Today I finished reading a chapter from Jordan Peterson's Book "12 Rules for Life" called "Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today", and I've been reflecting a bit on what I've read.
This is the third or fourth time I'm reading the book, and every time I do, I get something new out of it. This time I was reminded of the difficulty of improving yourself, and your life, and it reminded me of all the things I've done in the past in order to try and find my "passion".
I went from video editing to graphic design, then to web design, then to trying out a different operating system for 6 months hoping I'll like it so much I might learn how to code, then I went to trying out coding in different programming languages. I tried drawing, I tried working with people, I tried 3D modelling, and I've tried writing. Now I'm working in a kitchen.
While I enjoyed my experience with all of the things I mentioned above, none of them stuck with me for too long, except for writing. I still use Photoshop whenever I need something done, and I still like to tackle with things, making scripts, writing small programs, or working on a 3D project once in a while. Writing is the only activity I've been doing more than anything, and the only one that I feel fairly comfortable doing.
But even though I've been writing for several years now, and I've been publishing my work on Hive, Steemit, and Medium, I never really felt like writing was "my thing". None of the things I've been doing over the years seemed to be it.
And while it is sad, and annoying, it is something that should be reminded and mentioned to others, because a lot of people can lose hope after trying one or two things and realizing they just can't find their passion, their unique thing.
The truth is that it's quite hard for a lot of people to find that passion. Some people might never find it. Some might simply not have one specific thing they could be doing for their entire life.
We're bombarded on a daily basis with the work of people who have mastered one particular skill, and who create work in one particular area that they've been passionate about since they were very young.
Some people are great artists and have been drawing since the age of 13. Others are great programmers and have started coding when they were 9. Others make amazing movies and they learned cinematography for decades because they simply enjoy it.
And then there are people like me, and you, who try something new every couple of months because even though we find a lot of things we enjoy doing, we get bored of them too fast, and sticking with them just doesn't seem to work out for us.
Remember - this is not the exception to the rule. This is the rule. Most people out there never really found their passion, nor were they interested in doing so. I've met a lot of people throughout life who were simply complacent with not having a hobby or anything to spend their time with. A lot of those people would come home from work, spend a few hours in front of their TV watching whatever mindless show was on, then they would eat, relax, take care of a few chores, sleep, and then go back to work the next day, until their next break.
Thinking that finding your passion is an easy activity can affect your motivation, especially when you've tried a multitude of things and nothing really stuck with you.
It's even worse that we're constantly seeing amazing people doing amazing things online, because we'd love to be like them and yet we cannot find that one thing that can change our life. That can be frustrating, depressing even.
What you should keep in mind is that a lot of the things you'll learn will be nothing but hobbies. You won't always become a master in what you're beginning to learn, and that's okay. You can't master everything. You won't want to master everything anyway.
Keeping that in mind is important. Not giving up, when you realize that what you've been doing for the past few weeks just isn't something you'd like to do for a long period of time is equally important. Be glad for the experience, be happy you tried, and then move to something else. There's so much else out there to try that it's a shame to just stop after a few failed attempts.
There's drawing, mathematics, programming, gaming, painting, writing, film making, psychology, philosophy, physics, history, wood working, computer building, plumbing, animating, and so much more.
Keep on trying and experimenting with things. If you cannot find your passion, then make a passion out of learning.