What's Your Passion?

This is a question I get asked often, and one that can be difficult to answer. And I don't blame anyone for struggling with it. For most of us, we’ve had to give up on so many passions in order to make room for the practicalities of adulthood – college, careers, marriage...kids. But there are still many things you care about and enjoy outside of your 9-5 - even if you don't have the time or energy to pursue them right now.

There are several versions of the above question on Quora , but let's go through some of the most popular answers.

The 16-year-old version: what was your dream job as a teenager? I actually had a pretty good answer to this - computer programmer. I wanted to be like John Carmack, except with more hair and teeth. (I still think id games were some of the best ever.) And yes, I still have a secret love for programming in C++, just to torture myself. Yes, many would say that a 35 year old man shouldn't be asking what his childhood dreams were, but you better believe that I'll keep nerd-sniping until it becomes socially acceptable at my age.  I think it takes a certain type of personality to be able to stay focused on a dream and achieve that goal in life. I cannot stress this enough - I am selfish when it comes to my passions, as is commonly known.  The reason I am so passionate about things outside of my personal goals has to do with the people I meet along the way and the experiences that help me grow. And yes, the more time you spend pursuing your passions, the more likely you are going to become frustrated by society's expectations - but if you keep pursuing that passion, you'll find a way around it. Personally, I didn't know how to balance out the time I wanted to spend pursuing my passions and the time that was required for my career.  At some point in my life, I had to decide which one was more important, and at the time I chose to follow my passions because it felt like a much more rewarding way of living.

But if you're still trying to work out what your passions are, here are other ways you can discover what really makes you happy.

The 32-year-old version: what did you want to be when you grew up? Most of us probably had a similar answer as above - we wanted to be astronauts, teachers or even firemen.

Conclusion: not much has changed, although maybe we're less afraid of heights and more afraid of the debt required to go back to school.

The 29-year-old version: what do you love spending your money on? This is a question I get asked every now and then. It's really difficult to answer because it requires a certain level of self-awareness - we've all bought things we've later regretted buying, only to realize that we can't live without them. I think this in particular is one question that will change as you get older, because you begin to learn what truly matters in life.