1712: [Part 2] Corrupted Callings: The Subtle Difference Between Finding Your Life's Work and Loving Your Life by Cal Newport

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. Corrupted Callings. The Subtle Difference Between Finding Your Life's Work and Loving Your Life. Part 2. By Cal Newport of calnewport.com. Two Core Questions. As I've argued before, 30 years of research has identified the following three traits to be crucial if you want a rich life. Autonomy. Control over how you fill your time. Competence. Mastering unambiguously useful things.

[00:01:30] And Relatedness. Feeling of connection to others. Sotomayor has competence in spades but lacks autonomy and relatedness. McKibben, on the other hand, maintains high levels of all three traits, which explains why his story inspires us. This technical understanding spawns two important follow-up questions. One, how did McKibben build up all three traits? And two, why don't more people follow his lead?

[00:01:55] The answer to both of these questions can be found in a little understood concept that I call the competence trap. The Competence Trap. The direct route to achieving autonomy, competence, and relatedness is to master something rare and valuable. The argument is economic. If you want your career to accommodate these desirable traits, you need to offer something valuable in return. The market couldn't care less about your soul's ache for fulfillment. Following this path, however, is tricky.

[00:02:24] Imagine you've managed to become so good they can't ignore you. By doing so, you've earned what we can call career capital. You can now invest this capital to gain desirable traits in your life. Objectively speaking, you should follow Bill McKibben's lead and invest this capital to obtain more autonomy and relatedness while continuing to build your competence. In other words, you should improve all three areas crucial for an engaging life.

[00:02:49] And this is exactly what McKibben did when he left the bustle of the New York publishing world to write an important book on his own terms. Here's the catch. This option is unlikely to be presented to you. From the perspective of the talent marketplace, the only investment that makes sense is to double down on competence. The better and more respected you are, the more value you have in the market. The other spheres, though important to you, don't arise naturally in this economic calculus.

[00:03:16] Because of this reality, in the heat of the moment, it will seem as if only Sotomayor-style competence-centric paths are available. This is the competence trap. When you amass enough career capital to exert meaningful control over your life and career, the only investment presented as reasonable will be to further maximize your competence at the expense of the other areas of your life.

[00:03:38] For example, the Ivy League student who graduates with honors is attracted to law school because it's the next rung on a competitive, competence-growing ladder. The ambitious med student turns to a demanding specialty because it's presented as the domain for hot shots. The young corporate star enrolls in an MBA program so she can return to the management fast track at the company, as that's the prize standouts are supposed to chase. And so on.

[00:04:03] To follow McKibben's lead requires a cautious awareness of the competence traps that will litter your path as you become better and better at what you do. Two important caveats This concept provides many opportunities for subtle misunderstandings. With this in mind, let me address two important caveats. Caveat number one. You still have to get really good. The competence trap is not an argument to avoid the rat race, to instead go live in semi-agrarian simplicity.

[00:04:32] The decision to invest in your autonomy and relatedness is meaningless if you don't have career capital to spend. Mastering something rare and valuable remains the necessary first step. For example, if McKibben had coasted through Harvard and then moved directly to the Adirondacks, he probably would have failed. Key to his path was first becoming an excellent and respected writer. The end of nature, for example, was serialized by his old employer, the New Yorker, before publication, helping to ensure a big impact.

[00:05:02] Deciding to leave the magazine world to write books was not a risky decision for McKibben. He knew he had game, as did the publishing industry. It was just an unusual one. As I've argued before, these big changes shouldn't make you too nervous. And caveat number two. You then have to continue to get better. Sidestepping the competence trap doesn't mean that you stop building your competence to instead dedicate your life to your family or your garden or whatever other image dominates your daydreams.

[00:05:30] Instead, it means that you build autonomy and relatedness along with competence. You're not stepping into an existence free of responsibility. The remarkable life can still be remarkably demanding, but it's demanding on your own terms. If you're serious about building a remarkable life, you must be wary of the competence trap. Don't expect the path to autonomy, competence, and relatedness to be obvious.

[00:05:54] No one at the New Yorker, we can assume, was suggesting to McKibben that he should leave his dream job to move to a mountain cabin. It's up to you to ignore where the market is pushing you, and instead use your own assessment of value when identifying your options. You just listened to part two of the post titled Corrupted Callings – The Subtle Difference Between Finding Your Life's Work and Loving Your Life by Cal Newport of CalNewport.com

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[00:06:53] Wenn jemand Charles und Melanie gesagt hätte, dass sie nach ihrem Tinder-Match gemeinsam einen Channel mit crazy Aufgaben starten – also wirklich crazy – fünf Tage auf einer einsamen Insel verbringen, eine Zipline an einem Gurt runterrasen, eine Million Views knacken, eine Wand mit Saugnöpfen hochklettern und Fallschirmspringen in Ägypten? Das hätten die beiden niemals geglaubt. Aber das ist das Ding mit Tinder. Es führt dich an Orte, die du nie erwartet hättest.

[00:07:20] Wohin es dich aufführt. It starts with a swipe. Tinder. Und danke again to Cal. Now, as I mentioned yesterday, he's a super popular author with some best-selling books out there. And on his blog Study Hacks, he has a ton of articles that cover advice, minimalism, education, and much more. Now, those types of articles are regularly featured on the podcast Optimal Living Daily. So if you like his style and you want to hear his take on some other topics including building habits, productivity, and more, check out that show.

[00:07:49] Again, that's Optimal Living Daily. And make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button wherever you get your podcasts to get all the new episodes for free. So, hope you've enjoyed the show so far. Have a great rest of your day. And I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.