In the past year, I’ve been really fortunate. By taking risks (like piling a part-time internship on top of a full-time job), I’ve started to learn what it is I truly love to do. Often times, I’ve found myself thinking, “This is it. This is what I’m meant to be doing. This is my jam.”
My internship confirmed that I thoroughly enjoy both writing and giving advice. But it also taught me that I really like editing, too—taking my own work or someone else’s and chipping away at it, molding it, to make it the absolute best it can be.
Figuring out what your “jam” is can be hard enough—though I’ve made progress, I’m still learning (as there are a lot of other things I like to do, too). The next step is just as hard—determining how you can apply the activities you’re passionate about to your work. How can you make this work valuable? What is the connection between what you love doing and what the marketplace (or world) needs?
Todd Henry refers to this as your “productive passion.” In this episode (“Doing What You’re Wired For”) of “The Accidental Creative,” Henry explores just what you need to develop in order to identify and follow yours.