So Good They Can't Ignore You

by Cal Newport

you need to be good at something before you can expect a good job.

“The key thing is to force yourself through the work, force the skills to come; that’s the hardest phase,”

the happiest, most passionate employees are not those who followed their passion into a position, but instead those who have been around long enough to become good at what they do.

Autonomy: the feeling that you have control over your day, and that your actions are important Competence: the feeling that you are good at what you do Relatedness: the feeling of connection to other people

You need to get good in order to get good things in your working life, and the craftsman mindset is focused on achieving exactly this goal.

It is a lifetime accumulation of deliberate practice that again and again ends up explaining excellence.

“You need to be constantly soliciting feedback from colleagues and professionals,”

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.

If you’re not uncomfortable, then you’re probably stuck at an “acceptable level.”

It’s so tempting to just assume what you’ve done is good enough and check it off your to-do list, but it’s in honest, sometimes harsh feedback that you learn where to retrain your focus in order to continue to make progress.

Giving people more control over what they do and how they do it increases their happiness, engagement, and sense of fulfillment.

if your goal is to love what you do, your first step is to acquire career capital. Your next step is to invest this capital in the traits that define great work. Control is one of the most important targets you can choose for this investment. Acquiring control, however, can be complicated.

Don’t obsess over discovering your true calling. Instead, master rare and valuable skills. Once you build up the career capital that these skills generate, invest it wisely. Use it to acquire control over what you do and how you do it, and to identify and act on a life-changing mission.