More than half of working Americans feel disengaged from their jobs and are unlikely to be doing what they love, according to Gallup’s latest State of the American Workplace poll. With that in mind, should young people pursue their passion or strive toward a secure living?
A new Tel Aviv University study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology finds that those two objectives are not mutually exclusive. In fact, it found, each feeds the other: Young people with strong callings are more likely to take risks, persist and ultimately get jobs in their chosen fields, satisfying both personal and professional career needs.
The researchers also found that those who exhibit a passion for these interests in their teens are more likely to be successful later on, regardless of their inherent talent.
The research was conducted by Daniel Heller of the university’s Recanati School of Business, in collaboration with Shoshana Dobrow Riza of the London School of Economics.
“Given the economic reality today, people commonly face trade-offs as they make decisions that pit the two sides of careers — the ‘heart,’ or intrinsic side, and the ‘head,’ or extrinsic side — against one another,” Heller said. “We wanted to examine people who chose to follow more challenging career paths, such as those in the arts, and assess their chances of ‘making it.’”
Heller and Riza surveyed some 450 high school music students at two elite U.S. summer music programs for 11 years as they developed from adolescents to young adults to professional musicians.
“We found that participants with stronger callings toward music in adolescence were likely to assess their musical abilities more favorably and were more likely to pursue music professionally as adults regardless of actual musical ability,” said Heller.