How To Find Your Passion: 8 Ways To Find Purpose and Drive

“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” This old adage may be true, but finding your passion is easier said than done. 

We often have a sense of our passions when we’re kids, but it’s easy to lose track of those core values as the trappings of adulthood get in the way. Add to that the number of careers you can pursue in this modern age, and finding the right one gets overwhelming quickly. 

But if you dream of starting a business, then unlocking your passion can be key to helping you stay motivated and connect with your customers. According to a 2025 Shopify survey,* 77% of US business founders strongly agree that they started their business to turn a passion into a reality. 

Learn how to rediscover your passion in life with these founder-recommended strategies.

Passions vs. hobbies: What’s the difference?

Passions, by definition, are strong convictions about ideas, movements, or activities. A hobby, by contrast, is something you do in your free time, primarily to relax. 

Both can provide personal satisfaction, but the key difference lies in the intensity of emotion they provoke. Passions provide a sense of purpose, whereas hobbies provide an outlet to unwind outside of work or other commitments. 

Of course, a hobby can evolve into a passion over time—even a new career. This was certainly the case for Ali Osterholz, who started Explorer Knits + Fibers as a way to sell naturally hand-dyed yarns and fibers while supporting organizations like the National Park Foundation.

“I started the business as a creative outlet and something just for fun,” Ali says on the Shopify Masters podcast. Eventually, though, her knitting hobby turned into a full-time obsession. 

“I loved it enough that I decided to leave the world of the STEM community, a path to a PhD, and become a professor in the science world,” Ali says. “The creative freedom was just something I was so enthralled with and couldn’t get away from.”

How will you know if you have a passion or a hobby on your hands? If you’re driven to make time for a hobby, particularly at the cost of other activities, there’s a good chance it’s a passion. Likewise, if you can go months without feeling the need to engage with your passion, it may be more of a hobby. 

How to find your passion

• Set expectations
• Self-reflect
• Journal with intention
• Read books on a range of subjects
• Continue to learn and build expertise
• Seek guidance from many sources
• Get out of your comfort zone
• Rest productively

Creating an environment that fosters self-discovery can help you find your true passion. Try the following founder-recommended exercises to find what excites you.

Set expectations

You likely won’t uncover your passion overnight. But exploring your interests can improve your quality of life, lead to new friendships, and help you develop new skills—even if it doesn’t mean you find your one passion in life. 

As you embark on your journey to discover new passions, think about what’s most important to you. Is it about solving a problem? Finding a creative outlet? Adding meaning and purpose to your life? 

Knowing what you hope to gain can help you stay focused and feel less pressured to solve everything all at once. For example, Timm Chiusano started using social media as a creative outlet with zero expectations. 

“I was driven to be in a position where I could experiment and just have fun creating,” Timm says on Shopify Masters. By staying focused on having fun and authentically engaging with his audience, he was able to grow his TikTok following to more than one million people.

Self-reflect

What’s a skill you’ve always wished you had? When you were a kid, what did you dream of being one day? What does it mean for you to succeed in life? Take a breath, clear your mind, and listen to what comes up. 

That worked for Set Active founder Lindsey Carter. Despite having no prior experience in the fashion industry, she took a $20,000 bet on herself because the idea of matching activewear sets was too exciting to pass up. 

“It was just this electric feeling that I was like, wow, this is what I want to do,” Lindsey says on Shopify Masters. Reflecting back on that choice, she says, “I think my dad always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I didn’t really understand what that meant growing up. But looking back, I was coming up with ideas left and right.” Learning to trust her gut helped propel her business forward.

To cultivate trust in your own gut instincts, think critically about what brings you joy. It’s an important step that can lead to clarifying moments of insight. 

If there’s an hour in your day that you normally spend watching TV or folding laundry, use that time for self-reflection instead. A long commute is also a great time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished so far, what you used to enjoy doing, and what you would like to do more of. 

Journal with intention

Writing in a journal is an effective way to organize your thoughts and uncover patterns. Whether your ideal journaling practice involves stream-of-conscious writing, making lists, jotting down your dreams, or sketching out diagrams, you’d be surprised by what you learn about yourself in the process. 

You don’t need much time to practice journaling. Even 10 minutes a day can help you explore your interests, dreams, and fears in greater depth. 

Nick Bare, CEO of Bare Performance Nutrition, advises everyone to “take an inventory and audit of your life.” On an episode of Shopify Masters, he talks about how being honest with himself helped him stay grounded and authentic as he grew his supplement business. Nick recommends asking yourself:

• What matters to me? 

• Where do I want to be in 10, 20, 30, 40 years? 

