Book Ponder

Following your passion is wrong.  Yes, that may come as a shock to many of you, but people make the mistake of following their passion every day.  There is nothing better than doing a job that you are passionate about, but people expect the passion to be there from day one.  Cal Newport emphasizes that most of the time, jobs become your passion when you have gained mastery over it or have built strong relationships at that job.  If we all go in with the “find your passion” mindset, we will constantly be jumping from job to job because we expect that passion to be there from the start.  For a lucky few that is the case, but for the rest of us, passion will come over time when you build career capital. 

 

Abandon The Passion Mindset

 “If you want to love what you do, abandon the passion mindset of (“what can the world offer me?”) and instead adopt the craftsman mindset of (“what can I offer the world?”) – Cal Newport

 When we first begin our careers as teenagers out of high school or college graduates, we make the mistake of looking for what the world can offer us.  We jump from career to career with our hands out expecting passion to be handed to us.  When we shift away from the passion mindset and begin to go into every career with the craftsman mindset of “what can I offer the world?”, even the most menial job can have some sort of satisfaction.  In the present moment it’s hard to have a growth mindset and see the big picture but let’s say you are flipping burgers at your local fast-food restaurant, you know this isn’t what you are meant to do and for most of us, you know this is not your passion.  You can either complain and do the bare minimum until you move on to the next job, or you can decide you are going to be the best fast-food worker this restaurant has ever seen, and you are going to gain skills that can transfer to your next career.  You can learn how to build great working relationships with coworkers, you can analyze what makes employees work harder, and learn management skills.  This is all knowledge that can be transferable to all careers and the time you spend working at a job that is a steppingstone for your final goal need not go to waste!  Anything you do in life, no matter how menial, has a lesson that can be learned from it. 

 

Rebuild Your Backbone

 “The biggest obstacle between you and work you love is a lack of courage, the courage required to step away from “other people’s definition of success” and to follow your dream.” – Cal Newport

 Do you know the saying, “stop worrying about what other people think”?  This also applies to your career.  If you spend your entire life doing jobs or business’ that will impress other people, then you will never have a career you are passionate about.  I understand this is difficult in certain cultures where traditions are to be upheld and expectations are intense, but at the end of the day it is still your life, and if people really care about you, they will want you to be doing something that is fulfilling.  That is why you need to rebuild your backbone and promise yourself you are going to do what you want and not live your life trying to satisfy others’ expectations. 

 

You Must Do Challenging Things to Get Better!

 “Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that’s exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands…. Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration.  That is what makes it “deliberate,” as distinct from the mindless playing of scales or hitting of tennis balls that most people engage in.” – Geoff Colvin

 Deliberate practice means that we must do things that are challenging to get better.  If we continue going through the motions and never challenging ourselves, we are going to stay stagnant.  For the most part deliberate practice is the opposite of enjoyable. 

 “This is what you should experience in your own pursuit of “good.” If you’re not uncomfortable, then you’re probably stuck at an “acceptable level”.  –  Geoff Colvin

 This applies to any skill we want to learn.  If you are reading an information heavy book that requires you to slow down and concentrate, but you constantly feel your mind wandering or become bored, then this means you are challenging yourself.  These are the moments that separate “good” from “acceptable”.  The person that puts down the difficult book when it gets boring stays at an acceptable level, but the person who is constantly challenging themselves will become good or even great.  This applies to any skill, from learning a challenging song on the guitar, to studying for a difficult exam. 

 

Embrace Honest Feedback

 “Pushing past what’s comfortable, however, is only one part of the deliberate practice story; the other part is embracing honest feedback-even if it destroys what you thought was good.” – Geoff Colvin

 How many times in your life have you created something that you thought was great, but others weren’t as impressed?  These moments can go in three different directions:  you can believe you aren’t good enough and give up, you can disregard the feedback and continue doing what you are doing, or you can embrace the honest feedback and use it to become better.  Which option do you think will lead you to becoming so good they can’t ignore you?

 

Summary

 ·      Following your passion sometimes takes work first.  A job may become a passion once you have done it for a while, gained mastery over it, or have built great relationships over time.  These things can be missed if you expect a job to be your passion after day one.

·      You will never get better until you get out of the comfort zone.  If you aren’t deliberately doing challenging things, your ceiling will be an “acceptable level”.

·      Get honest opinions even if they destroy what you thought was good.  Feedback and criticism are the best tools to finding the areas in your work that need improvement.

 I enjoyed this book and the advice in it resonates with me when I think of my own career.  I never believed my manufacturing job would be my passion, but after gaining mastery in it and building great relationships, it became my passion.  Be so good they can’t ignore you…the rest is history.