I think all of us have probably heard this question (or something similar) in our lives. For most of us, it happens after graduating school when friends and family gather to celebrate your achievement and ask, "What are you doing to do now?"
Let's face it, that's a heavy question to put on someone who is only 18 and just out of high school and waiting until after college really isn't that much better. There is this pressure that society puts on all of us to somehow know what we want to do with our lives ... all fifty, sixty, or even more years of it.
First of all, passion is a feeling and if you're betting your entire life on a feeling, well, things may not turn out too well. Passion doesn't mean you have the knowledge, the skill-set, the tools, or the plan to follow through and actually do something. More importantly, feelings can change throughout our lives from year to year or even day to day. Don't believe me? Ask a child what they want to be one day and then ask them again the next. Oftentimes, the answer changes, and that's okay.
Second, asking what someone is passionate about sort of implies that there should only be one thing. I don't know about you, but I'm passionate about a lot of things: crafting, reading, writing, nature, learning, photography, teaching, exploring/hiking, the list goes on and on. Many of those things I pursue in various ways and to various degrees and each brings joy into my life, but that doesn't mean I'd make a career out of all of them or singularly pursue just one of them while ignoring all the others.
I didn't start this business because I had a passion for jewelry. I didn't start this business because I have a passion for creating and crafting. No, the business came about as a result of some serious lifestyle changes we, as a family, made to put us in a better place in the future. We were tired of working for others, for spending more time with co-workers than we did with each other, and for living a life that felt as if it was stuck in a loop.
I started this business because I had a goal in mind, one that had little to do with my passions and everything to do with the type of life our family wanted to live. We wanted to homestead, to be more self-sufficient, to learn how to provide for ourselves in a way that most modern living doesn't allow. To that end, I knew that we would need to have some sort of income in order to meet our monetary needs - after all, there are still taxes owed, products we can't make ourselves, and medical bills that crop up from time to time.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I got the idea to make wire-wrapped jewelry after purchasing a pendant for my brother's wedding. I was fascinated by the look, intrigued by the techniques, and knew I already had some of the skills needed to try it out. After a few weeks of playing with wire and stones, I started to seriously push myself to make products for sale, and something strange happened.
The more I learned, the more I accomplished, and the more I made, the more passionate I became.
So to all of you who are looking for an answer to the question, "What's your passion?" I say this: Don't stress about it. There is no right or wrong answer, or even a singular answer.
Instead, do something. In action there is purpose and with purpose comes passion.
Try not to overthink things too much. Life isn't as complicated as it seems, and it certainly doesn't have a "right" way or a "wrong" way to be lived. Do what you need to do, take risks and go on adventures when you can, and you may be surprised to find that wherever you choose to go in life, passion will follow.