Everyone wants to make a living doing what they love, but very few are ready to put in the effort that is required to make it happen.
You see, you are in charge of your life. You are responsible for how your life looks today and what your future will look like.
Now, I’m not saying you can control every aspect of your life, but I think you know what I mean. We are all responsible for what we do and don’t do in our lives.
One of the best decisions I ever made was to find and go after my passion with relentless determination.
It’s very simple, but not easy.
If you’re ready to take one single step every day, you can reach your goals and live the life of your dreams.
1. Get Clear
The first step towards turning passion into profit is to get clear about what you want.
For me, this means setting goals that are specific, realistic, and that have a deadline.
What do you truly want from life? Do you want to contribute to humanity with your art? Or do you want to travel the world, experience new cultures, and share what you’ve learned with the rest of us? You can create whatever you decide.
There is always a way to turn your passion into profit if you’re determined enough to make it happen.
2. Take Action
Next, you need to be willing to take massive action. You need to be willing to take steps every single day towards achieving your goals.
If your goal is to travel the world, find out exactly how much money you need, what you need, and how you need to do it. If your goal is to travel to Thailand and live there for a year, find out how much airfare is, how much the cost of living is, and everything else that’s essential.
Then ask yourself what you have to do to make it happen. Start executing even if you don’t know exactly how it will all work out.
Something magical happens when you take action. Never underestimate the power of the universe.
3. Model People
One of the most powerful tips I can give you is to model people. What I mean by this is to find people that are doing exactly what you want to be doing, and do what they did.
If you do what successful people have done to become successful, you will become successful. It is inevitable.
This may mean emailing someone and becoming their friend. For some people it may mean joining a training course where you can get access to people that are already living the kind of life you want to live.
Whatever it is, avoid making excuses and take action. There will be no perfect time to go after your dreams, so you might as well start now.
4. Destroy Your Obstacles
Once you have a very clear goal of what you want to achieve, take a clean sheet of paper and write down the obstacles you think you will face on the path toward your goal.
What this does is it anticipates the bad stuff that will happen, and it lets you come up with solutions before you even bump into the obstacles.
This usually eliminates most of the obstacles right away, and makes the whole journey smoother.
5. Face Your Fears
Going after your passion is not a walk in the park. If it was, more people would live a life of passion and fulfillment.
Facing your fears is a simple as being determined to get to your goals with fears or no fears.
You can either succumb to your fears and live a life of mediocrity, or you can face your fears and live a life of true freedom. The choice is yours.
6. Baby Steps
Most people underestimate how much progress they can make in a few years just by taking one small step every single day towards their goals.
When you have your plan, and you have your obstacles in front of you, it’s time to brainstorm ideas of what steps you can take today to get closer to making a living doing what you love. Nothing remarkable needs to happen; you just have to start the journey toward your dreams.
7. Patience
This journey takes a lot of patience.
You will run into a lot of obstacles, you will have to face your fears, as things probably won’t go as smoothly as you’d like them to go. It’s all a part of the journey. And none of it really matters when you love what you do.
Turning your passion into profit is something that everyone can do, but not everyone has the determination or willpower to make it happen.
It is up to you to decide whether you want to live up to your full potential or not.
Henri Junttila writes at Wake Up Cloud, where you can get his free course: Find Your Passion in 5 Days or Less. And if you liked this article, you will enjoy one of Henri’s top articles, 33 Powerful Ways of Overcoming Fear.
Hi Cody,
Nice summary of taking passion to the next level – monetizing it.
I’m struggling a little with the concept of passion, and I think I have found the answer. You see I think what you do for money can be driven by you main (driving) interests. You know the thing that captures your attention and you lay awake at night think about how to take action on. In turn, the money bought from working on something that you love can then in turn fund you passion. This serves two purposes, you can pursue your passion purely as a pursuit and you can not risk turning your passion in to a job.
For example, my passion is to travel. I travel all the time. But I’ve not found a way to monetize that that I enjoy. My driving interest (term coined by Jonathan Fields) is websites, tech and business. These are where I get my income streams.
I’d love to know what you think about this concept.
Cheers,
Chris
There is more to it than just pure love. It’s about what kinds of work do you enjoy doing (Genuine Interest), but that you’re also good at (Skill) and there’s buyers for (Market). Similar to this. Some things are better left off the table, like the act of traveling itself. Or for a lot of people, certain kinds of hobbies (i.e., art, creative pursuits) are best left off the table so as you say, they don’t become corrupted as a job.
But there is an art to finding types of work that you genuinely enjoy, while also providing a living for yourself. I’ll try to get Henri back in here for his viewpoint though, as this article is an inspired contribution from him.
Hey Chris,
I completely agree with Cody on this one. Sometimes you have to get creative with how you are going to blend your passion (or driving interest) and profit.
And sometimes it just takes time. You may start off at a job doing what you don’t really love, but slowly work your way toward something better.
It’s all a journey!
I found out about this blog just a few minutes ago and I think it is going to blow my mind. The tagline could have been crafted by a mind-reading computer to completely suck me into the writing. Entrepreneurship! Adventure! Yes!
Even though this post is simple the message is very powerful: “Do what you want. You can do it!” I love it! I am in a little bit of an in-between period in my life and this just adds to my motivation of making sure I land in something I want to do at the other end of it all.
Alright, I’m off to more pages and I will comment as I go.
Best,
-Bryan
Awesome Bryan, it’s great, and I’m glad you ended up here at Thrilling Heroics! Welcome, and thanks for spending your time here.
Thanks for this… it is very helpful…
“Most people underestimate how much progress they can make in a few years just by taking one small step every single day towards their goals.” I was surprised by the progress that could be made in a year from watching Mikko, then I found you and all of these other lifestyle bloggers, and I was surprised again about the progress that can be made relatively quickly.
It’s crazy how much “small things” add up very quickly when your consistent, and it’s inspiring.