How to tell if you have a passion

'Get a real job!'

'You won't make any money doing that!'

'Music/poetry/dancing/drawing/taking pictures (etc. etc.) won't put food on the table.'

'There are too many people already playing sport/reviewing books/tasting wine (etc. etc.) and they are much more talented than you.'

'Wait till you have some money behind you, then go and fulfill your dream if you still want to!'

If you are a creative type, or your passion lies in an area where only the elite get paid, such as sport or theatre, you may have been on the receiving end of this well-meaning advice. You might have even talked yourself out of pursuing a passion using one of these statements.

Whether you want to work in a refugee camp, write a novel or play in the AFL, I have no doubt that you have been warned off such a pursuit by well-meaning family members, friends and professionals.

The problem with passion (and to do any one of these things requires a high level of dedication) is that there are no guarantees of return - monetary or otherwise. The only thing you will be able to say, definitively, that there was the thrill of the chase, the knowledge that you did your best, and maybe making the world a better place.

I often wonder at the competition between money and happiness when it comes to career choice, yet history has shown that the people who we love to hear and read stories about are the people who have faced the odds and done it anyway.

As a society, we have become, increasingly, victims of capitalism - so much so, that it has become a kind of god that we bow to. Only recently I have been noticing that people are saying things like, a little less money would be fine, and a little more time to do what i enjoy beats working 60 hours a week. The tide is slowly turning, we are becoming less sucked in to the money pit, although there are still enough advertisers and manufacturers trying to show us how much we need that new car, holiday, gadget or appliance. 

I have to ask myself, do we really need things more than we need the personal reward of living an authentic life? I have spoken to doctors, accountants and engineers who wanted to do something else. 

The doctor had only wanted to play the cello, but was told to wait till she had achieved wealth. At sixty, she was close to retiring, and had not touched her cello for years. She had completely lost touch with who she was - she was miserable, lost and lonely.

The engineer wanted to be a chaplain, and disliked his environment so much that he had a mental breakdown in his early forties - only in recovery did he realise that his own happiness was worth any sacrifice he would need to make.

The accountant, in his thirties, wanted to travel around Australia on his Harley and write poetry. One day he made the decision, quit his job, got on his bike and rode off into the sunset. Last time I heard from him he was working the mines in Western Australia, with plenty of time off (and money) to write poetry and see the sites on his weeks off.

Did you sense the pattern here? The younger a person is when they decide to live their passion, the easier and more successful it is. it is never too late, but once the flame has extinguished, it is really hard to light it again.

If you have a burning passion to do something in particular, my advice is, don't wait. You only get one stab at life. And who says you won't get paid for it? As human beings, this is the only thing we have that separates us from all the other animals in the kingdom - the ability to go our own way, to take delight in something that is deeply personal to us.

Another question I often get asked is 'How do I know if I have a passion?' This should be easy to answer, but it usually boils down to having at least three of these things:

• You can't go for more than a day or so without thinking about it
• You feel like something is missing when you are not engaged in it
• You bore other people to tears talking about it or showing them something you have done/learned/made
• You don't mind at all spending hours/days/weeks on something
• You feel fulfilled with each achievement, no matter how small or insignificant
• When fully engaged, you suddenly find 'soul mates' that you never knew existed.
• Once you have established yourself along a pathway that is passion-driven, stopping is not an option, even if you have to temporarily wander from the main path (perhaps to take care of someone, earn some money, or overcome a hurdle in your life).
• Financial reward and fringe benefits become less important and meaningful as you realise that you can actually live on very little.

None of this is meant to indicate that you cannot make money from a passion - in fact I have argued on many occasions that if you do what you love, the money will follow, but even if it doesn't, what kind of reward is there in living a life denying that part of you that makes you who you are?