I Don’t Think We Find Passion

One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “How did you find your passion?”

People usually expect me to talk about climbing mountains or becoming a speaker. They assume that somewhere along the way I discovered the one thing I was meant to do.

I’ve come to believe that’s the wrong question.

I don’t think we find passion.

I think we develop it.

Early in my life, I loved technology. Later, I became fascinated by finance. Then came mountaineering. Today, I spend much of my time speaking, writing, and coaching leaders.

From the outside, those pursuits seem completely unrelated.

Yet when I look beneath them, I see the same thread.

Each one challenged me to grow.

Each one forced me to think more deeply.

Each one revealed another layer of myself that I hadn’t seen before.

That’s what kept me engaged.

I’ve also noticed something interesting. Some people tell me they lose interest once they’ve mastered something. They reach the goal, check the box, and immediately start searching for the next exciting thing.

Maybe the problem isn’t that they haven’t found their passion.

Maybe they’ve mistaken novelty for passion.

Novelty is exciting because it’s new.

Passion endures because it keeps revealing something new.

Those are very different things.

The activities that have mattered most in my life have never stopped teaching me. Every summit led to another question. Every keynote made me rethink my ideas. Every conversation with a leader challenged assumptions I didn’t even know I had.

The work never became repetitive because I never stopped discovering deeper meaning within it.

That’s why I no longer think passion is about finding the perfect career.

It’s about finding work that continues to expand you.

Work that invites you to ask better questions.

Work that stretches your thinking.

Work that keeps revealing another layer long after the excitement of the beginning has faded.

Perhaps that’s why some passions last a lifetime.

Not because the work never changes.

But because we never stop changing through the work.