8 Signs Your Hobby Is Actually Your Passion

I’m sure all of us have something we like to do: singing, drawing, writing, cooking, taking photos or even as simple as eating or folding paper. Some treat it as a hobby. Some turn it into a job, a career. Some might just think of it as leisure and never invest anything in it.

But how do you know when something you like to do is actually your calling? That one thing that has always been there with you, something naturally in you, authentically you, something that drives you, energizes you, fulfills you?

Here’s the 8 signs you might have found your calling.

1. You go all out with it.

It is the thing that you always have a lot of energy and enthusiasm doing. You don’t need anyone to tell you to do it because you will do it and you love to do it. Words like kind-of and sort-of are not in your dictionary anymore. Instead, you feel sure, excited, empowered. Sometimes people even think you’re insane when they see you so engrossed in it. And of course, no offence taken (and strangely enough, you are even quite proud.)

2. You are happy doing it.

Your true passion is definitely the thing that makes you happy. Even the thought of doing it could excite you and put a smile on your face. You can just get down to it anytime without feeling like it’s a chore, a hassle or a duty. It is actually rewarding and fun. A lot of fun, indeed. Perhaps that’s why there is no procrastination with this one. You just love doing it.

3. You don’t mind hard work.

You are easily put off by most things once you realize you have to invest lots of time and effort in it but not this one. A simple example is the difference between a person who plays guitar as a hobby and a person who treats it as a passion.

As they practise and it gets harder and harder to learn, not to mention their fingers might get rough and bleed, the hobby person would be likely to reduce the practising or even give up whereas the passion person keeps on playing no matter what because they know how fulfilling it would be once they get there.

4. You feel the urge to constantly push yourself forwards.

When you do something, you tend to get to a point where you just feel satisfied with yourself or have no motivation to try further. But with the thing you are truly passionate about, you always get this feeling there is still something more to do, some other way to be better and you seriously want to get better.

You even have this feeling of falling behind, or frustration sometimes but it’s only because you always look for ways to improve and won’t let yourself settle for “good enough”. Good enough is not enough for you. You want to learn more. You want be great.

5. You see progression.

Normally, when you can’t see progression at something, it’s either you are simply not good or you don’t care about it enough to actually make progression. With passion, both of these are the opposite.

That is, you’re naturally good at it — perhaps not at expert level when you first try it out but you tend to receive good feedbacks early on from people around you — and you consciously pay attention to how you do it and the result of it. And since you have potentials and you care about it, you can actually get better and notice the improvement.

6. It gives you a sense of achievement, pride and purpose.

There are things you can improve and achieve when you put enough time and effort into. However, not all of them give you a sense of achievement and pride, and certainly not all of them makes you want to brag or gives you a reason to move forwards.

Your calling is the thing that does it all. It guides you and gives you the highest level of joy and satisfaction when you succeed at it. More importantly, as you carry on, you gain a kind of clarity you can’t find elsewhere and everything just makes sense.

7. Money is not the ultimate goal (unless making money is your passion.)

Of course it would be nice to make a lot of money doing something you love, but even if you don’t (or can’t), your true passion is something you keep on doing regardless.

Money is usually not the biggest goal when it comes to passion because you are actually energized, motivated and driven from within, not from money or fame (unless money and fame are your passion.)

8. You lose track of time doing it.

This is probably the most obvious and noticeable sign out of all. When you do something you are passionate about, you’re all in. Even if you’re someone who’s extremely easily distracted that you think there must be something wrong with you, everything feels right and you just can’t take your mind, your hands off it.

You almost lose all sense of time, which sometimes leads you to skip meals, forget to sleep. Though, you just love doing it so much you don’t even feel tired anymore. You’re actually amazed at all this, at yourself, at how focused, invested you could be and you’re so happy this all happens.

Now tell me, what’s the thing that comes to your mind as you go through this list?

However, If none of these signs applies to anything in your life right now, or in other words, you haven’t yet found your true passion, don’t worry. It takes time. Perhaps you could treat these signs as a guidance on deciding what’s right for you.

This post originally appeared at A Tingly Mind.