A Detailed Look At Feeling Fulfilled After Losing Your Passion: Live Your Life

One of the most popular posts on my blog over the years was one I wrote in 2012 called “5 Ways To Feel Fulfilled After Losing Your Passion”. I wrote this from a place of experience and in the middle of a huge transition. I had recently dropped out of art school and decided that I wasn’t going to pursue photography as a career. It had been my passion since I was 13 so to suddenly be without a goal in my life, without direction was so hard.

I wasn’t working and so most days, I puttered around the house, sat on the computer or tried so so hard to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I felt so disappointed and un-fulfilled and as I worked towards being happy and myself instead of figuring out how to get a career and make money, I learned how to be fulfilled when the passion and dream I had grew to love was gone.

It’s been several years now since I lost my dream of being a photographer and since I wrote that original post. And now my life is filed with purpose and passion in so many ways. Over the next few months, I want to expand on my original list, share each of the 5 ways to feel fulfilled in more depth and from a newer view point.

Take some time.

Don’t even think about it for a few days, a week…a month even. Let yourself relax and just enjoy what life is giving you. I know, it might not be what you had imagined, but there is still good in it.

I know that in the moment, this kind of seems like an impossibility. Depending on your situation, you are either in college and have to pick a major now now now. Or you need to find a job so you can keep the roof over your house or you’re stuck in a job that leaves you grumpy and wanting more. Or like me, you’re staying at home, alone with your thoughts and wishing for more.

Ignore the fact that you don’t currently have a 10, 5 or even 1 year goal for your life. Just live. Experience things. Focus on the day to day and how you can enjoy things in the moment.

For me, I got pregnant and that threw my whole world for a loop. I pretty much completely forgot that I felt the need to figure out something else to do with my life. Sure, I knew I wanted to be more than a mother at some point, but I let myself live, experience my pregnancy and newborn and try to survive my depression and anxiety. I stopped putting pressure on myself as much. I let myself feel free to try things and experience without feeling like everything I did had to be about where I was going to end up in 5 years.

Maybe you’re like I was and on top of not having a passion to focus on, you are also dealing with mental or physical health problems. Now would be a perfect time to address these problems. Go to a doctor, see a mentor or coach, research a healthy eating plan, start an exercise routine that lights you up (hey, pole dancing is pretty fun!). Do something proactive for yourself right now.

You never know where you life will take you. You never know what you discover about yourself if you just live, go grocery shopping, take hiking trips, visit with friends, paint a house.

Share: How have you coped after losing your passion or career goals in life? What have you done to experience life and fill up your time so that you can continue to feel fulfilled?