Why should your skills take over your passions?

Why should your skills take over your passions?

Your skills are worth more than your passions.
Younger, I was not passionate about one thing in particular. I was not a musician, I did not dream of being president and I was not a hope of French sports either.

On the other hand, I have always loved reading and writing. I remember my Wednesday afternoons inventing stories that we wrote with a friend in a secret notebook. Today I return more and more to writing, trying to improve with each article. I still keep in mind these first moments ...
In general, the best non-fiction books are those that allowed their authors to answer their own problems. This is exactly what author Cal Newport did. He asked himself the following question:

"Why do some people take pleasure in what they do every day while so many fail? "

He decided to put in writing his point of view, enriched by dozens of meetings all more inspiring of each other. His book, So Good They Can not Ignore You, offers a realistic approach to satisfy one's professional life.

In this article, you will discover:
Why follow his passion is bad advice
What process to follow to learn to love what you do
How to adopt the Craftsman Mindset
The 10,000 hours theory to develop skills
Follow his passion is bad advice
In his Stanford speech in 2005, Steve Jobs utters the following sentence:

"You have to find what you like ... Because the only way to do a good job is to love what you do. "

Behind this quote, one might think that Steve Jobs followed his passion, that of technology. Yet creating a personal computer was not his primary goal. Apple was born from the meeting between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Neither of them had left his job for Apple at the time. The transition was made gradually, as was their "passion" for Apple.

Everyone can not follow his passion. This perpetual quest can even make you unhappy. Cal Newport gives us two answers on this subject.

Living one's passion is rare
Robert J. Valleran, an American psychologist, interviewed 539 students about their passions.

Of these students, 84% have a passion: dance, hockey, reading or swimming. It turned out that less than 4% of all the passions mentioned may have a relationship with work or studies.
To make a passion his job is extremely rare. Almost all of these students will have to review their strategy to find a job.

Becoming passionate takes time
A Yale professor sought to understand the distinction between a job - how to pay one's bills, a career - way to a better job, and a vocation - to work has become an important part of one's life. For this, she interviewed people doing the same job with the same responsibilities.

It turned out that these people viewed their work as something vital over time. All these years of work have allowed them to develop skills to be more efficient in their work. And it is precisely from there that these people started to blossom and enjoy the job.

Passion and motivation are intimately linked
Your motivation and job satisfaction are the result of three psychological factors:

Autonomy: you have control over your day.
Skills: You are good at what you do everyday.
Your relationship with others: you make connections with your environment.
For example, some people feel happy in start-ups. They are very much involved in the project because they have managed to create strong links with the people they live with on a daily basis. Because teams are often small, each one develops specific skills that are then valued by the entire team.

Cal Newport reminds him: it is dangerous to be focused on his passions to think about what to do tomorrow. This is the best way to not be happy in your work and to go looking for something that does not exist.

How do you take pleasure in our work?
Cal Newport explains this process in 4 basic steps:

Adopt the Craftsman Mindset
Develop rare skills
Take control of your environment
See big (but start small)
Adopt the Craftsman Mindset
The Craftsman Mindset (or "Craftsman's State of Mind") is the opposite of that of passion. It focuses on the added value that you produce in your work.

skills

The goal is to focus on what really matters: progressing and improving to become better at what you do. Leave aside, the tasks and actions that could distract you from e your goal: to become better in what you do.
By logic, a young graduate has little experience. It will be very little heard in many companies. Two choices are available to him: continue for years or take things in hand and think about the skills to develop to create value and become indispensable.

It is at this moment that you will take control of the situation: "Be So Good They Can not Ignore You".

The 4 steps to produce value
Step 1: Decide on your market positioning
For simplicity, there are two types of market: Winner-take-all and the auction.

For example, a writer is positioned on a Winner-take-all market. One possible solution to stand out: to be able to write good scenarios. This is precisely what he needs to focus on.

For a marketer, the deal is different. There are many possible entries: from copywriting to SEO, via the press relationship for example. Everyone can develop their skills on a specific subject.

Step 2: Identify skills to develop
We must now succeed in identifying the type of capital to be developed; that is your skills. For a writer, the choice is simple: improve his writing.

From what you know how to do, you save time and build trust. Take stock of your skills to set up your roadmap and achieve your goals.

Step 3: Define your optimum
Once you have identified the skills to work on, you need goals.

It's up to you to set the goals to achieve to feel good enough in what you do.

If I take the example of the writer, one of these objectives could be to publish his first book, in less than a year, with a publishing house.

Step 4: Be patient
It will not be nice everyday. The learning process is not easy. It is important to hear and accept positive and negative feedback, and especially to understand how to improve.

It is also on this last stage that will make the difference between you and the others. Many will have abandoned before you. Work always pays.

Develop rare skills
"Do not try to be a successful man but rather a man of value. - Albert Einstein

People who succeed in developing rare skills are the most likely to have a job in which they feel free and happy.

Cal Newport defines a good work around three axes: the creativity, the impact of his work and the control of his environment.

The 10,000 hour theory
Malcolm Gladwell popularized this concept in his book Outliers. He starts from the observation that to achieve excellence in a field, natural talent is not enough.

You have to be able to learn and accumulate as many experiences as possible until you reach the magic number of 10,000 hours.

If we take as an example the chess player, it is not enough to play for 10,000 hours to say champion. No, these hours must be used correctly. Gladwell calls it the Serious Study. You have to study through books, know how to surround yourself with good people to learn and eliminate your weaknesses.

Take control of your environment
Developing desired skills allows you to become more autonomous. From this autonomy follows the notion of control evoked by Newport: The Power of Control.

But there are two pitfalls to avoid: rush and employer promotion.

One must first be able to create enough value before claiming more freedom and control. If not, no one will let you take control of your work. Continue to be patient to capitalize on your achievements.

Thus, your skills begin to seriously interest your employer. He will do everything to keep you in the company, and offer you a promotion. But be careful, you risk losing control in exchange for more responsibilities on skills that are not familiar to you.

See big but start small
The main idea of ​​this book is simple: to create the job that you like, you must start by developing rare and valuable skills to then take your freedom and achieve the objectives.

This process of emancipation takes root in your mission. This mission must make sense of your work and provide you with the energy you need to keep moving forward.

For a mission to succeed, it must be remarkable. It must allow people to talk about it and must be published.

Medium is, for example, a very good way to share ideas. It allows you to broadcast content quickly and be quoted easily by its audience.
Finally, when you have identify your goals, it is important to go step by step to collect returns. Do not rush. These feedbacks will help you improve your project.