THE careers of great artists prove the central role of passion for success in our daily jobs and over the course of our careers. And that guiding passion can be malleable and evolving, even if typically linked to a strong central theme.

Take El Greco: he started his career as a painter of conventionalised and formulaic icons, but rapidly discovered that his passion was for portraying nature with incisive realism, flouting the conventions of his day. Yet as he advanced, he found an even deeper passion — to paint what he felt, not just what he saw. Centuries ahead of his time, he had invented expressionism.

And J. M. W. Turner: his early passion was for depicting the topography of the countryside, yet that desire later evolved into one for portraying the elemental forces of nature, wrestling the most dramatic storms into oil on canvas.

Knowing what our passion is gives us energy to pursue the initiatives needed to advance a career, provides a North Star to guide when career alternatives present themselves unexpectedly and insures against plateauing at a level that will ultimately prove demotivating and destructive.

When in touch with our passions, we enter what the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a state of flow: “Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one... Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

Some discover their career passion, purpose and meaning early in life; others later. Some recognise their passion in an instant; for others the enlightenment is more gradual. Everyone has their own quest for this grail: through mind-mapping, creative visualisation, self-help books, religion, psychosynthesis. There is no single route, but here are some ways to start the journey:

— Create space for reflection. In Judaism, the sabbath is a great cathedral in the timeline of the busy week in which to reflect on deeper issues. Earmark a day off from work and use it to look deeply into what motivates you.

— Reflect on early interests. A surprising number of CEOs are engaged with industries in which they had an interest very early in life.

— Convert feelings of anger into a constructive mission. Sometimes we can recognise what we are most passionate about only when it is taken from us. Identify something that has turned you off and use it to discover what turns you on.

— Only by finding and nurturing the passion factor in our daily work can our careers be successful. The journey is towards mastery. The key is to seek. The prize is the career of which you dream.

Max Landsberg is a partner at Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search and consultancy firm, and author of The Tools of Leadership.

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