3 Signs Your Job and Passion are Out of Sync

Some people know from a young age exactly what they want to do in their professional adult life. I have friends who have been determined to become doctors or lawyers since they were in their early teens, and that’s what they’ve become. If you’re like them, then you’re likely on the right track now too.

But maybe you’re not like them. Maybe you’re still trying to figure it out and are at a job right now that you’re not sure you really like or are passionate about.

We get caught up in our daily routine and lose track of what it is we’re doing, and if we actually want to be doing it.

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In doing so, we forget that we are in control of our own lives and have the ability to chose what we devote our time and effort to.

That creeping sensation that you might not be in the right industry, and oh my god have you really just devoted years of study to something you might not even want to do!? is scary, I know. One step at a time though, I promise absolutely everything is going to be okay. First, let’s figure out if you’re destined to be doing something else.

3 Signs Your Job and Passion are Out of Sync

Most days, you wake up feeling anxious rather than exited about your day

We all have our bad days, feeling kind of blah when your alarm goes off is natural. For many, tackling the day doesn’t feel remotely possible until you’ve had your first cup of coffee.

But if you’re noticing that you feel unmotivated as you start your day more often than you feel some kind of excitement or even just okay as you climb out of bed, then chances are you’re not doing what you really want to do.

This anxious feeling or lack of motivation is a sign to start exploring what it is you truly want to be doing with your life. Do the hours you spend at work feel meaningful to you or is there something else you could be doing during those hours that would feel more worthwhile to you?

You see little or no meaning in any of the tasks or assignments you’re doing at work

There’s a reason why you’ve been hired to do what you do. The tasks and assignments you accomplish on a daily basis are certainly of value and serve a purpose to your employer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you feel the same.

Perhaps you conduct your assignments simply because it’s what your boss has told you to do. But looking at the bigger picture, you wonder what the point of it all is.

You should be able to find some sort of significance in your profession. Whether it’s that your job is allowing you to develop your skills in a field you’re passionate about, or that you’re making a positive change to the world, or simply that you feel happy doing what you are doing and thus benefit on an emotional level from your work.

However, if you struggle to see any personal or professional benefit in doing what you do, you’re looking at the second sign that your job and passion are out of sync.

Your free time is spent passionately working on projects unrelated to your profession

We all have interests outside of work, hobbies are an important way for us to express our creativity and feed our passions. But for some, those free time activities might be exactly what we should be doing full time.

Are you seeing what I’m getting at here? The people who love their jobs are likely already bridging the gap between their passion and profession. Doing so doesn’t mean you have to fit all your hobbies into your job, but by working towards merging something you’re enthusiastic about with what you do for a living can be enough to make you feel more motivated to get out of bed each day.

So, consider this: Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.
If that’s not where you’re at now, this is your sign to take that leap and change it.

What are you truly passionate about that you would like to work with full time?