But there was nothing that I could really think about that I was passionate
about.
Right? And so here, if that is you,
if you've been thinking about and finding that I'm not passionate,
I'm just not a passionate person, it's okay.
Why following your passion does not lead to career fulfillment.
So today I wanted to do something different. I want to welcome you to this,
do a little bit of a fireside chat and we're going to be talking about a subject
that is really popular when it comes to accelerating and growing your career,
right? We all want career fulfillment.
We all are working because we want to live lives of fulfillment.
We want to know that what we do matters, right?
So when I was in high school and I was trying to decide which school to go to,
what to study in school, I had the help of a guidance counselor.
She was a school counselor who was one of the staff members of my high school.
And her goal, the way she was hired for,
she was hired to help each student that was about to finish high school,
about to finish grade 12 to figure out for them, and with them,
what they wanted to study and what they wanted
to take for the next step after high school.
And so when it came to my turn to see her, she asked me and she said to me,
Grace, you just need to follow your passion.
You just need to figure out what it is you're passionate about
and follow your passion. Right? So how many of you, I mean,
have you heard someone say that to you before?
Have you had a point in your career, maybe multiple times in your career,
where a well-meaning family or
friend or maybe a counselor or someone you trusted, a mentor,
told you to follow your passion?
Well,
I'm here to make a bold statement that following your passion does not lead to a
fulfilling career.
And here's why. Well, first of all, not everybody has a passion.
I remember when my guidance counselor told me, just follow your passion.
I thought and I thought and I thought about it, I took days to think about it
and I couldn't think about what I was passionate about.
I mean I had a lot of interests. There were things I like to do, like,
I like to ride my bike, I like to hang out with my friends. I like to read books
once in a while,
but there was nothing that I could really think about that I was passionate
about. Right? And so here, if that is you,
if you've been thinking about and finding that I'm not passionate,
I'm just not a passionate person, it's okay.
There's nothing wrong with you because not everybody has a passion.
And the other reason why following your passion does not lead to career
fulfillment is because of what a passion is and what it is not.
If you look at the definition of the word passion, right?
You look in the dictionary, the word origin of passion actually means suffering.
And what a passion is,
it's this deep seated emotion or desire for something in your life,
right? So they are based on emotions. It's impulsive, right?
And passions are based on the center of our brain called the limbic system,
right? The amygdala is a structure in the limbic system.
So when you are passionate about something, it is all impulsive.
It is all based on the emotional brain, right?
And your emotional brain is not the same part of the brain that creates reasons
for something, right?
Your emotional brain is the impulsive reason,
is the impulsive part of the brain.
It is that that part of your brain that's driven by emotion, it's protective.
The emotional brain is the more primitive part of the brain, right?
It's there to protect you from dangers. But the thing is in your career journey,
there are no impending dangers, it's not life or death, right?
But if you focus on emotion,
you are actually focusing on the impulses, right?
So that's why passion does not
lead to fulfillment because your passions will change over time as well.
What you are passionate about today
may not be what you're going to be passionate about next year or next month or
six months from now. So when you do follow your passion,
sometimes it can lead to a lot of pain and suffering. Well, first of all,
because it is very transient and secondly it's because your passions are based
on the biases, your biases and what you see in this world.
Let me give you an example. Let's say you are very passionate about traveling.
You know, I'm very passionate
about traveling today. I love to travel, I love to go to new cities,
new countries, delve into the cultures and meet
some of the locals and to get to understand their way of life.
So that's a passion of mine, right?
So if I were to pursue a career that involves a lot of traveling because I was
pursuing my passion and that was my passion was traveling.
If I were to pursue that career,
what I would really quickly discover and figure out is that that passion,
that career that allows me to travel every week or every month quickly becomes
very tedious. Because then there are, I have to overcome jet lag. You know,
there's a lot of inconveniences that come about with traveling.
So therefore that's an example of how following your passion could lead to
pain and suffering because it is a bias.
