You’ve been trying to find your passion. You’ve read books, scanned articles, taken assessments.

Perhaps you’ve spent time debating with friends, asking colleagues questions, doing informational interviews.

You’re planning to jump ship! To a new job – or better yet, a new career. You just don’t know what it is yet. So the torture continues as you try to “figure it out.”

Recently, I posted a great piece of advice entitled “Screw Finding Your Passion.” It basically said that you should “just do it” whatever the “it” was.

Mason said when you were a kid, you just did it. “Nobody told you to do it, you just did it. You were led merely by your curiosity and excitement.”

And the beautiful thing was, if you hated baseball, you just stopped playing it. There was no guilt involved. There was no arguing or debate. You either liked it, or you didn’t.

And if you loved looking for bugs, you just did that. There was no second-level analysis of, “Well, is looking for bugs really what I should be doing with my time as a child? Nobody else wants to look for bugs, does that mean there’s something wrong with me? How will looking for bugs affect my future prospects?”

There was no bullshit. If you liked something, you just did it.”

Unconventional, but sound advice.

Folks get too caught up in the second guessing – almost entering that yuck state of paralysis analysis that keeps them struggling for years, maybe decades.

Instead, play!

Yep, be the kid again who fuels her day by following her curiosity and her likes. Follow your interests without judging them. You’ll be spending time that energizes you more than the right batteries!

Your interest will get you through the tough times, the boring times that come with even the most passionate pursuits.

You might have to relearn play – but it shouldn’t take long. If you have to hand out with kids for a while, do it! Its the graduate course. Watch and learn. Notice the absence of analyzing…and the fervor that comes from grabbing one great idea on top of another to forward a project. Yes, often there’s trial and error, that’s the scientific way. Even that is fun if you let go of an attachment to being “right.”

So, career advice? As Nike says, “Just do it, ” maybe like a kid, or a teen in love, or a baby learning to walk, but just do it and leave the statistics to the accountants. You’ll be awake, alive and engaged. That’s passion at work and play!