What's your passion?

I went to a job interview about ten years ago and I got this question. I had carefully filled out the application and carefully considered the situation. I believe I had more self-awareness than many thirty-four year olds, but this was still a tough question for me. I had not read Interviewing For Dummies.

I'm still wondering about this question and my answer to it. I'm not sure if that question was in vogue ten years ago or what.

I think that there are two ways to discern your passion. One is to ask, "what do you care about?" What gets you going or excites you? The second, is to look back at your life. What have you invested your time in?

Yes, I got the position, that was a job I had dreamed of having years earlier. It turned out though that from the new vantage point or vista, I could see much farther and my dream got much bigger. From then till now, my passion has been realigned and reformed though.

Here is a quick "what's your passion?" exercise, that I found, if you are interested:

What one subject can you enjoy talking about for many hours?

Do any of your hobbies involve working a lot with other people?

What specific concerns preoccupy your mind, breaking into whatever else you're thinking about?

What do you most enjoy doing for others?

Let's pretend you've reached the end of your life, and you're in heaven looking back on it. What's the one thing you want to be most happy about having done or having been?

Who 'out there' in the world have you come to care about the most? Who do you most want to help, enable, or reach? (You define the categories, whatever way you want. Go with your first instincts.)

Now, write down at least five of your life experiences that most gave you a sense of fulfillment and/or growth. (Don't think about them until later -- just write them down for now.) If more experiences come to mind, just keep listing them until you exhaust yourself. You'll sort them out later.