What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything?
Marc Miller
Career Pivot | Author of Repurpose Your Career A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life | Forbes Top 100 Career Website | Podcast Host & Producer of the Award Winning Repurpose Your Career Podcast
What if you are not passionate about anything?
Well, there are a lot of us out there who are not passionate about anything.
My original post on this topic is found on Google 15-20 times every single day.
So how do I determine passion?
I am a Birkman consultant and the Birkman assessment measures interests.
A Birkman Interest score of 85 or above is a strong interest. A Birkman Interest score over 90 is something you must have in your life to be happy. You could say, a score over 90 in an area is something you are passionate about.
What happens if you do not have a single or a couple of interests that drive you? What it you are not passionate about anything!
That is me!
I do have a lot of interests but nothing that I am passionate about.
What you will notice about me is:
- I like putting things together, either physically or logically. (Mechanical)
- I like helping people. I have run help desks, support groups and been in training most of my career. (Social Service)
- I like to research stuff, and figure things out. (Scientific)
- I like to propose ideas and communicate. (Persuasive)
- I like the outdoors. (Outdoor)
What do I not like to do?
- I am not a reader AT ALL! (Literary)
I graduated from high school reading extremely poorly. I read at maybe 30-40 words per minute. Reading was hard work! Even though I have overcome that in the last 30 years I still do not read for enjoyment. I read books when required.
I do not love to do anything. I like to do a lot of things. This is both good and bad. On the good side, I have been able to move around in my career. Programmer, engineer, trainer, IT consultant, public speaker, sales person, school teacher, help desk support person, non-profit fundraiser and now a career designer.
On the bad side, I have been directionless from time to time. I wrote about being directionless on the Career Pivot Blog when I left teaching titled Dealing with that Directionless Feeling. Rather interesting this post is also found by readers using Google search every week. I am not the only one who gets this feeling from time to time.
How about you? Do you feel that you are not passionate about anything.
Are you driven by a single calling?
There are a lot of us who are not driven by any one interest! THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU OR ME!
Marc Miller is the founder of Career Pivot, which helps Baby Boomers design careers they can grow into for the next 30 years. Marc authored the book “Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers.” You can follow Marc on Twitter or Facebook.
LVER at New York State Department of Labor
9yI have been jealous of people that have one life passion to pursue, so I understand the reference point. I have also had to work with individuals that truly lack passion for anything. From my own biased view and perspective, I believe you are a person with many passions. You seem to have gotten enjoyment from all your endeavors towards many different worthy goals. I agree that having a broad spectrum of interest can make it difficult to just focus on one passion; however, having many passions does not equate to being without passion. I really like your writings and just feel you are selling yourself short in this one. I have been completely consumed with raising Texas Longhorn Cattle, Videographer, Marine Scout, College adjunct, electrician….being passionate about different interest is it is like having love for different children. One would not call a parent unloving because they loved 2 different children equally.
Author 💥 Speaker 🎤Leadership Developer 💥 Conference Moderator 💥 Global Teams 💥 Leadership Purpose 💥 Agility 🏄♀️ Exec Coach 🚀 | GLOBAL | # The Purpose+Plus Program.
9yGreat question. See the link below re passion @ work! http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/413de4fe-eccb-11e3-8963-00144feabdc0.html#axzz36g3C8mm2
Experienced Healthcare Professional
9yI agree totally that majority of our skills that we are good at is because we performed them for a period of time. But the one thing I'm passionate about could best be described as having a challenge and succeeding in it. Not to be able to say ha ha I did it, but more of a self accomplishment. In my case, I discovered it in my last few years. Along with enjoying being around people, it is the EHR or EMR. There was this strong determination that it would not defeat me! I wanted to prove to no one but myself. That's what I find interesting in all these groups all the I can't get a grasp on how EHR/EMR Is going to do anything but slow me down! Yes I got paid good! And was lucky to be with a dr who was on the cutting edge of technology. I had done it for over 5 years...TOTALLY, no paper charts, etc. So I had to ask myself, what in the world has someone waited until the last minute? Although I'm not a computer guru/programmer, I'm blessed to understand and see the concept of producing positive EMR/EHR results. And I can share it. Just not sure if consult/trainer//company based is my drama! Plus getting noticed! Lol Great ready. Enjoy. Keep it up! Sincerely, Klingo
Career Coach helping professionals discover their hidden talents, tell their amazing career stories and find their dream job. | Job Search Strategist | Brand Specialist I Resume/LinkedIn Writer | Career Storyteller |
9yMarc: Thank you for this conversation. As a Birkman Consultant with some interest scores of 90+, it helps me to hear from someone who has such a different scores. Yes, nothing is wrong with anybody; we are all different creatures with our own unique make-up. Thank goodness for that!!!
CEO | Founder; ICF Global MCC and Mentor Coach
9yHi, Philip Goetz, MA, CTS! Gosh, your name is really familiar. I'm not sure our paths have crossed - but I love your "rant" approach! And yes...those of us who DO experience passion are often at high risk for "ranting" - especially if we are verbally-prone! ;) I've long been collecting commentary relating to is this a "Riff" or is it a "Rant" and you're inspiring me to make that move to go on and start the blog for such as main topics!