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How can people without goals or desires find something to be passionate about?

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Darko Savic
Darko Savic Jul 26, 2021
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I sometimes run into Quora questions where people state that they have no interests or passion for anything. They genuinely want to know how to find something they could feel passionate about.

This is very foreign to me. I can't imagine being in such a situation. I also don't remember how I stumbled upon my early interests. Nowadays I can't dig myself out of interesting projects to take on. But someone who doesn't want to do anything probably can't resonate with the advice to fill their life with goals.

How do we help people with no goals/desires find something to look forward to?

[1]https://darkosavic.com/how-to-keep-an-ideator-happy/

psychology
9
Creative contributions

They should Mingle with people who have goals

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Samuel Bello
Samuel Bello Jul 26, 2021
If they mingle with people who have goals it can ignite a sense of purpose in their minds. Spending time with a lot of goal-oriented people can subconsciously instill similar virtues in unmotivated people. There is a form of pleasure that is experienced by watching people go all out for the things they believe in. This pleasure can only be surpassed by doing going all out for your goals too.
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Blood test to check hormonal levels, kidneys, thyroid, liver, etc.

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Darko Savic
Darko Savic Jul 27, 2021
Do a blood checkup for everything the local lab can test. Especially hormones, thyroid, kidney, and liver function. This is to see if there is something wrong that could easily be fixed by restoring one's biochemical balance.

An imbalance could be the source of depression that then affects one's desire to do things.
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Spook Louw
Spook Louw3 years ago
I honestly think this would be the main cause.
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Force yourself to do various things by yourself

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jnikola
jnikola Jul 27, 2021
I wasn't very enthusiastic and passionate when I was a kid. But then I started Middle School and started working "student" jobs. Some of them were awful, some of them really nice, but I started "rating" things that I like and don't like. I ended up having a bunch of stuff that I enjoyed or really hated. I continued doing the same thing for years and found the pattern which I like, a set of characteristics that an event/job/a a project/topic has to have in order to inspire me to work on it.

I think it's really just about trying and failing.
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Go out of your comfort zone daily

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Darko Savic
Darko Savic Jul 27, 2021
A person with no goals and desires could make it a game (a challenge) to every day, without an exception go out of their comfort zone and do something that they don’t want or feel they can’t do. Ideally, this would get them to routinely experience new things. Completing something that was out of your comfort zone brings a special sense of accomplishment and builds confidence in one's abilities.

When you have nothing to do, many things are worthy of your time. When you figure out what you really like, everything else becomes a distraction.
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Such people can be constantly informed about the problems in their environments

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Samuel Bello
Samuel Bello Aug 28, 2021
If people that do not have any goals or passions are constantly fed information about the problems that they may face in the future or the problems that people around them are facing. They may be inclined to take preventive measures to avoid such problems in the future or solve the problems of other people out of empathy. Most of the time passion comes as a result of the problems that one has faced or witnessed before. For example, some of the best counselors for drug addicts are those who used to be drug addicts or lost a loved one to drugs.
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Darko Savic
Darko Savic3 years ago
That's pretty much what news media do. Even people who don't actively keep up with tv, radio, etc are bombarded by news via everyone around them.
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Samuel Bello
Samuel Bello3 years ago
Darko Savic,
I get your point. Maybe the way the news is conveyed is what should be focused on. Since most of the news on common platforms is not relevant to a particular person, people tend to ignore the news altogether. News usually covers so many so topics that the parts that involve problems do not get enough attention. It should be more effective if the problems are introduced to the person by a loved one. It should also be quite effective if the person gives feedback so it should be more like a conversation that way they get to reflect on the problem.
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Those who Seek Purposes should Perform Activities that Increase their Self-awareness

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Samuel Bello
Samuel Bello Jul 26, 2021
Performing tasks that improve one's self-awareness can help one discover their innermost desires. Activities like Yoga, Tai chi, zen, and meditation help you develop more self-awareness. You should try to figure out the things that are most important to you based on your past decisions. You should also try to describe yourself in a very detailed way. Describing yourself can make you aware of the things you didn't know you knew about yourself.
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They can be placed in a competitive environment

