I posted this as an answer to the question “How did you figure out what you love to do?” on Quora. Cross-posting here in case it’s useful to someone else. Here goes.
This is a question I’ve spent the last nine months trying to answer for myself.
I’m not sure that I’ll love my current occupation for the rest of my life, but I am sure that I can pivot my career at any point and find new ways to earn a living doing what I love. Here’s how I got here:
I realized that what I love to do is not necessarily going to be an income-generating activity in the short term. Yes, I know that the current discussion centers on doing what you love professionally, but my current job is the result of many years of doing something just for fun. Keep playing, finding activities that bring you joy, and doing them regardless of whether someone is paying you for it. You’ll become more skilled and meet awesome people who can help you get to places you can’t even imagine right now. As a bonus, this means that you don’t have to be objectively good at what you love to do right now. The absence of a boss or client will let you improve at your own pace. In the meantime, it’s OK to keep a job you don’t necessarily love. The conditions for this job are that it has to pay the bills, rarely require overtime, and not have a toxic office environment.
I figured out what I hated to do. Kind of a no-brainer, but a lot of people fixate on finding passion without paying respect to its inverse. Spending time considering what I absolutely despised doing helped me get fresh ideas about what really spikes my passion.
I developed the habit of respecting my instincts. When you feel great doing something, no matter how trivial it may seem, write it down. I left myself visual reminders of such activities to make sure that I have top-of-mind awareness even on my most stressful days. My reminders covered: 1) the kinds of values I want to represent, 2) the skills I want to have, 3) the things I want to do on a daily, weekly, bi-monthly, and annual basis, and 4) the kinds of experiences I want to have once in my lifetime. Map out your notes if you need to—seeing everything in one place might make you see your unique skills and interests in a whole new light.
I got specific about what output I love to create, what value I love to provide for other people (and myself), and what physical activities and environments make me happiest. Work hard to optimize your filters for things that you do and don’t enjoy. Thinking about what you love to “do” is too vague—get as specific as possible about what this “doing” is really like.
I started to respect time. When you’re anxious about not doing what you love, it’s easy to forget that not everything has to happen immediately or simultaneously. Breathe. It’s OK to not be doing what you love every day, and it’s better than OK to have a long-term plan for all the cool things you won’t get to do this year. You can do them two, five, ten years from now, as life is long and fruitful. Also, accept that five years down the road you may love doing something completely different, so your decisions today won’t lock you in to something you’ll hate later. Let go of this fear.
I told people about it. Sometimes you think you’re passionate about something until you hear yourself try to explain it to someone else. Tell both loved ones (to help them cultivate respect for what you love) and strangers (to increase your chances of finding a supportive community of like-minded people). A conversation is the best way to stumble upon new self-discoveries. Especially if you write yourself a few notes about it afterward.
And finally, I committed to doing one exciting activity for 5 minutes a day. Every day, no exceptions. I realized that when it came to some things I thought I loved to do, doing them regularly made me miserable. I also realized that some activities, no matter how little time I spend doing them, make every day feel like a success.
Best of luck!