Where Does Your Passion Lie in?
To answer this question, ask yourself this:

Assume that you are extremely rich, and money is of no concern to you. Given also that whatever you choose to do, you will not fail. What will you do for free?

For me, music is my passion. I love to sing and perform for others. Hence, I would start a music cafe, putting in a lot of effort to make it the best music cafe in Singapore ever!

If you have talked to older people with rich life experiences, they’ll all tell you the same thing – follow your heart. I’ve seen many people who have pursued careers they have no interest in. Some have worked hard in the same company for years. They’re sick of the job, long for a career switch, but lack the courage to do so. Switching jobs means starting all over again, and giving up their current salaries and lifestyles. It’s a tough choice for them.

Also, these people aren’t happy because they aren’t being honest with themselves. Think about it. It takes additional effort to do something that you dislike, especially when it’s for 260 days a year (based on a five-day work week)! It’s really draining. When your job saps so much energy out of you, it’s no wonder that you aren’t happy.

Don’t put yourself in that situation. Think of how you can get yourself out! Start all over with your passion.

Still Can’t Find Your Passion?
Okay. Suppose you still can’t figure about what’s your passion. Remember the mind-map in my post on goal-setting? The sub-topic on interests? Expand on it! You may find your true passion among your interests! Passion is an interest at a level off the Richter scale.

Live Your Dreams!
Just imagine how great it is to have a job you are passionate about! You’ll have all the motivation you need to excel in what you do. Every minute of your work will seem like leisure time to you! Just look at some of the famous sports people who enjoy what they do, like Michael Jordan and David Beckham. To summarize, here’s what you can do:

Discovering Your True Self…
Before you go about identifying your goals, try making a personal mind-map. I’ve done it myself and found that mind-mapping really helps a lot in the process. A brief and simple one is illustrated here:

Drawing a mind-map is simple. Put your main topic at the centre, fill out your sub-topics in the next layer, and start branching like crazy for each sub-topic. Try to keep each new branch heading short, within 2 to 3 words.

The objective of this exercise is really to identify the various aspects about you that make up who you are. These include your interests, working experience, knowledge and skills, values, belief system and so on.

When I first started drawing, I kept thinking to myself, “Am I doing this correctly?” If you are like me, don’t worry. There’s really no right or wrong here. Focus more on the discovery process. Some people can’t really differentiate between beliefs and values. Doesn’t matter. Jot down what comes to your mind immediately. Changes can come later.

Upon completion, I came to appreciate three important points which I’ll like to share:

First. The different headings (values, beliefs, working experience and so on) all pointed to my goals. Simply put, they are all related to my purpose. For instance, my values revealed that I am people-centered. It then makes sense to me that while pursuing my dreams, I must always remember to spend enough time with my family and friends. That became one of my goals.

Second. It shows me who I am and what I’ll need to achieve my long-term goals. I knew that having a strong belief that I will succeed will help to propel me towards my goals. I didn’t have that belief. So I made up one. Also, one of my long-term goals is to become a wedding singer. To achieve that, I’ll have to become more proficient in guitar than I am now. “Improving my guitar skills” then becomes an important short-term goal for me.

Third. Work + Passion + Purpose = Success. Having both passion and purpose multiplies your success in whatever you do by three-folds or more. And passion = interests. Simple mathematics we have here isn’t it?

Achieving Success in Different Aspects of Your Life…
Success is not just about monetary gains. It’s also about your relationships, your health and other aspects of your life. When all these aspects become aligned with your goals, you become happier and more successful. 1 + 1 is no longer equal to 2. You rake in higher returns.

A Side Note… 
I used a software called XMind to draw the mind-map shown in the above illustration. You can download it here for free. It’s quite useful and idiot-proof. This post is just a basic introduction to your personal mind map. In the next post, I will be talking more about developing each heading and how mind-maps can be an important personal development tool.