The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

help us understand why Stephanie Fisher continued to fail,
why Colbie Caillat eventually didn’t, and why pursuing
your calling is supposed to be difficult.
It’s easy to practice when the activity is something we
enjoy, but what do you do when the excitement runs out
and your strength disappears? What do you do when that
first thrill of entering a new vocation begins to wane? Do
you give up? Or do you push through the pain and make
your way to mastery? This is where experts differ from the
rest of us. They recognize the resistance we all feel but
instead choose to see it as a sign of how close they are to
their goal. Disciplining themselves, they deliberately lean in
to the most difficult parts when most people tend to quit. We
have come to call these people “geniuses” and “prodigies”
without ever fully understanding the work that it takes to
reach such a status. But the truth is, what’s in them just
might be in all of us.
Have you ever tried something and completely failed the
first time? Remember wiping out so badly you never wanted
to try again, never wanted to get back on the bike or ask
another person out on a date? We understand that some
skills take time and none of us knows how to do certain
things without a little failure. Pain is instructive to the person
willing to learn. But do we apply the same lesson to our
vocations? Usually not.
As children, we are courageous and willing to fail, but as
we get older, we acquire inhibitions. Our shame reflex kicks
in. Unwilling to try new things, we settle for good when