It is just an emotional drive and impulse of your brain to do something that
you're passionate about.
But maybe you are on the other side of the coin where you know your passion,
but you just haven't been able to turn it into a career.
This may not be possible as well. So say, let's say for example,
you have a really deep seated passion for basketball.
It is something that you love to do. You love to play basketball.
You'd love to be competitive in basketball, but you are unable to turn it into a
career because of your ability to play basketball to that level.
So not all passions can be turned into a career as well.
So that's why pursuing your passion,
those are the reasons why pursuing your passion does not lead to
fulfillment because your passions are really uncontrollable emotions,
they're knee-jerk behaviors and reactions
that your brain has to something that you're passionate about.
Your passions do not have any inspired direction or any objective reason.
So as you're listening to this you might be wondering, okay,
so if I'm not to pursue my passion, then what is it? What do I pursue?
The answer is meaningful purpose. Instead of pursuing your passions
which you want to be doing is pursuing your meaningful purpose,
that is truly what is going to give you a fulfilling career
Because as we both know without purpose,
we would not exist and it's purpose that created us,
purpose that connects us, purpose that pulls us, it is purpose that defines us,
purpose that binds us.
So while pursuing your passion is driven by the intensity of the emotions,
pursuing meaningful purpose is driven
by reason.
It is driven by inspired direction and it also includes,
and it also involves a different part of your brain.
You see when you are pursuing meaningful purpose,
that is where the executive centers of your brain are being included.
This is the frontal cortex, the area behind your forehead and that area,
the executive centers of your brain, that is what really makes you you.
It is what gives you a self-mastery. It is what helps you to reason.
It is what helps you to solve problems.
It is what helps you to give that extra level, that higher level thinking,
to think things through to and to understand consequences to each of your
actions. So when you are pursuing meaningful purpose,
you are engaging in that part of your brain that is
higher level that will give you the consequences that you desire.
And also when you pursue meaningful purpose,
your purpose is not going to be transiently changing.
So you're going to be basing your career decision on something that is more
stable and that's something that stands the test of time.
After my visit to the guidance counselor in high school,
I did end up deciding to major in science and biochemistry with my first degree.
And during my four year college degree,
for me it was a logical progression to go to do my Master's and my PhD and all
along all I wanted and
what I thought was my purpose was to get an education and to make a lot of
money. What I wanted was freedom.
And I defined freedom as being able to have the money to support myself,
to be able to buy the things that I want,
to be able to live comfortably in my own home that
I wanted to own so that I wouldn't have to depend on someone else.
So I just wanted to use my college degree to make a lot of money and to work so
that I can be paid well.
And over time, what I realized that my interest started to change.
My passion towards making money was not as important as my own self mastery.
It was not as important as my own personal development.
And so when I really got connected to that,
when I really started to connect to my value on personal development,
that's when things really started to explode.
And really started to take off in my career.
Cause when I was focused on what I thought was purpose and my passion for making
money, that's when I ended up in careers that were unfulfilling.
I was miserable. I didn't understand the why
I was doing what I was doing and I couldn't understand and I couldn't figure out
for myself why I was so unhappy,
but when I shifted and I pursued my purpose,
and my purpose is to help other people, to help professionals
like you to achieve their career acceleration,
to be connected to their purpose.
When I pursued that as the purpose for my life and my career,
that's when I was able to achieve fulfillment
in my own life as well. Comment below,
what is the meaningful purpose that you are pursuing in your career
and in your life? If you're listening to this right now and you're wondering,
well, what are some tips?
What are some advice on how I can discover my purpose for my life and my career?
If that's you, then stay tuned. I invite you to subscribe to my channel. Also,
ring that bell to receive notifications
each time I upload a new video in the future because in the next few videos I'm
going to be talking about exactly that. How to discover your purpose.
How do you discover for yourself, what is your purpose in your life and in
your career?
So subscribe to my channel and I look forward to talking to you again in the
next video.