15 Reasons You’re Not Passionate About Anything – and How to Fix it

Everyone tells you to pursue your passion for a happy life, but what if you aren’t passionate about anything?

What do you do then?

We can help. As a certified life coach dedicated to helping people find their passions in life, I can help you discover what you were meant to pursue.

I’m Not Passionate About Anything

We don’t believe it. 

We think there’s a passion burning deep within us all, but somewhere along the way, something stifled your flame, and now you’re trudging along without any hope or reason.

We’re going to help you reignite that flame.

Reasons Why You’re Not Passionate About Anything

There’s a reason you lack passion, and your reason is valid.

But it’s different for everyone. We’re going to explore the most reasons why people lose their sparks, and then offer inspiration and guidance to help you overcome them and rediscover your passion for life. 

You Haven’t Found it

Let’s get the simplest idea out of the way first. Maybe you’re not passionate about anything because you haven’t found your passion yet.

How to Find Your Passion

It’s time to dabble in all the things to discover what you love! Read books, go to meetups, talk with professionals, and explore the bounty of the world around you.

If you’re struggling, grab our Ultimate Guide to Finding Your Passion, a massive workbook designed to help you on your journey to self-discovery.

Finding your passion has never been easier!

Life is Overwhelming

It’s hard to enjoy anything, even your favorite things, when you’re bogged down with the stress of everyday life.

A nerve-wracking commute, taxing job, and demanding home life can take its toll, leaving us little left to even think about our passions.

Finding Your Passion Despite the Overwhelm

You’re not passionless, life is just too crazy right now for you to explore them. To beat the overwhelm, make time for self-care. Give yourself a break to enjoy you-time, even if it means you skip a household chore.

Your home life doesn’t need to be perfect – the kids don’t need to be in every afterschool activity, and you don’t need to dust every week.

If your kids are young, you may need to accept that for now, your life is about caring for them, and you need to put your passions on hold for a time.  That’s okay too – you can always go back to it when they’re older (and introduce your kids to the things you love!).

Society Sucks

Some of us look at the world around us in despair. With everything going so wrong, what is there to be passionate about? What’s even the point?

Society told us if we worked hard, we could do whatever we wanted. Yet we work over 40 hours per week and still can’t afford to live. With climate change looming on the horizon, a rise in authoritarianism across the globe, rising inflation, and lower standard of living, it’s hard to find anything to be happy about.

Defeat Nihilism

I get it – things seem bad right now, but they don’t have to stay bad. 

You may have even inadvertently found your passion in your despair. What about society do you hate so badly, and what can you do to change it? Consider volunteering for a cause or getting involved in local politics to be the change you want to see.

Low Self-Esteem

It’s hard to feel passion for anything when you don’t feel good about yourself. Our insecurities get in the way of all the things we love, whispering bitter nothings claiming we’re no good so we shouldn’t even bother.

Overcome Low Self-Esteem

If low self-esteem is interfering with your life, consider seeing a therapist. They can help you learn to love yourself and therefore love life more.

However, you can combat low self-esteem in pursuit of your passion by understanding that it’s okay to fail.  You don’t have to be good at the things you’re passionate about. In fact, most of us aren’t good at them at first, but developing the skill is part of the fun!

You Gave it Up

Life is all about choices. When we open certain doors, we close others for good.

Did you close a door on your passion to pursue something else? Perhaps you gave up on your dreams to raise a family or earn an income.

Getting the Spark Back

Most doors don’t really close forever. You may have had to put your passions off for a time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t return to them someday. Keep the door cracked, if just a little.

Read a book about your favorite topics or explore your passions as a hobby in your free time. 

Too Focused on Instant Gratification

Our world caters to instant gratification. You get an immediate, never-ending dopamine hit from scrolling on your phone, making it hard to turn away.

The abundance of instant gratification makes us think our passions should provide the same high – that’s not how passions work, though.

Experience Delayed Gratification

Delayed gratification is far sweeter than its instant brother. Yes, it takes far longer to achieve, but the feeling of accomplishment, pride, and esteem make all the toil worthwhile.

Put down your phone and force yourself to fully engage in something – anything – that piques your interest. Learn it, live it, try it, and fail at it.  Improve and try again.

When you finally succeed, the intense swell of pride and happiness will be worth every effort.

You Bought Into a Lie

“Follow your passion and you’ll never work a day in your life”

That’s what they said, and that’s what you did, but now you’re miserable. Somewhere along the line, your childhood passion transformed into an endless toil, and you’re stuck doing it for a living.

Pursue Your Passion as a Hobby

Before saying you’re no longer passionate about the topic, consider why you hate your job. Is it the passion itself, or something else, like a toxic boss, bad customers, or lack of creative control? You might still love your passion but hate all the things that go into making a living from it.

Try changing careers, and pursue your passion as a hobby instead. You’ll feel better about it when you do it because you want to, not because you have to.

There’s No Time

It’s not that you’re not passionate about anything, it’s more that you haven’t had the time to explore your passions.

Some of us have to work over 40 hours per week and then come home and take care of the kids all night. There’s no time for even thinking about our passions, much less pursuing them.

