The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do
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Unlike a formal education, this option is available to anyone. Instead of waiting for a teacher to come choose you or an academic institution to accept you, this apprenticeship is ready to begin when you are.
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Sometimes the people who help us find our calling come from the least likely of places. It’s our job to notice them.
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Talent Is Overrated, Geoff Colvin, wrote, “Talent means nothing like what we think it means, if indeed it means anything at all.”5 Citing numerous studies of accomplished individuals, world-class athletes, and performers whom we often consider prodigies, he claimed the reason for their success was practice. When the evidence does point to rare instances of natural ability, he argued, it was always followed by rigorous training. “Such findings do not prove that talent doesn’t exist,” he wrote. “But they do suggest an intriguing possibility: that if it does, it may be irrelevant.” In other ...more
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there is a fundamental problem with our understanding of our own capabilities. We are often exceeding our own expectations of ourselves. And in spite of the evidence pointing to the contrary, we continue to believe in the Myth of Talent, that some people are born a certain way, that we cannot rise above our circumstances and achieve something greater than we’ve ever done before. When we do this, we deceive ourselves.
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Hardwired in our brains and bodies is a potential greater than we realize, and all we have to do to unlock it is believe. Psychology professor Carol Dweck has written about this, explaining why some people respond to rejection differently than others, saying the difference between the successful and unsuccessful often comes down to mindset.8
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According to Dweck, most people adhere to one of two mind-sets: the fixed mindset or the growth mindset. With the fixed mindset, people are born with a certain number of finite abilities and cannot exceed those abilities. With the growth mindset, however, potential is unlimited. You can always get better. For this kind of person, the goal is not so much to be the best in the world but to be better than you were yesterday. Regardless of natural talent or the lack thereof, every person has the ability to improve themselves.
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it’s more important to try than to rest on your natural ability. Why? Because you’re capable of more than you realize, and in trying, you learn something new as you push past possibility. As a result, you grow, learning that most skills are not inborn, but learned. Practiced. At least, they can be, if you’re willing to adopt the growth mindset and dedicate yourself to the practice that follows.
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The term deliberate practice was first coined by K. Anders Ericsson, a Swedish psychologist at the University of Florida whose research claimed that talent is not the cause of excellence—practice is. But not just any kind of practice, he said—a specific kind of practice that leads to expert performance.
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In an era of human history in which we prize comfort above nearly every other virtue, we have overlooked an important truth: comfort never leads to excellence. What it takes to become great at your craft is practice, but not just any kind of practice—the kind that hurts, that stretches and grows you. This kind of practice, which Ericsson called “deliberate” and we might consider more appropriately as “painful,” is extremely difficult. It takes place over the course of about ten years, or ten thousand hours—incidentally the average length of an apprenticeship. But this is not where the practice ...more
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According to Daniel Coyle, author of a book called The Talent Code, the right kind of practice is a process of repeated tasks that end in failure. You fail and fail and fail again until you finally succeed and learn not only the right way to do something, but the best way.11 This is what he calls “deep practice,” and it’s the reason why putting in just enough time will only get you so far. To master any skill, you must first choose a task; then do it over and over again until the activity becomes second nature; and finally, push through the times when you fail, exhibiting even greater focus as ...more
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Most of us have believed that all it takes to get good at something is time. If you put enough hours in, eventually you will be great. But this isn’t always true. In Ericsson’s research, ten thousand hours of practice was a common characteristic amongst world-class performers, but it was not the only characteristic. If anything, ten thousand hours is more a description of expert performance than a prescription for how anyone can achieve expertise. Every performer in the study embodied a certain kind of practice. It wasn’t just the quantity of hours they accumulated but the quality of practice ...more
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This kind of practice is a deep work that brings world-class athletes and musicians to the edge of their abilities and then takes them one step further.
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where experts differ from the rest of us. They recognize the resistance we all feel but instead choose to see it as a sign of how close they are to their goal. Disciplining themselves, they deliberately lean in to the most difficult parts when most people tend to quit. We have come to call these people “geniuses” and “prodigies” without ever fully understanding the work that it takes to reach such a status.
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As children, we are courageous and willing to fail, but as we get older, we acquire inhibitions. Our shame reflex kicks in. Unwilling to try new things, we settle for good when called to greatness. Why do we do this? Because it’s easy. To push ourselves past what others expect, beyond what is normal, is difficult and sometimes awkward. But it is a necessary part of the process.
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There are three requirements for deliberate practice, according to Ericsson and his team of researchers. First, the practice requires a context: time and energy from the individual as well as trainers, teaching materials, and facilities in which to train.14
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Second, the activity must not be “inherently motivating.” It has to be something you wouldn’t naturally enjoy doing.15 Think of it this way: if the practice is enjoyable, then you aren’t growing.
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Third, the activity cannot be done a very long time without leading to exhaustion. You must take yourself beyond what you think is possible, to the utter limits of your ability. If you aren’t pushing yourself to the point of sheer exhaustion, you’re not trying hard enough.
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This is an important distinction when considering your life’s work. Most people won’t continue doing something they aren’t passionate about, especially when it gets hard. Putting an activity through painful practice is a great way to determine your direction in life. If you can do something when it’s not fun, even when you’re exhausted and bored and want to give up, then it just might be your calling.
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I don’t know where this idea that your calling is supposed to be easy comes from. Rarely do easy and greatness go together. The art of doing hard things requires an uncommon level of dedication. You have to love the work to be able to persevere through those difficult times, those painful moments when you would probably rather quit. How do you do that without an uncanny amount of passion? It’s not possible. You must love the work. Not until you find something you can do to the point of exhaustion, to the extent that you almost hate it but can return to it tomorrow, have you found something ...more
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Love, I think, is a much better criterion than lack of difficulty. If you can love what you do, even when it hurts, then you may have more than a hobby. And if you’ve never pushed your talents this far before, if you’ve never tested your skills that much, then you probably haven’t discovered your true vocation. Sometimes, the only way to know the differen...
