This is the last lesson in a series of four on career enhancement. On Monday, Cal Newport and I will open a new session of our eight-week course, Top Performer. If you missed them, here are the first, second and third lessons.
When it comes to work, there are many different philosophies.
One of them is the “it’s just a job” philosophy. According to this view, work is only what you do to pay the bills, and your free time counts.
A variant of this belief is the idea of early retirement. According to this view, work will always be a struggle, so send it as soon as possible.
I want to be fair to these views. Many jobs suck. And financial independence, if you can get it, is certainly something to aspire to.
However, like it or not, work is an integral part of our lives. Even if you can retire early, you have to ask yourself what you will do with those hours. A non-stop vacation sounds appealing…until you find yourself on a Wednesday afternoon at two o’clock, all your friends are at work, and you wonder what you will do with your time.
Another philosophy is that work should be your “passion”. This camp advocates that you should be obsessed with work and constantly motivated to achieve your life’s purpose.
While some of us are so motivated by work that we can devote our entire lives to it, this approach is unrealistic for many. Most of us will always want time for friends, family and the occasional party. We also prefer our work to be well paid, so we don’t starve while we pursue our passion.
My view of work is intended to fall between these two extremes. Work is neither the sole purpose of life nor a mere chore to be eliminated. Instead, the goal is balance. Work must be fulfilling and meaningful. And work should pay well and leave us enough time to enjoy all the other things we value.
How do you find rewarding, well-paying work?
Job satisfaction comes from finding work you can do well for the people you care about in an environment where you have enough independence to make your own decisions.
There are many places to find it. It is a myth that we are all born with a singular, innate passion or purpose that we must discover. On the contrary, the key to a successful career is accumulating professional capital that allows you to do meaningful work and get paid for it.
Skills are the foundation of your professional capital. If you have rare and valuable skills, you can start building a resume, a portfolio of accomplishments, and a network of allies who will champion your career.
Once you have accumulated some professional capital, you need to use it to negotiate the lifestyle you want. Avoid spending it the way someone else wants you to, not facing it and accepting far less than you are worth. It takes courage and vision to avoid these pitfalls, but these negotiations are only possible if you have professional capital, to begin with.
In turn, building professional capital depends on understanding how competencies work. The assumption that a steady, uniform progression accumulates naturally with experience is false. Growth often peaks and stops, depending on how much deliberate practice we draw from the environment. It depends on identifying which competencies are essential and which are not. Finally, it depends on steady progress rather than sporadic bursts that fade before anything worthwhile has been achieved.
Build a vision for your career.
Becoming one of the best is no fluke. You have to build a vision of what your career will look like in terms of the kind of job you’d like to have and the professional capital you’ll need to cultivate to get there.
For the final task, write below the kind of career you would like to have and the difference you see between what you do now and what you want to do. There is no shame in realizing they are not the same or that you have a long way to go. On the contrary, you may find you closer than you think. In any case, developing this vision is an essential first step.
