In this call‑in segment, Matthew Hussey (host of Love Life) speaks with a college student, Raimie, who is struggling to identify a single "true" passion to guide her future career. Hussey challenges the premise that most people have one definitive passion, noting that 99.9% of individuals are interested in multiple areas. He explains that instead of searching for a singular passion, one should define personal criteria for a fulfilling life—such as autonomy, flexibility, financial independence, and working with people—and then pursue any path that satisfies those criteria. He advises starting with a "mild interest," focusing on delivering value, and becoming highly skilled in that area. Mastery builds credibility, which in turn creates unexpected opportunities and the freedom to later pursue secondary interests like travel. The conversation emphasizes practical, incremental steps over abstract soul‑searching, reducing pressure and encouraging action.
Chapters
Hi everyone, this is Matthew Hussey from Love Life. We are back with another caller today and on the line we have Raimie. Raimie, are you there?
Hi Matt.
Hi Raimie, how are you? I'm very good. I'm very good. I'm eager to hear your question.
Okay, so my question is, I was wondering because I'm a college student, but I think it can apply to anyone. So I was wondering like how to go about finding your passion in life and then what steps to make sure you're successful with what you're passionate about.
What do you think could be an issue with trying to locate your passion? In fact, what issue are you having right now as you're trying to find your passion?
Well, in college, they give us so many things that like require that we have to take. So there's a lot of things that I like to do, but I don't know one thing that I really want to do. Like I'm trying to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life. And it's kind of confusing.
Yeah, absolutely. And if you phrase it like that, it will be an impossible endeavor. And that's the problem is, of course, you answered your own question, which is you have many interests, you have many things that you're into. So the idea of finding your one true passion is near enough impossible. 'Cause the truth is 99.9% of people don't have one true passion. They're passionate about many different things in life. You know, when I started out, I didn't start by saying, you know what? I'm gonna be really passionate in my life for the rest of my life about coaching women how to flirt. That definitely was not where I started. So I started from a base point of saying, okay, I know that there are certain criteria I have for the way I want my life to be. I know that as I get older, I want to get more autonomy over my work. In other words, I want to have more control. I knew that I wanted something that over time gave me flexibility. I knew that I had something that would. I wanted something that would give me some level of financial Independence. These were criteria I had. I also knew that in some way I thought it would be interesting to work with people. But if you think about those criteria, I could meet those doing a thousand different things. Yeah. There was no need for me to meet those doing coaching, let's say. I could have met those, let's say, being in radio. You know, I never started out knowing that I would be in radio, but I just ended up doing something in radio because it allows me flexibility. I get to move around. I get to do it in different locations. I get to work with people like yourself. I get the creativity that I seek. But I can get that from many different things. I also get that from public speaking. I get it from coaching. I even get that just from business. So the point is that you trying to search for your one true passion is a complete waste of time. Because rarely when you hear people talk about what they ended up doing and being passionate about, do you ever hear them say that that's where they started and that's where they thought they would end up.
Very true.
You know, so you can be interested in lots of different things. My advice to you is this. The only thing you need to worry about right now is starting somewhere that you have a mild interest in. That's it. You don't need to be crazy in love with it. Just have a mild interest in that thing. Start with something you find interesting. What do you find interesting? Can you give me two or three things?
I really like to travel and like learn about the world.
Okay, so you like to travel, you like to learn about the world, anything else? What do you like? What did you study? What parts of what you studied did you enjoy?
I'm studying advertising, so I do like working with people too. And kind of the psychology of people and stuff like that.
That. Okay, great. So that opens up the world to you now. There are many different things you can do. And by the way, travel, even though it's something you enjoy, it might be something that you build towards. It might be something that later on you get the chance to do. It might even be something you earn the right to be able to do through doing the work that you start to get good at. But this first step is find something that you have a mild interest in. The second step is once you're in that thing, focus on providing value. Focus on being amazing for whoever it is that employs you or for whatever it is you do. You need to bring value to the table because ultimately that's always going to be the thing that allows you the flexibility to do what you want to do. Whenever people start by saying, you know, for example, a typical person might say, well, I want to travel and I want to work with people. So I'm going to start a lifestyle blog and I'm going to travel around blogging and meeting people and then they end up broke in six months and they have to come home. It's not a productive way to start. You have to start by giving value, by providing value. And the only way to provide value is to get really good at something.
Okay.
I have found in my life that it's more important to get good at something than to continuously worry and labor over what to get good at.
Yeah, I just get good at something.
Yeah, good at something. Because guess what? When you get good at something, People will start taking notice of you. And when people start taking notice of you, here's what they'll do in their mind. They'll go, ah, she's good at, Raimi's good at this thing. So I bet she's good at that thing as well. And they'll start to give you opportunities you never even imagined could come to you. Because what matters is credibility. Not credibility in just one way, the credibility that can be attained by being successful in the thousands of different ways that one can become Successful. So I don't want you to worry continuously about which mountain to climb. I just want you to start climbing.
Yeah, okay, great. Thank you. That was great advice. I never thought of it that way.
Perfect. And it takes the pressure off, does it not?
Yeah, definitely.
Thank you so much for calling, Remy. I really appreciate it. Have a wonderful day.
