A passion gives you a reason to keep learning and to work towards mastery. If you could do one thing to transform your life, I would highly recommend it be to find something you are passionate about and do it for a living. Learning how to find your passion may not be as easy as it sounds, but it's well worth the effort. So today I am going to tell 10 steps that would help you know your passion. So please bring in your pen and paper and note down all the steps. Until then, I shall wait for you. Hello all, I'm Kapil Gupta, founder of Study Abroad Academy. I'm on a mission to coach and mentor 100,000 high school students and help them realize their dream of studying in the best universities of the world and build happy careers for themselves. So today I'm going to introduce you to a 10-steps template. I believe all of you are ready to note down the steps. So let's get started. If you need to pause the podcast to note down, please do that. Let's compare the two situations. You have a job that you don't wish to do, you lack motivation, and find it dull and repetitive. You wish to look for a new job as the current one makes you unhappy. Now you're not able to do justice to your full potential. Now let's take another situation. You get up early, jump out of bed, excited to go to work. You might put in more hours than the average person, but it doesn't seem difficult to you because your work hours just zoom right by. And you are often in that state of mind, losing yourself in the task at hand. Work is not work, as many people refer to it, but something that is fun and trusting and exciting. It's not a job, but a passion that leads to a fulfilling life. Now, answer which job you wish to be in. Undoubtedly, you'll say the second one. However, I use the term passion. And if you dare to ask, how do I find my passion? Imagine the possibilities and actually search for what you love. So it's not only a possibility, but a probability. So going to step one that is begin this search with the right intention, with the right perspective. Because you must believe that you can find it. And if you're convinced that finding your passion is hard or that it's not going to happen for you, so you'll remain closed to possibilities. You'll block the little nudge pulls and signals that guide us. If you don't have belief that the kind of fun job that we discussed earlier exists, then how can you expect to find it? So, right intention. Coming to step two, now ask a question. Is there something you already love doing? What is your passion in life? Do you have a hobby or something you loved doing as a child or but never considered it as a possibility for a job? Try to scan the landscape of a life. You'll notice some experiences peak above the horizon. Just go deep into them. Extract the key points. Let's say, for example, one of my favorite internships involved teaching programming to young students. On retrospection, I might assume that I liked teaching or young students or programming. But when I dived deeper, it became clear that I liked being a leader within a community and teaching that community something of great value to them. Now that's exactly what I do now in my work. So if there is already something you love doing, you are ahead of the game. So now you just need to research the possibilities of making money from it. So let's move on to step three. Now here comes the most fundamental questions that philosophers have been asking themselves for centuries. And that is, who am I? Nevertheless, it is one you need to make an attempt at answering if you want to enjoy one. To set about this task, you need to break things down a little. Let's say we all have skills, and they are things that we have learned to do. We have attitudes. Now they can be derived from our life experiences. Then values, and that is the one of the most important parts. But yes, we can develop and change with time. Then comes another quality: abilities, and they are natural talents we possess without having to learn them. That is like inborn talents and finally experience, but then it includes pastura and all kinds of achievements, big or small. So, coming to step number four, you need to do a lot of brainstorming. That is, if nothing comes to mind right away as you are asking how to find my passion, get out a sheet of paper and start writing down ideas. Now, this doesn't need to be an organized list because ideas never come in a sequence. So it can simply be a paper full of random notes or even doodles. All of this will eventually come in handy later. So don't worry. It might be that through this exploration, you fall head over heels in love with an activity that engrosses you, something that lights you up and makes your heart sing. But now you have to ask yourself the next question who would benefit from? And let's say pay for this. So coming to step number five, ask that is you need to you know talk to people, do your research. There are likely people you admire in life, and there are things about them that you would like to replicate in yourself. So go to them if possible, pick their brain, see how they landed where they currently are, and whether they feel they have discovered their passion. So the more possibilities you find, the more likely your chances of learning how to find your passion in the long run. So this may mean that you spend time talking to friends and family, co-workers, or even acquaintances in your free time. So now we have completed five steps out of ten. So it's great that you've been listening till now. And I believe you are noting all your points very carefully. So now let me give you a quick recap. Step one was begin with the right