Do you find yourself at a bit of a career crossroads?
Try looking back at your childhood passions. Can you trace them in your working life now?
Research has revealed that following your passion in the world of work isn’t as easy as everyone blithely recommends. But if you’ve come to a crossroads in your career, looking backwards can sometimes point to a way forward.
Regression
We’ve all heard of people following their passion and retraining as chefs, setting up as interior decorators, or finding fulfilment through becoming a counsellor or life coach.
But what if you’re struggling to know what it is you’re passionate about?
Here’s a little bit of regression advice for you. Look back to your childhood.
I work as a communications consultant – a fairly recent development – and for me, it seems pretty obvious. But this is only in hindsight.
As a child, I loved books. I read anything and everything from Dickens to Dr Seuss to the back of the Frosties packet. This won’t surprise anyone who knows me, but neither is it unusual – and reading rarely rules out many careers.
Other clues however were slightly more … let’s say individualistic.
Stories
As a pre-teen, I made a series of radio shows about the Munch Bunch on an old-fashioned “press play and record” tape recorder. There were storylines, carefully thought-out sound effects and everything
We “published” homemade magazines with such fascinating articles on orange eyeshadow and illustrated guides to washing your hair properly – a much underrated skill, apparently.
It was all about telling a story. Heaven knows what we could have done with TikTok.
One of my most prized possessions as a teenager was a Letraset catalogue, from where I laboriously copied out words in various fonts. To this day, the words Helvetica and Cooper Black give me a warm glow.
I endlessly dissected copies of The Face, made magazine collages and ardently followed Neville Brodie (one for all you design geeks out there). For me, it was all about why things looked beautiful.
Bridge
The point I am making is that as a child, you instinctively do things you enjoy.
And while there may not be a career in Subbuteo, there may be a clue in Meccano.
Given a set of Meccano, my brother would have made a scale model of the Tay Bridge, whereas I’d probably have laid it out in patterns, painted it, taken pictures and possibly featured it in an upcoming article about childhood passions.
So what were you doing? And what was it about the activity you loved that sparked the excitement and joy?
Were you collecting things, watching and recording things, or making things? Or indeed taking things apart to find out how they worked? Even a multitude of falls from trees and broken limbs says something about what drives you.
All these can point to activities and skills where you found pure pleasure and you were properly in your comfort zone.
Career crossroads
From there, see if you still have it in your working life. And if not, is there something you can do to change that? It might be a refocus in a role, a new job or a new career.
So no, I am not writing and recording radio plays about fictitious pieces of talking fruit but I do believe I’ve always had this need to understand, explain and illustrate and to make things beautiful.
Think back to your passions as a child and what they say about you now. You might find it enlightening.
Be brave, be passionate. Share them in the comments below. Life is short – we should make it enjoyable.
Hoolet is a strategic communications consultancy. Come say hello on Twitter at @hoolet_hoots, or follow us on LinkedIn