One Passion vs. Loads Of Experiences

Throughout my travels, I’ve bumped into many people who were ‘finding themselves’.

Most had either just left a job or finished education, and had no idea what they wanted from their lives.

It’s a struggle that lots of us go through. We’re all on the lookout for that ‘one thing’ that will make us happy forever.

People look at me enviously when they hear I wanted to be a writer since I was small, and now I am one.

To them I say: ‘What’s the rush?’

Why is there such pressure to find our purpose?

It’s strange that we’re expected to decide our life’s mission as soon as we leave education.

We’re all told to discover our true passion and try to make a living from it.

Confucius says to “choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”. So does every self-development writer of all time.

Focusing on your ‘one thing’ is one of the easiest ways to be happy. It’s also the best way to become successful. Two of my personal idols – Eminem and David Beckham – are both examples of people who knew exactly what they wanted to do at a tender age and focused completely on that. There are thousands more examples. Child actors. Musicians. Every Olympic gold medallist ever. These people can now experience all the benefits of global success, though they had to sacrifice a lot to get to where they were.

So, what if we were to do the complete opposite of these people and spend our lives trying all the things? We’d end up as a Jack Of All Trades and master of none – but what a rich life we would lead.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned on my travels, it’s the incredible diversity of the world we live in. It would be a shame to die without experiencing it all.

Is it better to be a Jack Of All Trades?

In the last decade, I’ve dabbled with DJing, football commentary, playing the drums and stand up comedy.

At one point, I thought they were all the ‘one thing’ I was meant to do, but they all fell by the wayside.

I still think boxing might be my ‘one thing’. Yet, since I packed for my travels I’ve barely taken a jog, let alone thrown a punch.

Could global travel be my replacement ‘one thing’? It’s too soon to say, but it definitely fuels my hunger to experience as much of the world as possible. I can’t see how anyone could see that as a bad thing…

There’s no rush

For those who are disheartened trying to ‘find yourself’, here are some examples of people who found success later in life.

• The founder of McDonald’s Ray Kroc bought the restaurant when was 52.
• Colonel Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken, started franchising at age 65.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger firts gained fame as a bodybuilder, then a famous movie actor. He got into politics in his 60s.

I wrote my first book aged 29. That’s kind of old…but if I write one a year for the next 30 years and they get better each time, surely one of them will be a worldwide best-seller??

How amazing could you still become at your ‘one thing’ if you discovered it tomorrow? The best chance you have of discovering it soon is to try lots of things.

How do you know you’ve found your ‘one thing’?

The best description of passion that I’ve seen is: a love of the process, not the results. It’s about appreciating the downs, as well as the ups.

• Musicians love the hours of guitar practice, not just playing sold-out gigs.
• Authors love constructing the perfect scene, not just counting the book sales.

If you don’t like the grind, it’s probably not your true passion.

I’m currently working for a content writing agency and splitting the workload across seven days a week. There’s not a lot of time for much else. When I finished my workload relatively early today, my first thought was that I’d have time to write this blog post.

This blog is less than a year old. This post won’t get a lot of views. It won’t make me any money, but I’m so excited to get these thoughts on the page and I’d love to hear even one opinion on this topic.

That’s how I know it’s my ‘one thing’.

So, tell me. Should we focus on gaining as many life experiences as we can – or developing our ‘one true passion’ as soon as possible? Which of these options are you taking at the moment? If you’re not doing either, why not?? Let me know in the comments.