The science behind the idea “Do what you love”

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The reason you should do what you love is because you won’t work hard at it if you don’t love it. And hard work is, in fact, more important in success than raw talent. The guys who wrote Freakonomics also write a column in the New York Times magazine, and this topic is the focus of their most recent column:

“When it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love “? because if you don’t love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don’t like to do things they aren’t “good” at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don’t possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.”

Of course, the difficult part is to figure out what you love. Maybe a better standard, though, is to figure out what you love to practice. That seems to eliminate a lot more possibilities right off the bat.

4 replies
  1. Umang
    Umang says:

    “But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.”

    How true…thanks for your thoughts…

  2. Mark W.
    Mark W. says:

    Yes, deliberate practice.
    It’s not about the “natural gift” and not as simple as hard work and persistence. A quote from a very good article on this subject dated 10/19/06 which can be found at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391794/index.htm – “It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.”

  3. Plotnost' Klyuchevyh Slov
    Plotnost' Klyuchevyh Slov says:

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    I am from Czech and , too, and now am writing in English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “You. Notice that some of your blog posts are drawing search engine traffic for particular search phrases and keywords especially if your blog has had.This spring, we launching my new bath and beauty line called wholearth by danny seo.”

    Thanks 8-). Jinx.

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