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Discovering your passions and pursuing them is no easy task. It means stepping out of your comfort zone, pushing yourself through difficult situations, and spending time reflecting. Ultimately, though, it’s worthwhile because it will put you on a path to self-fulfillment.

1. Understand What Passions Are

Before anything else, let’s talk about what “passions” truly mean. For starters, they are related to your interests — the activities you most enjoy doing and talking about. Next, it’s necessary to consider your values. These are the principles that guide your life and matter most to you. Explore organizations on campus to see if there are any that reflect your values (the likelihood is there’s at least one). Finally, your passions should relate to your strengths. You may be naturally good at a skill or be willing to learn it. In addition to hard skills, think about what soft skills you excel in, such as creativity, teamwork, conflict resolution, or problem solving.

2. Think About Why

If you already know what career path you want to take, it’s useful to think about why you want to pursue this career. Identify the aspects of the career you’re passionate about. These will often be the impact of the work. Understanding your underlying passions could reveal alternative career opportunities you hadn’t considered.

3. Network with Professionals

Once you’ve discovered your passions, it’s time to find ways to pursue them. Connections in your industry are invaluable for this purpose. Whereas you’ll meet some people organically (such as on campus and during your internships), you also need an active approach. Search online or use LinkedIn to find professionals you can reach out to and ask them for advice. Specifically, find out how they arrived where they are today and whether they have any tips for you. You’ll likely find that many people are happy to help students who are just starting out in their careers.

4. Believe in Yourself

People often give up on their passions because they believe they won’t succeed. It’s important to acknowledge that difficulties along the way are inevitable. You may struggle to pass a class that’s a requirement for your major, be rejected for your dream internship or graduate program, or discover that certain skills are harder to learn than you expected.

The important thing is to not give up entirely. In some cases, you may need to rethink your career path. However, if you do this with your passions in mind, you’ll still feel fulfilled.

5. Keep Your Options Open

If your passions could lead to a number of careers, keep your options open from the start to improve your chances of success. This is also a good idea if you’re still unsure about your passions and want to spend more time exploring ideas before you commit to anything in particular.
One way to do this is to choose a broad major. However, you could also declare a minor or even pursue a double major. In addition, you can gain plenty of valuable skills and experience through volunteer work, extracurriculars, and diverse electives.

Don’t make college into too much of a chore — finding your passions, meeting other people, and even engaging with your schoolwork should be enjoyable. This is more likely to be the case when you improve your living situation. Upgrade your Niagara College student housing by moving into Parkway Lofts. You’ll have your own room or studio apartment located just a short drive from campus in a building packed with great amenities, ranging from a fitness center and study rooms to a common area lounge and commercial-style kitchen. Apply now to take advantage of the lowest rates all year.