What are You Passionate About?
I was having a conversation with a friend recently that lead me to ask myself that very question. I’ve written about passion on occasion and have a general idea of what I’m passionate about, but the question struck me differently this time. I think it’s because the question wasn’t asked of me outright. It was posed this way:
…find something you passionately want to teach…
I started thinking about what I passionately want to teach and you know what? I came up empty. I’ve always taken a “demand-based” approach to teaching?—?if someone needs a course on something, I can make that course. I certainly bring passion to the classroom because I’m passionate about teaching. But what is something that I feel I need to teach? It’s a question I’ve been pondering since last week.
What am I Generally Passionate About?
If we start here, I can come up with a few topics?—?none that I can build a course around yet?—?but a good launching point.
- Technology
- Teaching
- Learning, Learning by Doing
- Disney
- Cigars
On WordPress in One Month, I teach people how to build things with WordPress. On my podcast, I talk to people who have built things. So what can I do to combine all of this stuff into a course that I passionately want to teach? Whom could I teach?
I Like Teaching Beginners
It’s apparent from my courses (both online and in-person) that I like teaching beginners. I like providing resources and tools to those who don’t have much of a starting point or base knowledge. Maybe that’s because I find starting a new project to be the hardest part.
Either way, this revelation puts me on the right track. I can passionately teach beginners something I know really well?—?something I love. Now it’s time to ask myself two questions:
- What do I Love to do?
- What do I wish I knew when I first started?
My First Website
My first website was a whole lot of trial and error. I downloaded Microsoft Frontpage and just kind of went to town, having no idea what I should be doing or what I should be asking my client (did I mention my first website was a paid gig?).
Sure there are a lot of courses out there on building your first website, but I can apply my level of passion for learning by doing to a course like this?—?a modern look at building your first website, where the first website is a fully functional, working, live website.
It’s a start. Let’s see if I can hash it out a bit more. In the meantime, answer this for me:
What are YOU passionate about?
What are You Passionate About? was originally published in Thoughts from Joe Casabona on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.