Career vs Passion: 4 Questions to Ask Yourself

Photo by Mariia Kulchytska

Choosing between pursuing a passion or focusing on a steady career is a big dilemma that millennials face today.

In fact, turning your passion into money is so popular nowadays that it has gained its own term: “passion economy”—that is, people making a living by doing what they love. (Why should we try so hard to please that boss we all hate if we could get paid to travel to exotic countries?)

Then came along the pandemic which gave us a sweet taste of what it’s like to work from home (in pajamas, of course), not to mention the ‘Instagram worthy quotes’ we  see too often on social media (“choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”)

This explains why businesses are hiring but nobody’s getting hired. Indeed, there’s a huge mismatch between the jobs that are available in the U.S. labor market and what people actually want to do. 

Hence, it’s no mystery why more people are actually quitting their jobs.

“Is ‘follow your passion’ always the right career advice?”

But is “follow your passion” always the right career advice? Does a career necessarily have to be a passion in order for it to be fulfilling? And if not, where do you draw the line?

My Personal Experience

As someone who “followed their passion” for the past twenty years, I saw both sides of the story.

I must admit; I was lucky enough to know what my passion was since I started dancing at age six. Despite the odds (and being the most uncoordinated dancer in the room), I insisted on becoming a professional ballerina.

So that’s what I did. I danced all day, much to the disappointment of my (Asian) parents.

Fast forward 20 years and I've actually made my passion a career. Today, I’ve traveled all over the world for ballet. From Siberia, Russia (where dog-sleighing was the main source of transportation) to Manila, Philippines (where I became a target for drug trafficking, yikes), I’ve experienced it all. 

And during the madness, I discovered the ups and downs that came along with this voyage called “follow your passion”. Here are some key takeaways that I’ve learned:

• Your dream job may require huge sacrifices

• Your dream job will most likely have a lot of competition

• Your dream job might not always be glamorous, if glamorous at all

• You might lose interest in your dream job

• You may be only in love with the ‘idea’ of a dream job

Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for what ballet has given me. I’m also glad that I followed my own passion with all my soul and heart.

Letting my intuition guide me was the best decision I ever made when I decided to leave my home country at the age of thirteen.

Doing what I love everyday has pushed my career, not only in ballet, but in other fields, like academia and business as well.

Following my passion has helped me make the impossible possible.

All I’m saying is that making your passion a career is not as easy as it seems. The expectations may be very different from the realities. So before you fully commit to your passion, consider these following questions:

 Career vs. Passion: 4 Questions to Ask Yourself

1. Is it a passion or hobby?

The most important question to ask yourself is whether what you believe you are passionate about is actually a passion or only a hobby.

While a hobby is something you enjoy doing, a passion is something you love to do constantly. When you have a hobby, you are using your free time for certain leisure activities. However, if you are passionate about something, you have strong feelings of enthusiasm and excitement that you forget to eat or sleep (think baking cookies in your free time vs. being glued to your computer until 5 A.M. because you love to write). 

Some people use these two terms interchangeably. However, the differences are not to underestimate because the level of intensity greatly differs.

If you think you have a hobby instead of a passion, that’s a great thing. Keep doing it and enjoy your time! But don’t leave your daytime job for it just yet.

2. What are you actually willing to sacrifice?

If you’re convinced that your interests are more than just a hobby, ask yourself this: How much sacrifice am I willing to make for this? This is important because it determines how ready you are for the upcoming challenges.

“Following my passion has helped me make the impossible possible. ”

In my case, I knew that becoming a dancer meant having to leave my family, my home country, and give up my childhood. At the age of fourteen, I was also ready to give up my education entirely (thank god I didn’t). Nevertheless, I ate, slept, and breathed ballet because I had such a strong will. At that given moment, nothing else mattered.

In hindsight, I believe that this magnitude of sacrifice that I was willing to give up for ballet was what ultimately helped me overcome various challenges. (I probably wouldn’t have done the same for say, engineering.)

The same approach can be applied in business; if there is one thing that all successful entrepreneurs have in common, it is this willingness to sacrifice everything for what they want to achieve.

So ask yourself today how much you actually love your passion and what you are willing to give up for it.

3. What’s your strategy?

If you’re absolutely sure that you have a passion and you are 120% committed, now’s the time to come up with a strategy. Assume you’re going to have many competitors. How are you going to differentiate yourself from others?

For example, if you plan on creating a hiking blog, assume that there are plenty of other players. What’s your strategy? What can you bring to the table that others can’t?

Assess your strengths and weaknesses. You may be surprised to find that your flaws may be what makes you unique.

4. Are you willing to accept both the pleasant and unpleasant aspects?

We often romanticize our dreams. There tends to be a false assumption that having a dream job consists of only positive aspects. But in reality, any career obviously has pretty and ugly sides.

For example, it may take years, if not decades to become a successful Hollywood actor. But once you get there, you might only play unappealing characters. (It took me years until I finally evolved from animal to human in my early ballet school roles.)

In order to avoid unexpected scenarios, do thorough research of what the job as a whole might look like. By doing so, you’ll save yourself from future headaches.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, choosing between pursuing a passion or focusing on a steady career can be a tricky choice. Although the trend of “following your passion” certainly exists and may be appealing, it’s important to assess whether that’s truly the right pathway for you. (It’s also a choice that you can only make for yourself.)

For me, letting my intuition guide me was the best decision I ever made.

Following my passion, although certainly not easily, has helped me achieve the impossible possible.

I hope that these four questions will help you make the right decisions for your future.

I wish you all the best of luck!