I was hooked at Cal Newport’s line: be so good they can’t ignore you.
For the week 4 lectorial, we watched a presentation by Cal Newport, an author and theorist. Newport examines the benefits and necessity of not following your passion – as many people don’t have a pre-existing passion. He goes on to further explain that your passion for something will develop the more you work on it, and the better you get at this particular thing. To summarise: it’s about what happens in the long-term (how you’ve built yourself up), rather than the short-term (your big break).
Newport’s key points:
- Don’t follow your passion;
- Be so good they can’t ignore you;
- and, deep work.
This idea is completely relevant and essential to advancing in your chosen field, as it makes you the kind of person that wishes to enhance their abilities in order to become better, rather than to become something specifically. It has made me realise that I need to focus on now, what is happening now, and how to keep moving forward one step at a time.
This kind of outlook is very beneficial to have at this moment, when assignments are starting to pile up. It tells us to stop thinking of what’s ahead and just complete what you have to do now.
Essentially, I wish to use this concept as I work towards my future career in the Media Industry. I won’t have a set plan of where I’m going just yet, and I’ll work on the things that I’m not so great at, and work even harder on the things that I am. This will help me to build up a portfolio that will one day allow me to tell people the ‘short’ story of how I got there, wherever that is.
