Personal Development: Pursuing Your Passions
Everyone’s passionate about different things. It can be something focused, like chemistry or politics, or more general like helping people or publishing their own content. Either way, once you enter high school, it’s time to start thinking seriously about your passions and goals for the future. Most students in university claim that their biggest goal is to find a job that lets them follow their passion. But how exactly do you go about that process? One way can be taking up various types of on ground internships or virtual internships to understand where your interest lies in, and to help yourself develop specific skillsets.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to identify your passion. Childhood interests always change with education, and there are a lot of options to choose from. Family and friends also influence your career choices for the future, and their opinion may not be the same as yours. So how do you make sure that your passions and your career goals have something in common? Here are some things you should consider.
Identify Your Passion
The biggest step is actually figuring out your passions. They don’t have to be a career or even a general field; they can just be activities, hobbies, and other similar things. Some examples of common passions are drawing, helping those in need, creating new technology, etc. It’s not mandatory for you to have a passion that you’re sure about. In fact, many people discover passions much later in life after experimenting with different jobs and classes. However, if you start thinking about passions early, they’re a good starting point for you to conduct research. What kind of courses can you take in university to further develop your passion? Who can you speak with that shares your interests and can guide you in future choices? If you consider all these things when making important decisions, you’re more likely to find a future goal that supports your passion.
Try New Things
Even if you feel sure about your passion and future choices, don’t pass up the opportunity to try new things. Sometimes, reality is very different from what we imagine. You might find out that even if you wanted to help animals as a child, you have no interest in the veterinary field. The only way to find what you love is to try it yourself. Thus, if someone offers you an opportunity to learn or try something new, you should never reject it. It could be something extremely specific, like giving tours in a museum over summer. But you never know when you realize you’re passionate about preserving history and art!
Consider all the things that new opportunities can teach you, and use them to narrow down what you want to do with your life.
Try Work Experience
As we discussed already, the best way to figure out your passion is to try new things. And to try new things, you need to create opportunities for yourself. One of the easiest ways to do this is through internships. Real work experience in a field will give you valuable information about the skills involved in that position. It’ll also allow you to experience first-hand the environment of the industry. You can ask professionals in the field about their passions and interests, too. All of these methods are great ways to get further insight into your passion and how you can build a career out of it. Wondering how you can take up an international work experience? You can definitely check out PAX Internships, wherein their team manages the entire process for the applicants to provide work experience in the field of applicant’s interest
Keep an open mind while trying different work experiences. They may not seem connected to your interests and hobbies at first, but as you go through the work, you might discover new passions to explore in the field.
Don’t Force Yourself
Sometimes, our childhood passions don’t materialize into careers. People realize that the field is too difficult, or too uninteresting, even though it has been their goal for all of high school. Even though situations like that are disheartening, you shouldn’t give up. There is never only one path to take, and you can succeed despite unexpected changes.
If you find that you no longer care for your passion, or don’t find it fun, don’t force yourself to keep going. Being determined is important, but it’s also necessary to take a step back sometimes. Figure out what it is that you no longer enjoy about your passion. Have you developed any new interests? Did you think of something else you’d rather be doing? Instead of ignoring these feelings, you should allow them to open new doors for you. No career path is set in stone, and you can make changes to your life goals at any time, no matter how old you are.
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Following your passions is every student’s biggest goal. To successfully do so, it’s important to do all your research. Don’t step blindly into a high school stream or university major without first assessing your options. If you prepare well and keep an open mind, you’re sure to find a career that you can feel passionate about!
by PAX