What are your passions?

Part of the challenge of identifying your passions is that they can be anything. People struggle with this.
Here’s a hint: your passion isn’t a topic like “English” or “Geneaology” nor is it a hobby like “Cricket” or “Basket-weaving.” These are manifestations of your passions but not passions themselves. Passions are drivers — they are the consistent threads that tie together all of the activities that we get satisfaction from doing. The challenge is honing in on what your passionactually is.

Enter Timothy Butler and James Waldroop, two smart guys with glasses that have done the leg-work for the rest of us to narrow down passions into 8 general categories.

From an article entitled “Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People” that came out in ’99, they identified 8 “long-held, emotionally driven passions that derive from personality and influence the kinds of activities that make you happy.” They call them “embedded life interests” and believe they can be used to determine “fit” in a job. They’re heavy on nerdspeak, so bear with me. I attempted to translate them into human-speak:

• Application of Technology measures interests that are often associated with engineering, production, operations, and the general use of technology to accomplish objectives. (Translation: You like smart things like computers and probably played with Legos as a kid.)
• Quantitative Analysis measures interests that are realized through problem-solving that relies on mathematical analysis. (Translation: You like numbers. And calculators.)
• Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking measures interests involving broadly conceptual approaches to problems. (Translation: You are a questioner who is constantly analyzing things.)
• Creative Production measures interests that are realized through highly creative activities such as the development of new products or concepts, the generation of new ideas, etc. (Translation: You come up with lots of ideas for things like new ways to use a garden spade.)
• Counseling and Mentoring measures interests that involve developing relationships as a crucial part of work, such as coaching, training and mentoring. (Translation: Like me, you enjoy helping people figure out how to DOMINATE life.)
• Managing People and Relationships measures interests that involve developing relationships as a crucial part of work, such as coaching, training and mentoring. (Note: Not a typo. Same measures as above.)
• Enterprise Control measures interests that are realized through having ultimate decision-making authority for complete operations. (Translation: You like bossing things and people around.)
• Influence Through Language and Ideas measures interest in exercising influence through the skillful use of written and spoken language. (Translation: You are all about communication and persuasion. You probably are a journalist, blogger, or lawyer.)

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The biggest rub you’ll feel in your career will come if your passions are misaligned with the expectations of your work. Which of the 8 speak to you? Are you passionate about one or two but your job has you doing others?