What are your passions? What are the things that drive you to climb out of bed each morning?  

If you don’t have an answer to those questions, that’s okay. You don’t have to have it figured out; you don’t need one passion for the entirety of your existence. Your passions, your dreams, your goals can change as you evolve from season to season. 

I’ve always loved writing. I was (and still am) constantly making up stories in my head. I love taking those stories in my head and putting them down on paper. I love putting different scenes and characters together and compiling them into a story. It’s imaginative, innovative, and creative. It’s one of the things I’m passionate about. I am passionate about writing. I am passionate about stories. 

You can have many passions at once. You can have different passions at different times in your life. 

So, if you can’t answer the earlier question of “What are you passionate about?” then that’s okay—make a list of the things you enjoy and go from there. Those are the things you are most likely passionate about; the things that drive you to get out of bed each morning. 

Sometimes, passion can be assumed as what someone’s career path is and should be. If you love sports, then that must mean you want to be a professional athlete. If you love helping others, then that must mean you want to be a doctor or pursue social work. Passion, or the devotion to some activity, object, or concept, often gets pigeonholed as someone’s dream career path. But it doesn’t have to be. Your passions, the things that drive you, are often based on your core values, or that’s what Captain Ryan Boyd writes in her article this month on finding your passions. “I find that my core values spark my passions. My core values, for example, are showing God’s love to others and helping them when I can. These two things are at the very basis of everything that I do.” 

You don’t have to make your passions into a full-time job—or you can! Ultimately, these things that you’re passionate about—whether they earn you a paycheck or not—help make up who you are. Do the things that spark passion, the things that you are passionate about.