You hear it, I hear it, we all hear that we should find work about which we are passionate. If we do, we will be wildly successful. And yes, we all do know some people who are passionate about their work. It fits them perfectly, and they are super successful. Then, there are the rest of us.

Many of us get to do much that we like to do every day. We may be relatively successful, and we might not want to jump off a bridge when the alarm goes off on Monday morning.That would be most Mondays.We feel a little guilty when we hear about all this passion and might be a little wistful about those who have a perfect fit. Mostly, we change the subject when the topic comes up.

I’ve just starting reading a book by a couple of Stanford Professors called Designing your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived,Joyful Life. They make this marvelous point right at the beginning. “Most people are passionate about many different things, and the only way to know what they want to do is to prototype some potential lives, try them out, and see what really resonates with them.We are serious about this: you don’t need to know your passion in order to design a life you love.Once you know how to prototype your way forward, you are on a path to discovering the things you truly love, passion or not.”

What a relief. Try something, if it doesn’t work,fail forward. Start with an assessment of where you are in work, play, love and health. If one seems behind the others, maybe that is the place to start. Follow a process and assess your progress. My guess is once you see the steps, it will be an organized process to move forward to a happier life. I’ll keep you posted as I read the book.Maybe, you want to read it, too.