How do I find my passion?

By No Rush · Updated November 2, 2026

The short answer

Passion usually grows while you do something. It rarely lies ready to be found. In studies by Paul O'Keefe, Carol Dweck and Gregory Walton, people who believed you have to find your passion lost interest faster once a new subject got hard. So pick something you're a little curious about now, try a small version of it for a few weeks, and see if it grows.

How do I identify my passion in life?

Notice where your attention goes without effort. The videos you click, the questions you ask friends, what you liked doing at twelve. Pick one of those. Spend an hour on it this week and another next week. After a few tries you know more about it than after a month of wondering.

Why can't I find my passion?

Maybe because you're looking for something that's already finished. O'Keefe and his colleagues found that people who think interests are fixed expect a passion to bring endless motivation. When a new interest got difficult in their study, those people lost interest much faster. So the first hard moment feels like proof that it was the wrong thing, and the search starts over.

How do you know you found your passion?

Usually you only know afterward. The signs are small: you think about it when nobody asks, you want to get better at it, and you keep going on days it's boring. A passion test can't tell you that in advance. Herminia Ibarra studied people moving into bigger roles at work, and they learned what fitted by trying small versions and keeping what felt right.

What if I have no passion at all?

Then start smaller. Forget the one big thing and look for something you'd do for an hour without anyone asking. Cooking, fixing a bike, a game, a walk with someone. Interest grows with the hours you give it. If nothing appeals anymore, not even what you used to like, tell your doctor.

In the No Rush app

The app has a short exercise called What matters to you. You get a series of words and keep the ones that belong to you. Then it shows two at a time, and you keep the one you would miss most. For your top five, you say how much each is in your life now, from 0 to 10. The app shows the biggest gap and asks for one small thing you do this week that points that way.

No Rush app

An iPhone app for people who feel stuck. It sets out one small next step at a time and tells you why that one. It is not therapy.

Sign up free Take the test For iPhone. Coming soon to the App Store. The first seven days are free in the app. After that, you choose whether to subscribe. Sign up now and the app stays free for you, for life.

Sources

O’Keefe, Dweck & Walton (2018). Implicit theories of interest: finding your passion or developing it? Psychological Science, 29(10), 1653-1664. doi.org/10.1177/0956797618780643
Ibarra (1999). Provisional selves: experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4), 764-791. doi.org/10.2307/2667055