Why follow your passion is bad advice

Why follow your passion is schwimmbad adviceDo what you love thats the dream, right? Everyone fantasizes at some point about quitting their day job and going full-time after something they already love to do, whether its a hobby or a secret passion. Steve Jobs once famously said, The only way to do great work is to love what you do. So what could possibly be the drawback of making your passion your career? googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) 6 reasons passion shouldnt drive your career1. Not everyone has a passionIf you feel like you should be pursuing something yourepassionate about in order to feel fulfilled, that presents an immediatequestion what is your passion,anyway? For some, its an easy answer. For others, bedrngnis so much. If do what youlove sounds more like a command and less like an opportunity, then thatpressure may lead you to do something just for the sake of doing itbedrngnis becauseits the right path.Its totally okay to kee p your passion as a free-time activity. Its also okay to have a lot of different interests instead of one driving passion. Not everyone feels a calling to do one particular thing, forever and ever.2. Passion might not pay the billsYour career is about the life you want to create for yourselfits a comprehensive picture. For most people, that includes long-term stability for themselves and/or their families. Pursuing your lifelong love of being a performing accordionist may sound appealing now, but whats your strategy for the long haul? If you cant plan how your passion path will be sustainable as a career and not just a temporary choice, then its probably not the best professional option.3. Pursuing your passion may not solve your problemsFollowing your passion may seem extra appealing for a lot of reasons stress at work, boredom, and general life malaise are a few. But even if you march into your bosss office and hand in your resignation tomorrow, that doesnt mean your life will be magically happier or more fulfilling. Before you consider making any big life change, its important to think about why youre making the choice, and what (realistically) you will achieve by doing it.4. Making a career out of a passion can blur boundariesIf you love to do, say, stand-up comedy on nights and weekends, but keep it entirely separate from your day job as a nursing assistant, that might not be a bad thing. If you make your passion your career, that means youre going to be spending a lot of time on and off the clock thinking about it, doing it, and engaging with it. Theres definitely something to be said about setting work-life boundaries and keeping a balance.And it could be that comedy is a great release for your work stress or daily routine, but wouldnt be as fun when youre not only doing it all the time, but also need to focus on making it pay the bills. Will you love doing this as much when its your main source of income and youre doing it every day?5. What we love may not be what were strongest at doingFact of life sometimes our passions dont line up with ourskills. For example I love to bake. Im decent at it, but definitely donthave the skills or infrastructure to do it professionally. And although sometimesI think about what it would be like to quit my office job and bake cookies full-time,Ive made peace with the fact that my most marketable professional skills aregeared toward jobs outside the kitchen.What we love to do and what were trained/educated/great at doing may not be the same thing at all. So when someone tells you to follow your passion as a career, theres a significant risk that what we love to do on an amateur level just may not be a strong choice for going pro.6. Even passion projects require a planFollow your passion is very vague. The logistics of yournew passion career are probably not. For example, would your new businessrequire you to get additional education or certification if you were to go pro?What kind of connections wo uld you need to dig up employment opportunities inyour passion field? Theres a very good gunst der stunde that elevating a passion to acareer would involve starting over in many different ways, so be prepared toplan it out beyond I really like doing this, therefore I should do itfull-time.Making a personal passion into a career sounds like great,life-affirming adviceand it can be. But in many cases, its just not feasibleor sustainable. So before you follow your bliss, consider all aspects of yourhot new career path. And remember theres no shame in doing a job that may notinspire an all-consuming passion. If youre doing work that challenges you andhelps you fulfill your goals, youre already doing pretty well