just wasn’t able to give any of them my all.  It’s just been over the last 4 or 5 years that I figured out how to make a living from what I’ve done all along, help other people capture better photos of their travels, whether venturing around the world or around the corner.

Now I’ve got an iPhone app called My Shot Lists for Travel, a book and an award-winning blog.  I founded The Photography Boot Camp and I teach photography classes at such institutions as the University of California Irvine Extension, Calumet Photo, Saddleback College and others, and I’m often asked to speak at the Orange County Fair, a number of REI locations, the Apple Store, as well as the prestigious Travel & Adventure Show in LA, Chicago and San Francisco.  Additionally, I lead international photo tours to some of the most amazing places in the world including Egypt, Eastern Europe, San Francisco and Chicago (my hometown), and I just signed a contract to shoot the travel, lifestyle and environmental images for a cook book that will have me traveling throughout Mexico (see one post here), I mean life is good.

I’m not mentioning all of these things to give myself a pat on the back, but to demonstrate that if I can do it, you can do it.  No doubt that it’s taken a lot of time and a ton of work, but I can’t imagine doing anything else because I’ve created what I consider to be the greatest “job” in the world.  I’ve successfully combined three of my favorite things: travel, photography and teaching, and this is what I was meant to do.

If you’re interested in finding what you should be doing (assuming you aren’t already), I’d like to suggest a number of questions to ask yourself in order to help you move towards finding what you’re best at.  I’m talking about true fulfillment and adding real meaning to your life, and in turn, the lives of others.  Imagine if you were doing exactly what you were meant to do, don’t you think you’d be a an even more pleasant person and easier to be around than perhaps you are right now?  Everyone would benefit, so you’d be doing us all a favor by spending some quality time on this exercise…

Ask yourself these questions:

• What comes naturally to me and seemingly without effort?
• What have others always told me that I’m good at or praised me for?
• What would I do if I knew I could not fail?
• If I had all the money in the world, what interests would I continue to pursue?
• What would I rather be doing right now?
• If I were still in high school and had my whole future ahead of me, would I make the same choices?

And finally, and really think about this by reading the question carefully:

What would I have to do if I didn’t have to do anything?

Once you’ve completely and honestly answered these questions, your very essence, the core of you, will begin to materialize.

Don’t think you’re too old or established to find your passion, either.

English novelist George Eliot once said:

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

Here are a few more questions to consider in your self-assessment:

• What magazines and books do I read for pleasure?
• What television and radio shows do I enjoy listening to and watching?
• What subjects did I most enjoy in school?
• Whom do I admire, and why?
• How do I choose to spend my free time?
• What hobbies and special interests am I pursuing on a regular basis?
• What’s really and truly important to me?

No matter how seemingly unrealistic or “pie in the sky,” consider what you daydream about doing in your ideal life.

Keep a journal of what excites you and gives you energy throughout the day.  Make a list of the things in both your professional and personal lives that you most enjoy…and that you most dislike.  Over time you’ll start to see a pattern or patterns emerge and your true calling will come to light.

This common thread is where your best future lies.

The ultimate question you should be asking yourself is:

If I found out today that I had just one year left to live,

what would I spend it doing?

The answer to this question will speak volumes about what’s important to you and how you should be spending your time from now on.  Make an effort to do what few people are lucky enough to have accomplished, and that is to find a career that will take you effortlessly down stream, I know I did.

Someone is making a living doing what you’d like to do, so why shouldn’t it be you?