Understanding the adjacent possible and its role in innovation is the first link in a chain of argument that explains how to identify a good career mission. A term used to describe the spontaneous formation of complex chemical structures from simpler structures. Many people have lots of career capital and can identify a variety of different potential missions for their work, but few actually build their career around such missions.

Giving people more control over what they do, and how they do it, increases their happiness, engagement, and sense of fulfillment. He’s published a popular blog/newsletter since 2007 and more recently has branched into podcasting and video. When you look at successful people who take career risks, you’ll notice that these ‘risks’ aren’t actually that risky.

It is exactly at this point that people begin to recognize your value and start pushing back to keep you entrenched in a less autonomous path. Instead, this philosophy empowers the employee to figure out how to get the important things done and produce results.

g., a pay rise, more days off, leave, leaving) does not benefit your employer and based on this, Newport notions that you should expect employers to resist control. When applied to career building, your mission needs to produce purple cows or a remarkable mission-driven project that compels people to spread your message to create a sustainable career. In short, the first rule proposes that believing the perfect job is out there can often lead to confusion and unhappiness when the harsh reality of life hits and we realize that it’s not there. Self Determination Theory tells us that motivation in the workplace requires that you fulfill three basic psychological needs.

Cal Newport discusses why “follow your passion” is terrible career advice that leads people down unrewarding paths. Conversely, developing your mission when you are new to a field and lack career capital will probably result in failure. Thus, when you become better at what you do, you will feel accomplished and work toward career success.

Originally known within performance science, the rule quantifies the amount of practice time required for a habit to master a skill. If people are willing to pay for what you’re doing and it is valuable, the resistance you are facing is an obstacle to be overcome.So instead of questioning whether you have passion for your work, focus on becoming so good they can’t ignore you. He discusses how to win by working deeply in this changing technological world, despite being so connected and distracted. In his book Drive, Dan Pink discusses how control has resulted in an overall better life in terms of better academic results, physical performance, increased productivity, and greater occupational happiness. Advancing to the cutting edge in a field is an act of small thinking, requiring you to focus on a narrow collection of subjects for a potentially long time.