Brief 012: Should you study what you love, or what you’re good at?

“Just follow your passion.”

Sounds great.
Also… slightly dangerous advice.

Because what if you love something but you’re not very good at it? And what if you’re naturally good at something you don’t particularly enjoy?

So which one should decide what you study?
Interest or ability?

Honestly, I don’t think it has to be one or the other.

Your interest tells you what you’re curious about. Your ability tells you what you may already have some natural strength in.

But there’s another piece we often forget:
You can get better at things.

You might not be good at something today because you’ve never properly learned it, and you might discover that you actually enjoy something much more after you become better at it.

So instead of asking:
“What am I naturally good at?”

try asking:

• What am I genuinely curious about?
• What do I seem to learn fairly quickly?
• What am I willing to practise?
• What kind of problems do I enjoy solving?
• What could I realistically become very good at?
• And where could those skills be useful?

That’s a much better conversation.

Because choosing what to study isn’t necessarily about finding the one thing you were born to do. Sometimes it’s about finding something interesting enough to keep learning, difficult enough to challenge you, and useful enough to create opportunities.

Also, don’t underestimate willingness.

Someone with average ability who is genuinely interested and willing to practise can sometimes go much further than someone with natural ability who doesn’t care.

So perhaps you don’t need to choose between what you love and what you’re good at. Look for the overlap, then give yourself permission to grow beyond it.

My question here is:
What if you stopped asking: “What am I good at?”
and started asking: “What could I become really good at if I cared enough to learn it?”

That might change what you choose.

Read the next Brief here: Brief 013: Do you actually know what your strengths are?