Here’s How You Can Find Your Passion as a School/College Student in 2024
Out of all the questions I wish to answer in life, finding the work I love (aka my passion) is my priority.
I’m learning things about myself and trying to find work that excites me the most.
Now I do have enough time to figure it out, but I feel the earlier you can find your passion, the more you can enjoy the gift of life.
I’ve learnt that it is easy to figure out your passion while you’re a school/college student, mainly for three reasons:
- You have more time
- You have more energy
- You have less responsibilities
Here’s the most effective path to figure out your passion as a school/college student in 2024:
We begin by splitting each semester into two parts:
- Learning
- Implementing
Let’s say if each semester is of 90 days, you spend 45 days learning and 45 days implementing.
Here’s how:
Step 1: Learn a skill
Step 2: Monetize the skill
Step 3: Reflect and repeat
Our focus is on exploration. We conduct multiple experiments until we arrive at our conclusion.
Step 1: Learn a skill
Invest the first half of each semester in learning a new skill.
Don’t limit yourself to the major you’re pursuing. Explore out of your syllabus.
Focus on picking a skill that you can use to solve a real-world problem.
I don’t want you to spend your entire semester figuring out which skill to learn.
Consider these skills to get started:
App Development
Video Editing
Digital Marketing
Baking
Copywriting
Working with emerging AI Tools
Leverage free tutorials on YouTube or invest in any course of your choice. Just start learning.
Make sure to spend at least 30–45 days with the skill.
Suppose you picked Video Editing as the skill to learn in the 2nd semester. Spend the first half of your 2nd-semester learning and practising the skill.
Then move to step 2
Step 2: Monetize the skill
For the second half of your semester, find ways you can implement and monetize the skills you learned.
Continuing the example above, if you learnt video editing, spend time finding work that will allow you to practice video editing to solve a real-world problem.
The best way is to find freelance work.
Monetization intends to make you realise the earning potential of your skill. There are people out in the real world who will pay you, a college student, to benefit from your skill.
The perfect work is one where you get PAID to do what you LOVE. That’s what we aim to find for ourselves.
This brings us to step 3
Step 3: Reflect and Repeat
Spend time at the end of the semester to figure out how it felt to learn and implement the skill.
Make a diary entry about your experience.
Note down what you liked and what you did not like about a particular skill. What are the things that kept you interested?
You then repeat steps 1 and 2 by choosing a new skill.
Follow these 3 steps until the end of your college. You will have enough clarity to move ahead in life.
A word of caution:
Although I urge you to spend at least 30 days with a skill to find out if you like pursuing it or not, it’s ok to go with your gut and quit early.
Allow yourself to learn the skills you find interesting.
Just make sure that once you commit, you don’t half-ass it.
Your Takeaway:
Relying on your college education to plan your life is a fool’s errand.
Take control of your life and explore as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to quit and start from the beginning if need be.
Exercise your mind and body to discover your passion.
- Learn a new skill each semester
- Monetize the skill
- Repeat till the end
And last but not least, don’t be discouraged if there are only a couple of semesters left in your college tenure. Start today!
Happy learning!
