All career changers who aren’t sure about what they should do next in their career, would have, at some point, encountered this generic and overused piece of advice:

“You should just follow your passion”

Whether you saw it in the form of a pastel coloured Instagram quote or it appeared as advice handed to you by an older ‘wiser’ relative (who has never changed careers) and also never taken that advice themselves, you would have felt the full brunt of its uselessness. 

Because…

A) What do you mean ‘follow’? Like it’s a yellow brick road that’s laid out in front of you and you don’t need to do anything but literally follow it?! Passions, sadly, don’t come with pre-set roadmaps.

B) What if you don’t know your passion? Now there’s TWO things you don’t know — what to do next in your career and what your passions are.

C) What if the things you’re really passionate about are bingeing deliciously trashy reality TV or building the best holiday itineraries for your friends weekend away?! What job will those passions lead to (that can also pay your mortgage in the world’s most expensive city — London)?

I feel your frustrations my love. I’ve been there myself.  

What should you do instead?

Instead of ‘following’ your passions, try exploring your interests instead.

There is a difference, I promise. 

You see, the word ‘passion’ comes with some pressure inadvertently attached to it. 

It implies that we have to be totally obsessed about something. We can’t just be mildly into it, we must be enthralled by it. Otherwise it can’t possibly qualify as a passion. 

And so we comb our lives for activities we can score 10/10 on enjoyment on…and we find we don’t have that many. 

Whereas the word ‘interest’ isn’t as loaded. We can all name a few things that have captured our interest recently or continuously over the years. 

The other problem with following your passion is that we assume that passion prevents procrastination and hesitation. One study by O’Keefe, Dweck, & Walton, 2018 into passions and career change found that people assumed passions came with “boundless motivation”.

They don’t.

Passions come with the same difficulties and doubts as pursuing your interests. However, with the latter, you’re expecting hurdles, so you don’t mind when they appear. But with the former, because you’re not expecting them, there’s a greater chance that when they appear, you’ll see this as a sign that you’re not on the right path because inside you’d be thinking ‘passions are meant to make things flow!’

Ok, now we’ve established that, back to interests.

What do you do with these interests?

1) Capture them

First, you capture all of them on paper.

I love to get an A3 piece of paper out and mind map the hell out of it. I find mind mapping stimulates ideation better than writing lists. 

Lists are linear, and that’s not how our mind works. Our ideas jump about the place and mind maps help capture them as they waltz across our brains. 

Make sure to capture ALL your interests.

Resist the urge to leave some out because you don’t think you can make money from them.

2) Explore via research

Next, explore them by seeing if anyone else is doing anything in this space. 

This exploring can look like a straight-forward Google research but it can also be a conversation with your friends (or even AI! Why not?).

The aim here is to GET INSPIRATION for how these interests can be realised. Don’t jump ahead and think that because you write down an interest, you will have to adopt the only jobs going in that category.

In fact, this is one of the reasons people get stuck when they’re brainstorming interests.

The think that they’re going to be replacing one full time job with another.

They think that because they love reading cosy mysteries, for example, it must mean that the only solution out of their career crisis is to either become a writer or a detective. 

No. Stop being literal (pun intended). 

First of all, some interests will remain in the hobby domain. But we still want to get them out on paper because they can point us to a theme. 

Second of all, you may not need to replace your whole work at all. A simple pivot into a new industry you’ve identified from your interests could re-engage you with your profession. 

But even if your destiny does turn out to be a full career change, the first steps are always going to be baby steps into related fields, not giant leaps into the complete unknown. 

Plus, we live in a time when you can have a Portfolio Career. Which means you don’t have to chose between your well paid job and your interests. You can keep one part-time whilst you explore the other through volunteer work or mini projects you launch. 

And that takes me to…

3) Explore via playful experiments

Your previous research was for inspiration. 

You may have found someone doing something in your space that’s interested you. If so, great, use them as inspiration for this next part. 

If you haven’t found anything — also great. You can fire up your imagination to get ideas.

Now you want to create a project for yourself to ‘road test’ this interest. 

Do this by answering this question:

If I am interested in…..[INSERT INTEREST]…. what would be one fun and relatively easy way for me to just have more of it in my life? 

Now ‘more’ can mean a small internet project or a webinar or an event. One-off or monthly or annual. You choose!

You don’t need to commit yourself to anything just yet. 

All you need to do is create a playful experiment. One that doesn’t require too much capital upfront. And one that would be easy and fun for you to do alongside work and other life responsibilities.

Here are some ideas (btw we’re running with the cosy mystery idea):

• Start a monthly in-person or online mystery book club 
• Organise a one-off cosy mystery reading retreat 
• Organise a murder mystery night 
• Start a blog series interviewing cosy mystery authors
• Start a podcast series (either on-going or a limited run of 10 episodes) interviewing cosy mystery fans on their favourite authors and books

That’s what my brain conjured. Shall we see what good old AI came up with? 

• Flash Fiction Challenge: Write a 500-word cozy mystery story featuring a charming detective or quirky amateur sleuth. Share it on a blog or a writing platform like Medium.