perspective. Step two meant that to find out is there something you already love doing? And step three were a very important question. Who am I? Step four was brainstorming, and finally, step five, ask around, talk to people, do the research. So now let's move on to step number six. Now, step six is about breaking down your fears. When you seek your passion, there'll be parts of you that go into rebellion. We all have fears around failure, success, visibility, vulnerability. Now that speak in sensible voices, instructing us that we mustn't do what we love because these voices want to play safe. Now, if you let these voices win, your passion will always remain out of your reach. Instead, evaluate the fears under those reasonable voices. Uncover the years of conditioning given to you from parents, society, peers, and reassure yourself that you are moving in the right direction. Try to figure out logical and practical reasons to remove those fears from your mind because that is actually the right thing to do. Now, let's say, for example, if you don't have enough money to pursue your passion, so saving up before you jump into it would be a better idea than to just leave it all together. So, now coming to step seven. That is give it a try first. Because it's best to actually test your new idea before jumping into it as a career. As you're wondering how to find your passion, do it as a hobby or side job at first, so that you can actually see if it's really your true calling or not. So you may be passionate about it for a few days, but where the rubber meets the road is whether you're passionate about it for at least a few months. So if you pass this test, you have probably found it. So coming to step number eight, do as much research as possible. And I'm telling this time and again because try to know your passion as much as possible. If this has been a passion for a while, you may have already been doing this. And at any rate, do even more research. Read every website possible on the topic, buy the best books available to you for a more fulfilling life. Find other people, either in your area or on the internet, who do what you want to do for a living. Quiz them about the profession. So, how much they make, what training and education did they need, what skills are necessary, and how did they get their start? And what recommendations do they have? And don't worry, most of the time you'll find people are more than willing to give advice. And step number nine, like the most important, practice, practice, and practice. Because if you're getting close to learning how to know your passion, don't go into it with an amateur skill level if you want to make money. You need to have a professional skills if you really want to succeed. Get very good at your future career and you will make money at it. Practice for hours on end and learn how to focus. And if it's something you love, the practice should be something you want to do and life fulfilling. And lastly, step number 10, and that is never quit trying. Why I am saying this? Because it's possible that after all this exercise, also, you won't be able to find your passion at first. However, if you give up after a few days, you are sure to fail. So keep trying for months on end if necessary, and you will find it eventually. Perhaps you thought you found your passion, but discovered several months on that it wasn't for you. Start over again, find a new passion. There may be more than one passion in your lifetime. So explore all the possibilities. As we say, success doesn't come easy. So giving up early is a sure way to fear. So these were the 10 steps that can help you know your passion. In addition to the suggestions above, be aware of a few things that can hold you back from living your passion. And what are they? Two very, very important tips. Negative thoughts can prevent you from finding your passion in life. Why so? Because our thoughts are outside of our control. They come in and go on their own accord, and we don't choose them, but rather they choose us. So, however, what is within our control is how we respond to them. We can allow them to influence us, or we can just watch them go by. So it's too easy to find excuses that why we can't do something or complain about what we don't enjoy. But learning how to find your passion in life and fulfill purpose takes courage and just a little bit of self-love. And secondly, and most people suffer from this, comfort is the enemy of passion. Comfort can prevent you from finding your passion in life, just as contentment breeds complacency. Work is always going to account for a huge proportion of our lives, and unless we continuously make conscious choices, we are leaving our destiny to chance. And do you really want that? Decisions we take in our twenties typically tend to map out our future decades. So, this is the time to be very conscious and aware, to listen to our inner voice, watch our thoughts, and decide where to focus our attention. So, these are the best tips on how to discover your passion. Don't forget that all of this will be a lot of work, but it will be the best investment you have ever made. Put in the time to learn how to find your passion and you will find that your days are more fulfilling and produce more happiness and well-being in long term. I hope you find this podcast useful. If yes, please subscribe to this podcast on Apple or Spotify to get notified. All my podcasts are around 10 to 15 minutes, so they are short and crisp. If you find it useful, please share a 5-star review. And if you're part of my community, please share your learning as well. Until the next episode, cheers, God bless, keep inspiring.