Approximately 20 percent of teens will experience depression before they reach adulthood. 30 percent of teens with depression will also develop a substance abuse problem, and more teens and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined. A common denominator in the emptiness that teens feel in their lives is a huge lack of passion. Nothing excites them, nothing is meaningful to them, so why live? It is very important to help your teen find their “thing.” They need to have a passion to get them through the rough years ahead. Here are a few ways you can help your teen find it.

Help Them Experience The World

Your teen will continue to have a limited perspective unless they experience the world around them in new ways. You do not need fancy trips or a large budget to do this. Help them get out of their comfort zone and do things that will expand their thinking. Have them serve at community events of their choosing, things they think are important, and do it without the motivation of looking good on an application or for set service hours. Encourage them to interact with people of different backgrounds and to read all they can about how the world works. Allowing more knowledge and information into anyone’s head will help give them a more informed idea of their passion.

Learning From Failure

We live in a world where failure is feared. Teens go to school everyday expecting to be perfect in everything they do. This can give your teen a false sense of how the world really works.For someone to pursue their passion and find it, it is necessary to fail! By teaching your teen the importance and relevance of learning by failure, they can understand that it often takes many tries before they achieve what they want. By failing over and over again, eventually, their passions will show through. What they continue to work on even after failure is the most important.

Intrinsic Motivation

The world is so competitive these days. From almost day one at school, kids are taught to compete and do whatever will help maintain their reputation. This is a huge problem when your teen is trying to find their passion! They might find one area interesting, but since it is not cool and does not look as good in the long run, they will overlook it. Help teach your teen that what they want to do is way more important than the way others treat you. Some of our best leaders in the world are motivated intrinsically, they do what they want to do! If teens could have the same mentality these days, finding passion would be so much easier!

It is so important to just be there for your teen throughout the whole process, help them realize that the school world they live in everyday is almost nothing like the real world. Encourage them to expand their mind so they can find more job and passion.