Hey there, Reader,!

Hands up if you’ve ever been given any of the following pieces of advice:

“Follow your passion.”

“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

I remember being completely PLAGUED by these ideas when I was a college student trying to figure out what the heck to do with my life. My passion? I’m supposed to just have one? And I’m supposed to make a living from it? Brace for the impending anxiety attack.

Thankfully, it seems like our world has gotten wise to the fact that this is some less-than-great advice. My aunt sent me a great article from Inc. Magazine this week refuting the idea that the key to success is doing something you love professionally.

The main takeaway? Don’t obsess over finding your passion – instead, find something you’re good at that people are willing to pay you for, and the more you do that thing, the more “passion” you’ll have for it.

As purpose-driven business owners, I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to find the one thing that lights us up, pays the bills, and makes a meaningful difference in the world. We forget that our careers are just one part of us and that it’s called work for a reason!

I enjoy writing and helping people with their websites. But I’m not OBSESSED with it. I’m not going around at every social gathering gushing about how much I love website design and can’t get enough of it. That would be weird.

No business venture is going to tick off all the boxes 100 percent of the time. Even the happiest, most successful people have parts of their jobs they don’t love doing.

So, as you’re trucking along on your entrepreneurial journey, when you start to doubt whether this is really it, remember that passion is created, not found!

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P.S. I highly recommend reading So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport – it expands upon the idea that following your passion is B.S. advice, and it focuses on what to do instead. It’s one of my all-time favorite reads!