Why searching for your life's work is a trap

“Find your life’s work!” - we hear these words from parents, teachers and motivational speakers. It would seem that they say this out of good intentions, to inspire us. But perhaps this is not such good advice.

This prevents us from reaching our potential.

Finding your life's work means that it already exists and is just waiting for us to finally find it. But science speaks on the contrary - it develops gradually. Often it all starts with a spark of curiosity about a certain subject. For example, we listen to an exciting lecture and become interested in physics, or we see a beautiful work of art and are inspired to learn how to draw.

Later, thanks to constant interaction, positive experience and accumulated knowledge, we begin appreciate and internalize a chosen topic or activity. What was at first just curious becomes profound interesting. If these qualities continue to increase, a passion may arise that indicates that we have found our life's work.

In several studies, scientists have found that misunderstanding this idea can be holding us back. The assumption that interests and hobbies cannot be changed and developed narrows our horizons and undermines our our resistance to challenges, which helps us absorb new knowledge, and inhibits the creativity needed to solve problems.

It forces us into a fixed mindset.

To understand how we can correct the course of self-development and form a more open and accurate view For their own interests, researchers use the concepts of “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset.” While studying at school, the idea of intellectual abilities as fixed harm. While belief in the possibility of mastering and developing skills, on the contrary, helps study better.

According to scientists, pushing people to find a life's passion can reinforce the idea that interests and passions are something innate and relatively unchangeable. Those who believe this have a fixed mindset. Those who believe otherwise have a growth mindset.

At the same time, a person with a fixed mindset can easily fall into the trap of a simple attitude: “If I have already found my life’s work, why should I continue to study the world around us? During one study, students of creative and natural science specialties with a fixed thinking showed there is less interest in topics from the opposite sphere than their peers with a growth mindset.

Additionally, people with a fixed mindset tend to believe that their life's work will always come easy to them and will never challenge them. difficulties. Scientists tested this idea in an experiment. They tried to arouse participants' interest in a new topic for them - black holes. They were first shown a fun and clear animation about Stephen Hawking's theory, and then asked to read a lengthy and complex article from a scientific journal. Study participants with a fixed mindset were disappointed and disliked the new topic. Participants with a growth mindset remained interested despite the challenges.

A fixed mindset also prevents you from exploring the unknown and being creative. A person who believes that he can only have one true interest in life and therefore does not explore other areas may be missing important connections between different areas.

The results of another study involving students whose interests were exclusively either humanitarian, or the exact sciences, have shown that people with a fixed mindset are much less likely to generated new solutions that went beyond the boundaries of one discipline.

In other words, treating your own interests as something immutable prevents you from being creative and making innovative proposals. This is especially frustrating given that innovative companies have long valued the ability of their employees to solve problems, connecting ideas from different fields: science, technology, art and humanities.

This makes it difficult to gain skills in different areas

In June 2023, scientists published work that showed we can learn a growth mindset.

In total, more than 700 first-year humanities students took part in two studies. Most of them showed a strong interest in the arts, social sciences and humanities, and a weak interest in mathematics and natural sciences. For the experiment, students were randomly assigned to two groups.

At the beginning of the year, the first group was trained in a module created by the authors of the study. It included reading and reflective writing which helped students look at your interests from a growth mindset perspective. The material was presented neutrally, as part of the college program for the adaptation of newcomers, and not as a special exercise for correcting behavior. Students, for example, read a short article about the benefits of approaching interests as something that can change and develop rather than the default, and wrote a paragraph of text about the moment when they became curious about new things passion.

The second group studied within the standard module on study skills. It had similar exercises, but more emphasis was placed on developing “classical” student skills, such as time management and active learning principles.

At the end of the year, the study authors compared the results of the experimental and control groups. Students from the first group were more interested in mathematics and science subjects than students from the second, and received higher grades in compulsory subjects related to exact sciences. Moreover, the surge in interest was especially noticeable among those who at the very beginning said that they were not interested in anything like that.

Thus, the experiment participants not only expanded their range of interests, but also acquired skills in areas that they had not previously paid attention to. They managed to master an interdisciplinary approach, which allows them to combine knowledge from different scientific fields to solve practical problems.

You don't have to go through a special program to break free from a fixed mindset and develop a growth mindset. You can do this yourself. First of all, you need to realize that your life’s work is not determined in advance and is not waiting to be “found.” And then you should actively develop interests: indulge your curiosity and don’t think that everything will always be easy and exciting.

If you are a parent, teacher, or leader, think about how you can cultivate a growth mindset in your children, students, and employees. Create opportunities for them to explore new and unfamiliar areas. Of course, exploring the unknown can be frustrating, so it's important to emphasize that it's normal that interests develop through involvement and time spent.

Of course, not every hobby turns into a real passion and life’s work. However, a growth mindset helps you stay open and curious. The phrase “Find something you love and you'll never have to work a day” needs to be updated. If you work on loving what you do, you expand your horizons and become more creative and more durable.