Turn Your Passion Into a Career

When I graduated from high school in 1986 I was a shy boy from a country school in northeastern Oklahoma, who wanted to be a filmmaker. I was surrounded by middle-aged folks who considered an Art Degree in Filmmaking as a poor choice. I received discouragement from many.

The unwelcomed advice I received was to pursue a college degree that would get me a job. I was advised to think about my future and the potential to make a living. As a young adult in the 1980s I was receiving advice from middle-aged adults who had already travelled their path of young adulthood in the 1960s.

Now that I am a middle-aged adult, my peers who have travelled their path of young adulthood in the 1980s are giving advise to the young adults who are now beginning their journey.

The reality is simple.

The path for young adults in the 1980s was different than the path of the 1960s which is different than the path of the 1940s. And so on. The young adults today live in the age of different technology, different challenges and different opportunities.

While some things may remain the same, many things are different. We middle-aged folks think we know what is best for you young adults. We have travelled the path of young adulthood. We have made mistakes. Some of us are cynical and some of us have remained positive.

Pain happens.

All of us have pain. There is no way to get around pain. It happens. Some of us have it more than others. The pain is the emotional hurt, the emotional scar, and the emotional wound of having made bad life decisions.

Therefore, we try to advise the young in order to minimize the pain they will experience. Our intentions are good. Our advise is debatable and questionable. We see the world through the filter of a 1980s glass pane window. Those before us view the world through a filter of a 1960s glass pane window. And those before them see the world through a 1940s view. And so on.

Advice that discourages is bad.

Some of our advice is good. Some of their advice is good. Some is bad. Here is how you can tell a difference. Advice that discourages is bad. Advice that encourages is good. It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference. Advice that helps you define and think about your chosen goals is good advice.

Good advice helps you research what you can do with your passion. Bad advice persuades you to abandon your passion. The most important advice is “Turn your passion into your career.” Any advice that persuades you to abandon your passion is bad advice.

Test your passion.

I once thought about acting as a career. I took an acting class in college. I sucked at it. Sometimes we find out that what we think may be a passion turns out not to be. But you have to make that determination for yourself. No one has the right to tell you not to pursue your passion.

For some people turning passion into a career is a no brainer. For others it is a more difficult road because they are bombarded with discouraging words. Being young is something I am glad I do not have to do again. I am not envious of the pressure from middle-aged adults, friends, and family that young adults go through.

It easier for me to make decisions now, then it was when I was a young adult. That is because there is too much pressure on young people to make life decisions and to be able to define in great detail why they have decided on the path they have chosen.

The value of unqualified encouragement.

Carl Sagan, is a person that I admire, and I read his book The Demon-Haunted World. In the book Carl Sagan acknowledges that as a young adult he decided he wanted to be an astronomer. At the time he really did not know what an astronomer did but his parents, not knowing much about astronomy either, provided unqualified encouragement.

Carl Sagan later become one of the most popular Scientists in the world. It would be nice if we all received unqualified encouragement but many of us do not. We have to be strong for ourselves and learn to filter out the discouragement and listen to the encouragement.

It is a simple process. It does not require rocket science. There is no mathematical equation to solve. There are no further details to provide. Us middle-aged folks will ask for some detailed explanations which is ironic because we did not have detailed explanations to provide when we were young adults. Therefore, you will never hear advice superior to the advice of turn your passion into a career.