Stop Trying to Find Your Passion
Stop saying you’re searching for your passion. Why? Thinking about passions as a scavenger hunt makes it less likely you’ll find one.
In a recent paper in Psychological Science, Stanford researchers show that mindset matters when it comes to talking about passion. People who say they’re finding their passion are more likely to end up passionless. Meanwhile, those that say they’re developing their passions often end up with more than one.
The scientists surveyed students beliefs about passions and classified them into either “finding” or “developing” groups. Through a series of questions about how the students would react in different scenarios, they found patterns in how the different groups reported that they would respond to a hardship related to their passion.
They then showed students to an engaging video about black holes, after which the participants rated how interested they were in the topic — most were fascinated. Then, they had them read a slightly more difficult article about the same topic; passion “finders” generally reported that they had lost interest, while passion “developers” still wanted to learn more.
The problem with finding your passion?
Saying you’re searching for your passion implies that passions come pre-formed, that all you have to do…