• Mystery Newsletter: Start a weekly email newsletter where you share cosy mystery book recommendations, trivia, or even a serialised story.

• Local Mystery Zine: Create a small, illustrated zine with short mystery stories or puzzles and distribute it in local coffee shops or bookstores.

• Create Cozy Mystery Art: Design mock book covers, character sketches, or maps of fictional towns from cozy mysteries you love.

• Make a Puzzle Game: Develop a small, cozy-mystery-themed puzzle or board game and test it with friends.

• Volunteer for a Literary Festival: See if there’s a cozy mystery event or panel you could help organise.

Not bad, eh? 

Go on, give AI a whirl. 

What results can you expect?

Here’s what your experiments may reveal:

• You find you actually don’t like having more of this in your life and this particular interest should remain as a hobby.
• It was fun to do, but you don’t feel the need to do it again. You’re proud of yourself for putting this event/ thing on, and actually you’ve realised that what you’re missing is………(insert learning from doing this eg. creativity, ownership of a project, meeting new people etc). 
• You meet someone along the way who is like-minded and you continue these events in partnership.
• You meet someone along the way who alerts you to this other community, company, membership, job that exists that gives you an idea.
• You love doing it and it become a monthly thing you do and you find that you don’t mind work being boring or unfulfilling for now as you’re getting so much from doing this. 

A Real World Example

It’s at this point where I stop with the advice-giving and bullet point lists and tell you a story to bring all of this to life. 

I was actually inspired to write this blog after an inconspicuous night out in Soho (London) which swiftly turned into my favourite night out that year. 

Was it a club night? An Immersive restaurant experience?

No, it was a trip to the cinema. 

And it wasn’t even to watch a film.

I watched a 47 minute TV show that stretched out for 2 hours due to constant interruptions by the host.

Sound appealing?

Probably not.

But trust me when I say that this is the best thing in London at the moment (at least for me).

​The night?

A ‘​Murder She Wrote’ Solve-A-Long at the Prince Charles Cinema.

Murder She Wrote was a TV series started in the 80s that starred the talented Angela Lansbury (of ‘Bed knobs and Broomsticks’ fame — which, if you loved, means we’re going to be friends), as well as Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (she was the teapot that sang ‘Tale as old as time’). 

The TV series ran for 12 years: 1984–1996!

Angela played a mystery writer turned amateur detective who lived in Cabot Cove but also visited her nephew in other parts of the US. And you’d never believe it, but wherever she went, there was a murder! Which she amazingly managed to solve by the end of her stay. 

​To me, the show was a comfort watch (the original cosy mystery). Every time it was on TV, it felt like slipping into a comfortable onesie, getting the fire roaring and nestling deep into the sofa with a warm cup of cocoa. 

I smile every time I hear the theme tune.

Now, why am I telling you all about this?

It’s definitely not to get you to go — the tickets sell out fast so I don’t want the competition.​

It’s because of the host.

He makes the experience totally unique and unforgettable.

The host is this camp Aussie man who is friendly, warm and super funny. He makes you feel like you’ve known each other for years.

He is a big Angela fan and knows pretty much everything there is to know about her. 

But his incredible trivia knowledge doesn’t end there. He seems to have an above average knowledge of American TV series across the decades, but specifically circa 1960s–1990s.

​What he does in the beginning, when the famous guest actors come on screen, is he gives us a quick back story, sharing which TV series they starred in WITH clips of these straight-from-the-archives 70s — 90s TV series.

​

The other week, one of the guests was in ER…but not the ER you’re thinking of…another TV series that ran in 1985 and starred Elliot Gould (who was Jack Gellar, Ross’ dad from Friends) as one of the leads.

And, guess who made a guest appearance?

That’s right, a very young George Clooney.​

I LOVE seeing clips of old TV shows I never knew existed!

​On top of the TV trivia, there’s also a raffle with prizes, a True or False round where we all stand up and participate, a sing-a-long and a few other fun things.

​It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and I swiftly named it ‘The Best Night Out in Soho’. 

And it’s all thanks to this amazing host who took his passion for day time 80s & 90s crime drama TV and made a monthly event out of it. 

I know he has a day job (I sat next to his boss one of the other times I went), but I imagine the fulfilment this side project gives him is endless….

🌻 He gets to be creative — by compiling the different actor clips, creating the experience and also when he performs on stage. 

🌻 He meets new people, but he’s also created some super fans (who regularly take up the front rows) and a community. 

🌻 He travels with it too putting on the night in a few other cinemas around the country. 

🌻 There’s also some monetary reward he gets, I’m sure, which is a nice bonus. 

🌻 And as far as I’m concerned, he’s created a legacy in London’s nightlife scene. 

None of this would have happened if, when he identified his interest, he asked himself “But how am I going to make a living out of it?”

Sometimes you don’t need to. 

The project you do will either be enough, or open the door to opportunities. 

If you have any examples of other people who have created projects from their interests, please do share them in the comments! 

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