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True practice is not just about learning a skill; it’s about investing the time and energy necessary to discern if this is what you are meant to do. It’s about using difficulty to discover what resonates and what does not. And as you see what does, you will take one more step in the right direction.
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Our natural talent, or lack thereof, is not enough. Neither is practice. Some skills will seem to come naturally while others have to be developed.
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we all have opportunities—not necessarily to become whatever we want, but to become someone, the person we were meant to be.
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Practice is what tests your resolve, what forces you to hone your abilities long after the spark has faded.
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The ultimate goal of practice is to reach a state of what K. Anders Ericsson calls “eminent performance,” when a person goes “beyond the knowledge of their teachers to make a unique innovative contribution to their domain.”22 We all want to do something that we are good at, that the world in some way recognizes, but the point of practice is never just about skill acquisition. It’s about making a contribution to the world. Which is why when we are in the midst of pursuing our calling, we must not only ask if this is something that we are good at, but if it is something good. We need more than ...more
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Success is a process of persevering through difficulties, but it’s also about knowing yourself.
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You misapply the principles of practice and end up succeeding at the wrong thing or discovering your career is somehow a shadow of your true calling. Which is why we must think of this process as a journey.
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“Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
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When we think of someone pursuing a calling, we often picture a person who has it all together, someone who knows from the beginning what they were born to do. They have a plan. A person hears from God and becomes a priest. A professional athlete who grew up kicking a ball around the yard becomes a world-class soccer player. We picture someone who just knew what they were supposed to do with their lives and, at the right time, did it. But a calling doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes, perhaps often, it is messy.
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we’ve believed in this myth that we will just know when it’s time to commit. And that’s hardly ever the case. Commitment is costly; it should scare us.
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In the midst of your apprenticeship, perhaps while serving someone else’s dream, you will make a discovery of your own.
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It would be easy to hear this story and make the mistake of thinking calling starts with an epiphany. It doesn’t. In fact, clarity of calling comes more through a series of deliberate decisions than it does through any sudden revelation.
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finding your calling, as mysterious as it seems, is not only a mystical process; it is intensely practical. You either act on what you know, or you miss your moment.
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Any great discovery, especially that of your life’s work, is never a single moment. In fact, epiphany is an evolutionary process; it happens in stages.
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First, you hear the call.
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lived and self-centered. Second, you respond. Mere words will not suffice—you must act. A true response to a call requires effort; you have to do something.
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Third, you begin to believe. This is the paradox of vocation. We think that passion comes first, that our desire is primary; but if we are truly called, the work always comes before we are ready. We will have to act in spite of feeling unprepared. “The gifts do not precede the call,”
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A calling, though mysterious at times, requires a practical response. The way we make our way from dream to reality is through small intentional steps. Decisions reveal opportunity.
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A calling takes everything you’ve done up to a certain point and turns it into preparation.
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Answering a call will sometimes feel that way. It won’t make sense and may even open you up to rejection and criticism, but in your heart you will know it’s right. How? There will be confirmation. You will take a step, and things will happen. Opportunities will reveal themselves.
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This doesn’t mean a calling is just an emotion, but feelings play a part in the process, and there comes a point when you can trust them. How do you know? You prepare. You put yourself in a place where you can hear the call, you have someone to help you discern the message, and then you make yourself available to act.
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Take time to look back at all you’ve experienced, and listen to what your life is saying. Invite mentors into your life to help you discern the call. This is the perfect opportunity to identify a thread, some common theme that ties everything together. As you begin to see the patterns, don’t move too quickly. Just take one step at a time, trusting that opportunities will open at the right time.
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The problem with how we chase our passions is that reality doesn’t always conform to how things appear in our minds.
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We all deal with this fear on some level. What fills us with anxiety, if we let it, is a simple phrase that keeps us from our purpose. It’s six simple words: “I don’t know what to do.”
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what we’re really saying in these moments of not knowing is that we want the journey to be safe. We want it drawn out for us—no surprises or setbacks, just a clear beginning and end.
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One way to think of it is in terms of maps and globes. Maps are easy. They’re flat and predictable, easy to chart out a course. You can see the whole landscape in a simple, two-dimensional layout. However, as easy as they are, maps are unrealistic. The world isn’t flat; it’s not color coded and foldable and easily stored in your car’s glove box. Life is too complex and beautiful to be captured on a map. It may help you see the big picture, but it does not help you understand the magnitude of the journey.
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The path to your dream is more about following a direction than arriving at a destination.
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When you start pursuing your calling, you may find it to be more difficult than you thought it would be. And that’s okay. It means the journey is bigger than you expected. What you must do is keep moving. Don’t stand still. Don’t squander your time, holding out for someone else to give you permission to start. It won’t happen that way. No one is going to give you a map. You will have to step out into the unknown, listening for direction as you go. And when you are in doubt, just remember to drive toward water. You can always change directions once you get in the car.
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Rich and full, but difficult. These same words could be used to describe a calling.
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Such is the reality for any journey of vocation. If your life’s work is only a dream, something fleeting and frail that’s never backed by action, it can only last so long. When difficulties come, and they always do, you will be inclined to give up and move on to something easier. But if your calling is more than a good idea and you’re willing to put in the hard work and persevere, taking bold steps along the way, you can stand firm in the face of hardship.