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Samuel Bello
Samuel Bello Aug 28, 2021
The reason some people may not be motivated to pursue goals or even have goals is that they are comfortable. In a competitive environment one usually has to do some work to achieve the barest minimum. For example, if you keep taking a kid to play chess tournaments. They will naturally put in some effort to improve their playing strength because nobody is comfortable with losing even if they do not really want to be the best. In general win or lose situations tend to make people do their best to win or at least, not lose

It is not always a good idea to compare one's results with other people's results but it can be a great source of motivation especially for younger people.
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Is there really a problem to be solved here?

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Samuel Bello
Samuel Bello Sep 12, 2021
Some people associate laziness and lack of interest with higher levels of intelligence. There is no obvious logical reason to be passionate about anything that does not directly affect a person's life. They are just one (inconsequential) person among billions so why go so hard?

A lot of religions and meditation practices encourage practitioners to lose interest in the "little things" of this world so that they can be 'enlightened.' Maybe people without passions are the more evolved part of us, humans. When one begins to question the reasons for their actions they begin to wonder if anything is really worth it.

People usually have a passion for things because of the rewards associated with those things. Being free from the desire for such rewards can put a person in place to have a more productive life since they will make more logical decisions and not base their lifestyle on something as superficial as passion.

The sports sector is one industry that is based almost entirely on passion and entertainment. Sports hardly create any value for humanity in the long run but people are drawn to those fields because their passion pulls them. One could say that a poor farmer in some underdeveloped country does more useful work for humanity than the fastest man in the world but gets lesser rewards because more people are willing to spend their money where their passion is than where the survival of the human race might hang in the balance.

As a matter of fact, it could be useful to come up with ways to strip people of their passion. It could be used to 'cure' people who have a passion for things that their communities find unacceptable. I believe some people will not be in jail or dead if not for their 'unacceptable passions.
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Darko Savic
Darko Savic3 years ago
It's not just about doing something for society. Look at it from a personal perspective. A lack of motivation invites emptiness into one's life. We are designed to move and do things. Without motivation, one has to force themselves to do things. That feels hard.

A healthy adult is responsible to take care of their own needs. When you are motivated for something, you take care of the rest so that you can get back to that something. If you are not motivated for anything then taking care of the basic needs may feel burdensome and life, in general, more difficult than it needs to be.

No motivation = no dopamine. I'm guessing here but a life without dopamine may feel like queuing to die.
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Samuel Bello
Samuel Bello3 years ago
Darko Savic Maybe life is actually empty. A person's life has a lot of possibilities but no purpose other than the ones assigned to it by the person himself or some other person(s). I think it is this emptiness that makes it possible for us to fill our lives with whatever we choose. Recognizing this emptiness can be depressing but that could mean such people are thinking on a higher plane than their emotionally driven counterparts. My point here is that people who do not have passions to chase should be likelier to pay attention to the most important/useful things.
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Goals, desires, or Passions?

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Samuel Bello
Samuel Bello Sep 18, 2021
Goals
As for goals, everyone has goals as long as they perform actions with a desired result in mind. Sometimes people have goals that they are not really aware of but they constantly put in the effort to come closer to their goals without even thinking of them as goals.

Desires
Everyone has desires too. To desire something one only has to be able to think it. I believe everyone has desires. It follows that the relationship between desires and goals is that; desires become goals when the thoughts and actions of the person involved are geared towards materializing the person's desires.

Passion
Passion is just like the above mentioned concepts except that it is emotionally fuelled. The strong emotions that fuel passion can be hard to conjure up for long periods by artificial meams. For example, if a person does not have a passion for football then it is going to be difficult for anyone to make them develop and retain a passion for it. I think passion is something that can be found and not created per se. The person's predilections will give hints about where their passions lie, they just have to search and try out a lot of things until they discover their passion.

From my observation people who complain about not having passions or goals are people who experience depression. Passion can make depression bearable but does not cure it. I think the real problem is depression. If one can manage not to get depressed or bored, who needs passion?
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