Not the other way around.
It feels safer to say that we’re born with talents and gifts, that we have a true calling, that we’re looking for what connects with our passion.
That’s not useful (because it means you spend a lot of time shopping around) but it’s also not true.
New research confirms that random choices lead to preferences, and then it follows that preferences lead to habits and habits lead us to become the person we somehow decide we were born to be.
If you had grown up somewhere else or some time else, there’s little doubt that you’d prefer something else. The things we think we need are simply the things we’re used to.
And if you like what you like simply because you have a pattern, that means that you might be able to like something else if you could develop new patterns.
In short: If we commit to loving what we do, we’re more likely to find engagement and satisfaction. And if what we do changes, we can choose to love that too.