Change what you're passionate about

I came across an interesting idea in Seth Godin's Linchpin

Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.

I've read a lot lately about how you should figure out what you're passionate about and then find a way to make money at it. I think about photography, which is something I am passionate about. Would I feel the same way if I had to do it to make money?

The alternative that Godin is proposing is to become passionate about what you're doing now and that will in turn make you more successful because you bring your full self to work.

Passion

One of the other books I'm making my way through right now is Seth Godin's Linchpin. The book is about making yourself indispensable so your company can't do without you because you're so unique and valuable.

One of the topics is passion. I recall when I was interviewing for the job I have now, one of the interview questions was "what are you passionate about?" Of course I said project management.

The idea here is that if you're passionate about something, you are going to work on it not because you're getting paid but because it's important to you, the end result is you become a linchpin.

So my question to you...are you passionate about what you are doing? If not, how can you find the passion?

What are you passionate about?

This question was asked of me when I was interviewing for the job I now have (I must have given a good answer). It wasn't just "what are you good at?" but what gets you up in the morning and excited to get to work?

Think about when you were a child, what did you like to do? Did you like sports? Heading out to the woods on your bike? Boy/Girl scouts?

Back when I was in the Navy, I had a supervisor tell me to figure out what I liked to do and bring that to whatever job I was working at. In the field I was in, you would typically have a new assignment every year or so. I figured out early on I liked to help solve operational problems through technology. This involved understanding the big picture and how to improve operations, something I continue to do to this day.

Another way to think about it, if you were writing a novel about yourself, what would your story be? If you can envision that, why not make it a reality.

Strong Opinions, Weakly Held

This is a theme where I work. The company looks for people that are passionate about what they do, whether it's someone like me who's passionate about process improvement and project management, or one of the developers being passionate about developing outstanding software.

The idea is that we should have this passion, but at the same time, be open to new ideas. Based on my research, this quote originated with Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future.

As an example, while I am passionate about project management, in the last few years I've moved more toward agile project management. What are you passionate about? Are you open to new ideas in this area?