So Good They Can't Ignore You 😏

Hi friends!

I’ve always been a firm believer of ‘pursuing your passion’ to enjoy what you do - because honestly, life is too short to spend your days toiling away unhappily, with no sense for purpose or fulfillment.

I’m currently in an incredibly good place as my ‘why’ of helping students / millennials has somehow aligned in both my professional and personal life. I consider myself pretty lucky, but perhaps I came to this point in my career by “sheer dumb luck” ? (as said by Professor McGonagall 🧙🏻)

Was it just a situation unique to my own circumstances?

For a few years now, I’ve been actively searching for the answer - how do I help folks pursue the stuff they love doing?

Came across an interesting book called ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You’ by Cal Newport that completely debunked the advice of ‘following your passion’ when looking to develop a satisfying and meaningful career. He instead argues that passion is something you cultivate through hard work, and should not be the starting point in your quest for a satisfying career.

“Follow your passion” is bad advice if your goal is to end up loving what you do for a living. A more effective strategy is to work deliberately to develop rare and valuable skills, and then use the resulting “career capital” to shape your career into something that truly resonates.

I had so many insightful highlights in this book, but just wanted to share a few interesting bits!

Developing the craftsman mindset

The craftsman mindset focuses on what you can offer the world, the passion mindset focuses instead on what the world can offer you.

Put aside the question of whether your job is your true passion, and instead turn your focus toward becoming so good they can’t ignore you.

I’m constantly developing the craftsman mindset by sharing what I can with the world (via YouTube, my articles, and my newsletters), and getting better at what I do every single day at work! It’s really great that work and my hustle are somewhat interlinked, so I can keep improving on both aspects!

Having a mission

..her happiness comes from the fact that she built her career on a clear and compelling mission—something that not only gives meaning to her work but provides the energy needed to embrace life beyond the lab, it provides her a sense of purpose and energy, traits that have helped her avoid becoming a cynical academic and instead embrace her work with enthusiasm.

Her mission is the foundation on which she builds love for what she does, and therefore it’s a career strategy we need to better understand.

My mission of helping students / millennials lead a happier and healthier life drives everything I do at work, or with my side hustles as it gives me a solid purpose!

Having the right attitude

Working right trumps finding the right work.

I quote Kevin Kelly’s advice of ‘Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points’ all the time, because it’s so damn true. Work is (and has been) better with the right attitude!

I do resonate very much with Cal’s reasonings because my own path was somehow created in a similar way. Interestingly, I also feel like more doors have been opening up recently. I’m getting more connected with folks online and more opportunities have come my way! With this mindset, I’ve unknowingly been building serendipity, and knocking on doors instead of looking through windows :)

I think if anyone is interested in building a meaningful career (and life) - definitely take the time to read ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You’. There are many more interesting insights I took away from this book, and it was really enlightening to see the ‘answer’ to this questions from a logical perspective. Highly, highly recommend it!

Till next week!

Jamie

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