'Find Your Passion': The Career Advice That Keeps Women Exhausted
For many women, especially Black women, the pressure to “find your passion” has turned purpose into exhaustion and fulfillment into survival, reminding us that meaning should never come at the cost of our peace! We discuss it here!
Career Advice That Keeps Women Exhausted
Photo Credit: LaylaBird via iStockPhoto.com
By: Jamila Gomez
“Find your passion.” It’s the line that’s been etched into commencement speeches, career panels, and motivational posts for decades. It sounds noble—who wouldn’t want to spend their life doing what they love? But for many women, especially Black women and women of color, this advice has become another kind of trap. Instead of leading to fulfillment, it often leads to guilt, burnout, and the endless pressure to turn passion into proof of worth.
The message behind “find your passion” assumes privilege. It imagines a world where people have the time, safety, and resources to explore what lights them up—and to walk away from what doesn’t. But most women don’t live in that world. They live in one where bills are due, children need care, parents need help, and stability isn’t optional. Passion sounds lovely, but it doesn’t pay rent. And yet, women are constantly told that if they’re not doing what they love, they’ve somehow failed themselves.
What this advice rarely admits is that passion work often becomes more exploitative than traditional labor. Women who turn their gifts into businesses or creative careers are told to “monetize what you love,” only to find themselves working longer hours for less security. Their emotional investment becomes part of the job description. The line between purpose and labor blurs until both feel heavy. Passion becomes another way to justify unpaid work, low pay, or burnout—because if you “love it,” you’re supposed to keep pushing through.
This is especially true in care-driven professions—teaching, social work, counseling, nursing, and nonprofit roles—fields dominated by women. Passion is treated as both requirement and reward: the very thing that makes the job meaningful is also what makes the exploitation easier to ignore. Employers don’t have to offer adequate pay or support when they can point to passion as the moral substitute. “You’re here because you care,” they say, as if care alone should cover the cost of survival.
It’s time to tell the truth: passion is not protection. Loving what you do does not make you immune to burnout, underpayment, or being undervalued. Purpose is not a shield—it’s a responsibility that still requires boundaries. The idea that passion should carry us through exhaustion has left too many women working twice as hard for half the return, still questioning whether their effort is enough.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting work that feels meaningful. But meaning shouldn’t demand martyrdom. The better question isn’t what’s your passion? It’s what kind of life do you want your work to make possible? That’s a question about sustainability, not sacrifice—about balance, not branding.
Work doesn’t have to be a calling to be worthwhile. It just has to leave room for you to live.
YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN:
