Reading Mark's book in Chapter 8 he starts to talk about how part of living honestly is to pursue fully and become a leader in your areas of passion.

Thought about it for a while, and I don’t think I have any passions.
I have things I enjoy, even things I’d say I ‘really like’, but nothing I have passion for. Nothing I’m driven to pursue.

I’ve thought similarly in great depth about this before in a more career oriented way; I still have no idea what I want to do with my life at 22 after 4 years of thinking, and still haven’t accomplished anything major.

~…It's depressing me

So I guess I’m posting just to see other people’s passions. Maybe how you found them, are you born passionate about things or what? Should I just do whatever pays most since I don’t seem to be driven in any direction and am just stagnating at the moment?

Feeling lost.

If you are trying to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life, it will be very difficult to get into anything. Just focus on what you want to get into right now, over the short to medium term. Don't worry so much about where it is going.

1) You don't have to have a passion.
2) You are likely afraid of failure which is making you indecisive. Choose something arbitrarily and immerse yourself in it. Set a time limit, say 3 months and stick to the activity for that long. That'll give you an idea of whether you really like it.

Thanks for replies.

Just watched the movie "The Tree of Life".

Decent movie, very philosophical. Cosmology, evolution, religion, human condition...It was interesting.

Anyhow at one point Brad Pitt's character said:
"You can't say I can't, say I'm havin' trouble but I ain't done yet"

So instead I'll say, I'm having trouble finding my passion, but I ain't done yet!

I also remembered Mark's blog post "The Removal of “Can’t”". (Weird how this information floats around the head for long periods of time before it finally finds a way to integrate.)

So I guess I could also say, 'I can find my passion, but I choose not to'.

I've chosen to find it.

Thanks again for help.

Great that you found something that works for you. When I was in a similar situation a few years ago, I realized that you don't have to have a passion. If you like jumping from one thing to another, that is ok. A lot of this passion stuff is thrust upon us by society based on a model that will promote maximum achievement. But what if achievement is not you chief motivator? What if happiness is your chief motivator? If it gives you happiness to learn a variety of things, why let society dictate that you should have a singular passion?

Passion is not based on achievement, it's based on happiness. Basically the idea is that if you were stuck on a desert island and could only do one or two things for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Passion can be things such as learning, or self-improvement or even socializing.

But it's something that when you do it, you are your happiest. You never get tired of it.

My belief is that EVERYONE has something they're passionate about. Most people are just disconnected from the emotions they feel while they do it. On the contrary to what shadow said, I think society encourages NOT to be in touch with our passion, because it's so focused on achievement, getting a good job, making money, etc. For all you know, you may be insanely passionate about weaving baskets, but the one time you tried it your classmates in grade school made fun of you for it, and it was never a viable professional option, so you forgot about it.

I hated foreign languages when I was in school. Dreaded them. Was terrible at them. Or so I thought. Turns out, I just hated the context in which I was learning them. Now I derive a lot of pleasure out of studying them and trying to use them. I study them on my own almost every day. It's a thrill.

My mom does 2-3 crossword puzzles a day. She has for the last 20 years or so. Yeah, it sounds lame, but she loves it. She loves word games. She's passionate about it. A passion can really be anything.

It's true that passion is based on happiness, but society draws a causal link like so

People who are passionate achieve maximum success
Ergo, you should have a passion.

This is a poor way to approach things. You will know when you really like something because you will want to do it all the time. But like you pointed out, 'it' can be a very amorphous thing like learning or self-analysis. Essentially the passion label is irrelevant. If you really like it, you'll know it. Otherwise keep trudging and you'll figure it out. No need to put unneccesary pressure on yourself to define your passion.

The more significant problem is that our fears often hold us back from pursuing things we really like.

I agree with that. Falling in love with something should be effortless and cannot be forced. All you can really do is try to cultivate new experience and see what sticks.

Also, I'd say the younger you are, the less of an issue this is. Our emotions and passions change a lot well up into our 20's.