Q: How to discover your true passion?

A: Our first set of motivations in learning a skill or picking a profession or participating in an activity are often extrinsic.

As a kid or an adolescent, you may have wanted to become an actor in a play because of the attention that it would accrue from the opposite gender; maybe you wanted to become an athlete because of the glory and glamour that accompanies sportsmen and women or you wanted to become an investment banker because of the cousin who migrated to manhattan and commanded a telephone number salary in his mid twenties.

You may work hard and become good at your chosen activity and even begin to walk towards the dream in earnest.

It is what happens after you are past that first goal post of attention, money or fame that often determines whether the motivation is extrinsic or intrinsic, whether you will continue to have fuel in the tank and whether or not this is your (one) of your callings.

a) Do you still ache for the ‘process’ that predates the successful completion of your work and love the toil that is a daily part of improving your craft?

b) Do you lose all sense of time and space that happens only when you are in the ‘flow’ and take great pride in dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s?

c) Do you burst into flames of joy simply on account of a job well done – whether or not anyone is watching, let alone is acknowledging or applauding?

d) Do you find yourself automatically keen to learn new nuances, insights and tics of the game constantly?

e) Do you find yourself working being able to arrive first principles and finding crazy intersections where others only see tangents and irrelevancies?

If your answer is in the affirmative for most of these questions, you are likely to have chosen well and you are where you belong, if only at this moment.