During my teenage years and even a few years ago during my early twenties, a question I could never answer was ‘What is it you would like to do when you’re older?’

I couldn’t put my finger on it, why was it so hard to figure out what I wanted to do with my life?

I was pretty good at most sports (mainly football), and even though I enjoyed it I still couldn’t find the motivation to put my complete effort in to it. I ended up quitting all together to my parents disappointment.

‘Why have you stopped? You were so good, it’s such a waste.’

It didn’t matter to me, I’d stopped enjoying it and I wasn’t going to play for the sake of it.

It’s only now I’ve found what I truly love doing. I feel relieved and completely focused on where my life is going.

I’m going to show you how you can find what you’re passionate about and how you should start integrating it in to your day to day life.

There’s one important question you need to ask yourself.

What would you do everyday for free OR you’d pay to do? What is it? For me one of my passions is working out. How do I know? I do it 5 times a week. Nobody has told me to do it. I don’t get paid to do it, in fact I pay a lot of my hard earned money on the equipment and the food I require daily.

I love it so much I’m willing to invest my time, money and effort in to it. You could tell me you love your job, but do you really love it? Would you do your job for NOTHING? Not a penny.

Really think about that.

If the answer no, then I doubt it’s what you’re passionate about. You’re most likely doing it for the money. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, everyone has to earn a living including myself. However, after I’ve finished my 9-5 job I don’t go home and watch T.V all night. I have my passions laid out everyday, and I ensure I complete them everyday to make sure I’m improving myself day by day.

Once you fill your day with activities which you love doing for pure enjoyment then your life becomes much more exciting. You wake up looking forward to the day ahead. You’re focused and motivated. Instead of finishing work and switching off completely, you stay alive because there’s still so much left to do in the day. Don’t get me wrong, my day is very busy and it takes a lot of hard work but the results are incredible and it gives me a feeling of pride and self esteem.

You’ve got to understand that if you treat yourself poorly (Poor diet, smoking, procrastinating etc) then that’s exactly how you’ll feel. You’re basically telling yourself you’re not worth the effort in doing something worthwhile. On the other hand, if you spend time working on your passions and transforming yourself daily then you gain confidence and have a healthy respect for yourself.

You may be thinking ‘Well I would do what I love all the time, but it isn’t going to support me financially’. That’s not true. A lot of people wouldn’t believe that doing what they love could bring in any sort of income. You have to be a doctor, dentist or lawyer like everyone else to earn a decent wage. It’s not the case at all, there’s plenty of people making a living just from doing what they love. How cool is that? You get paid to do what you actually enjoy.

The reason why it works is because if you have a passion for something then your motivation is unshakable. Imagine you’re passionate about baking. You start up an online website on the subject but after 6 months you’ve spent a lot of time and money but with no return in money. It would be easy to get discouraged, however because it’s your passion and you love doing it for nothing but personal satisfaction you aren’t too bothered and carry on.

Eventually because of your motivation, persistence and love for whatever you’re doing you begin to make progress. You’re offering so much value to people because it’s something you’re passionate about and something you have good knowledge on.

Think about what you’re doing with your day. Could it be spent better doing something more productive? Could you switch off the T.V and start doing something you truly love.

Try it out and be amazed at how motivated and excited you start feeling about your day ahead.

Life becomes your friend.

Joe Consterdine writes at The Habit Zone. Check it out and much more!