Making Time in a Busy Life

If finding your passion is important to you, you must make time. Can you find a sitter (or playdate) for the kids every few weeks so you have alone time? Maybe you can swap with another parent friend, giving you both time to yourselves.

Maybe you can take a few hours off work here and there for extra free time, or pursue a career change offering more flexibility.

Sometimes you will have to put your journey of self-discovery on hold for a while. That’s okay, life has different seasons and phases.

Don’t Know What Passion Feels Like

Society tells us that finding our passion feels like an explosive burst of energy or a light bulb moment when everything suddenly fits into place.

You may think you’re not passionate about anything because you never had that jolt, but everyone experiences passion differently.

What Discovering Your Passion Really Feels Like

Discovering your passion feels different for everyone. It might not even feel like anything spectacular at all, it’s just a thing you do regularly.

This website is one of my passions. I wake up early every morning to write, publish, and engage on social media. It doesn’t feel life-altering, starting my blog wasn’t an “a ha!” moment. It’s something I’ve done diligently for over seven years now with very little return, but I still do it everyday. I’ve never stuck with something for so long.

Maybe there’s something in your life that hits the same. You do it and enjoy and wouldn’t want to stop doing it. 

Maybe it is your passion after all.

Confusing Passion and Purpose

A lot of people use the terms passion and purpose interchangeably, but the nuanced distinction makes a massive difference.

Passion is something you love to do, while purpose is something you feel compelled to do (internally). Although it’s the same thing for many people, it’s not always.

Define Your Passion and Purpose

Reflect upon whether you don’t feel passionate about anything because you’re confusing the two worlds. You may be pursuing an inner calling that you’re not completely passionate about, but you’re doing it anyway because you feel it’s the right thing to do.

If you separate your passion from your purpose, you will find the freedom to explore both, even if they are two separate paths.

Misunderstanding Passion

There’s a lot of noise about what passions should be. The misunderstanding might lead us to believe we aren’t passionate about anything, even when our passions are right in front of us.

Passions don’t need to be tangible. Although many people are passionate about things like painting, writing, or making movies, those creative passions don’t fit for all of us.

What Passion Means – To YOU

It’s time to examine what the passions mean to you. It doesn’t have to be something you create, it might be something you do, are, or care for.

For example, I used to think I was passionate about traveling the world. I wanted to start a travel blog and explore every nook of planet Earth I could. While I still love traveling, I’ve realized I have another passion, one far more important to me, even though it’s not something we often think about when describing passions: my cats.

I love my cats more than anything in this world. Their comfort and lives mean more to me than any dream of traveling or financial freedom or anything else. I bought a house so they could have a place to live, and I’ve put off travel plans to ensure I can care for them as they age.

It’s not your typical passion, but it’s mine, and I accept that.

You Tried to Fake it

Sometimes we think we should be passionate about something because someone else tells us we should, so we go along with it, and can’t figure out why we’re unhappy.

Most of the time, it goes back to our childhood, when our parents strongly encouraged us to pursue a career or activity. Maybe it was their dream, and they tried to live vicariously through us, or they thought it was the right path to our future success. 

We didn’t want to disappoint them, so we went along with it, smiling the whole way while dying inside because it’s not what we really wanted.

Be True To Yourself

It’s time to step outside of the shadows and pursue the things you really want. It’s a challenging prospect, especially when we spend our entire lives following the path someone else laid out for us, but it’s well worth the effort.

Explore who you really are and what you really want, outside of other people’s influence. When you discover who you are, your passions will often find you.

Passions Change

When I was eight years old, I wanted to be an acrobat. I’d do cartwheels and somersaults in the backyard and obsessively watch gymnastic performances on television whenever I had the chance.

I haven’t cared about acrobatics in over 30 years.

Navigating Changing Passions

Life changes you, so it’s okay to let go of the childhood dreams that no longer serve you and explore new interests.

You’re Putting too Much Pressure on It

Finding your passion shouldn’t feel like work. You might not be passionate about anything because you’re trying too hard, constantly trying different things in the desperate hope that this next one will make you feel that jolt of energy you’ve been promised.

Relax

We already covered the myth about how finding a passion feels, so relax a bit. Give yourself space to explore things without the pressure of whether it’s your passion or not. You can like things that don’t rise to the level of passion, and it’s okay to pursue those instead.

When you stop trying so hard to find something and focus on the things you already enjoy, you’ll be happier, whether you ultimately find your passion or not.

Mental Illness

Some people aren’t passionate about anything because they suffer from a mental illness like depression that strips all the enjoyment from their lives.

If you think you might have a mental illness that’s preventing you from finding your passion or experiencing joy in life, speak to a therapist. They can help you treat the illness so you can get on with living your best life.

Passions Hide, but That Doesn’t Mean They Aren’t There

Many of us go through phases where we don’t feel any passion for anything. Those ups and downs are part of life. However, despite our hardships and stress, most of us still have passions, they’re lurking far beneath the surface, waiting for us to discover them.

You have them too. Hopefully, we’ve inspired you to rekindle yours. If you still need help, consider hiring a life coach who can offer support and guidance, getting you on the right track to discover your dreams.

Don’t despair if you can’t find it right away – the journey is the best part!