• How do I want to be perceived by my friends, my family, and my coworkers in a community? 

• What’s the impact that I want to create? 

• What do I enjoy? 

As you answer these questions for yourself, write quickly and without judgment. Remember, your journal is just for you. 

Read books on a range of subjects

Books can be a great way to expand your imagination and knowledge without a significant investment. If you have an idea of a field you’ve always wanted to explore, textbooks, beginner’s guides, and memoirs all make for great introductions. 

Self-help books like Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic can provide structure to your self-discovery journey and helpful tips for managing the fear of trying something new. Brightland founder Aishwarya Iyer found Embracing Your Inner Critic by Hal and Sidra Stone to be particularly helpful. 

If you’re unsure of what you’re looking for, go to your local library or bookstore and browse the aisles. Flip through anything that piques your interest and note how you feel when you stumble on a genre or topic that intrigues you. 

Continue to learn and build expertise

There’s a good chance that the more you learn about subjects that interest you, the more you’ll be inspired to keep going. James Hoffmann turned his interest in coffee into a full-time career as a YouTube creator simply by diving deep into his interests. “I think spending time to develop expertise is really important,” he says on Shopify Masters. “I spent quite a long time trying to educate myself about coffee and also to practice sharing coffee before I started making content, and that definitely made that bit easier.”

“If it’s a passion, you’ll have a great time doing that, even if you never make a video about it ever,” James says. “If you do wanna start making videos, those will be useful to a much wider audience of people.” 

Likewise, before she launched Brightland, Aishwarya pursued a well-rounded education on the qualities of good olive oil. She took classes at the UC Davis Olive Center and visited small, family-run farms around California to learn about the local olive oil industry. She not only gained expertise, but she also got some market research along the way that helped shape her brand’s messaging. 

Seek guidance from many sources

Getting career advice from one person is helpful, but advice from a wide range of individuals? That can be life-changing. 

Here are a few good places to seek advice: 

• Mentors. If you have a mentor from work or school, ask them if they’ve noticed when you tend to light up and what activities seem to drag you down; the process of elimination can be just as helpful as positive affirmations.

• Former coworkers. Wallace Wong, founder of the gourmet meal kit company Spatula Foods, sought advice from restaurant colleagues, and they eventually became his partners. 

• Friends and family. Talk to the loved ones who know you best; they may reveal passions you didn’t realize you had.

• Career coaches. Career coaches are paid professionals you can hire to help identify alternate professions and then take concrete steps to enter a new industry. Aishwarya credits her career coach for helping her succeed with Brightland. 

• Therapists. Sometimes the reason you’re feeling stuck has less to do with drab corporate life and more to do with unresolved emotions; a licensed therapist can help you work through them.

Get out of your comfort zone

Sometimes the best way to shake things up is to do something you never imagined. If you currently work in computer science, attend workshops in creative writing. Conversely, if you work primarily with creative ideas, try a hobby that involves working with your hands.

Starting a premium cake mix company represented a huge departure for Wild Rye Baking Co. founder (and former professional dancer) Sarah Chisholm. “When I left the world of professional ballet, I certainly didn’t expect to find myself here as an entrepreneur and business owner, but I’m certainly glad that I did,” Sarah says on Shopify Masters. “And all of the discomfort that kind of happened along the way really shaped who I am now. It shapes how I approach business.” 

Once you start trying new things, make it part of your mindfulness practice to keep track of how you’re feeling throughout the process so you can change direction as needed. In the course of running her own business, Sarah regularly asks herself, “How can I adapt? And how can I be excited by the possibilities rather than overwhelmed by them?” 

She advises that, as an aspiring entrepreneur, you should “try to switch your mindset as quickly as possible to be excited by what's available to you in life.” Not every new experience will be satisfying, but it will help guide you in the right direction.

Rest productively

Sometimes burnout can make it hard to think clearly—let alone discover your life’s work. If you find yourself overwhelmed and unable to get stress relief, take a hard look at your schedule and see where you might be able to carve out some time for yourself. 

Are there things you feel like you’re supposed to be doing that you can set aside for now? What would happen if you said no to non-critical obligations? What seems to be sapping all the fun from your day?

Set aside time with no plans and decide in the moment how you want to spend it: by taking a leisurely walk, catching up with a friend, or getting some much-needed sleep. When you allow your body and mind to rest, you might be surprised by your subconscious’s ability to answer big questions.

*These findings are from a survey by The Harris Poll for Shopify, conducted online between August 22 and 31, 2025. It included 519 US business owners and senior decision-makers from companies selling products online.