{"id":44555,"date":"2021-08-03T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T20:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=44555"},"modified":"2021-08-09T09:27:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T13:27:56","slug":"love-your-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/love-your-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Your Job: The 4 Rules That Might Surprise You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you love your job? Have you been looking for this love in all the wrong places?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cal Newport offers four rules for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/loving-your-job\/\">loving your job<\/a> that he learned through his own experience and research. He found that, contrary to popular opinion, the key isn&#8217;t in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/following-your-passion\/\">following your passion<\/a>. Rather, the key lies in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-develop-skills-2\/\">developing skills<\/a> that you can cash in for the job you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-love-your-job\/\">how to love your job<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Love Your Job<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2010, author Cal Newport was a postdoctoral associate at MIT and just about to start his job search for a professorship. He had three things working against him: His research specialty was niche, the academic job market was particularly bad as a result of the 2008 recession, and he wasn\u2019t willing to relocate. He was facing the very real possibility that he might not be able to secure a professorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Cal didn\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-become-a-university-professor\/\">become a professor<\/a>, he\u2019d have to do something else, and this made him wonder: What makes people love their work? As he waited to hear back about his job applications, he studied <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/\">performance science<\/a>, interviewed people about their professional successes and failures, and tested out his hypotheses on his own career and life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, he discovered that the best way to find or create work you love is <em>not<\/em> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/should-you-follow-your-passion\/\">follow your passion<\/a>, as so many career counselors, books, and well-meaning mentors advise. In fact, <strong>the best way to love your job is to become highly skilled\u2014so good no one can ignore you. Then, you offer your skills in exchange for work that allows you autonomy and the opportunity to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-make-a-difference-in-the-world\/\">change the world<\/a><\/strong>, two of the most significant contributors to workplace satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>So Good They Can\u2019t Ignore You<\/em> describes four rules to loving your job:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Don\u2019t concern yourself with passion.<\/li><li>Instead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/improve-your-skills\/\">improve your skills<\/a>.<\/li><li>Cash in your skills for autonomy.<\/li><li>Cash in your skills for the opportunity to change the world.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The book defines each rule in more detail, offers strategies to put its recommendations into action, and showcases examples of both successful and failed applications of the rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you know <em>how<\/em> to love your job, you can focus on the right things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you love your job? Have you been looking for this love in all the wrong places? Cal Newport offers four rules for loving your job that he learned through his own experience and research. He found that, contrary to popular opinion, the key isn&#8217;t in following your passion. Rather, the key lies in developing skills that you can cash in for the job you want. Keep reading to learn how to love your job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":44560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,42,43],"tags":[447],"class_list":["post-44555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-motivation","category-self-improvement","tag-so-good-they-cant-ignore-you","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Love Your Job: The 4 Rules That Might Surprise You - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The key to loving your job is not in following your passion. 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