A Simple Method for College Students to Find What They Are Passionate About

Hello everyone,

College is a time when many people come to learn about themselves. 

Really, college is where many individuals figure out how to be an adult. It helps prepare them for the workplace and to start their careers.

Though this is not easy… Not in the slightest.

Many college students struggle with self-identity and self-doubt.

I recently had a college counselor mention that during his first semester of college, he decided he hated his major (which at the time was civil engineering). Because of this dislike for his major, he became unmotivated and failed every single one of his classes. This major setback in his education got him to think about what he was passionate about. Eventually, he determined that he was really good at listening. Thus, he went into the counseling profession. Discovering his passion and kickstarting his career in college.

Understanding Your Passion What's the point?

I, like many college students, have had many struggles with questions like:

What do I want to do when I get out of college?

What’s my purpose in my life?

What type of father do I want to be in the future?

How can I inspire others?

Through self-reflection and trying to understand and figure out where I even fit in the world has caused me a lot of reflection about myself and the type of man I want to be

Here are some of the values I discovered in myself within the first year of college

1. I am family-oriented. Almost everything I do is motivated by my family roots or my family's desires

2. I want to achieve things I can be proud of

3. I love the feeling of winning others over

Understanding these core values has benefited me in my career more than anything I have learned in school, hands down.

Knowing these core values helps me see the direction in which I want to go.

It helps me to make decisions that will help me to feel fulfilled in life. 

It helps me to resolve conflict with clarity 

Most importantly, I feel I am in tune with my true self. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I still have absolutely now idea what I want to do in life.

In many ways, 5 years from now is a big mystery to me, but at least I can understand that the steps I am taking now will ensure I will be fulfilled and happy when that time comes

How to Figure Your Passion 

This method to figure out your passion is very simple:

I am going to give you a list of 60 values, and I want you to think on a scale of one to 5 how important these values are to you (plus any more values you can think of):

Now, go back and look at the values that you marked as 5 (You should have at least 6 values marked as 5 if you don’t go back)

Look at the values and widdle the list down until you have 6 values that are the most meaningful to use

Now that you have your core values think about how they motivate you in your workplace or education.

Continue to learn about your values by thinking about your childhood and how these values began to be important to you.

Conclusion 

The last note I want to end on is that understanding your true self takes so much time and effort.

You have to really want to know who you are.

This type of self-discovery takes people years and years to understand fully and a lot of hard work to obtain

So, In no way will the framework I just gave you get you to where you want to be in life.

But this is, in my opinion, the best way to start.

So continue to learn and grow.

The people who know them selfs the most are also the ones who are the most self-fulfilled in life. 

If this helps you, please share it with a friend!! It helps a lot

If you would Like to learn more, I would highly suggest 

The Clifton strength test is one of the most effective tests on the internet for learning your values. You get a test that gives you many scenarios, and then at the end, they give you a PDF of your top 5 biggest strengths and many resources to learn where to go and learn more about each of your values. 

Check it out: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx

I would also check out “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Which is a book about how you can become an effective worker and gives a framework for how to get there

Check it out: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People