There's more than one good reason to do work that you love. Besides the obvious--it's more fun to go to a job you like--if you don't love what you do, you probably won't work hard enough to get very good at it. And that's no fun either.

That is one conclusion of the so-called Expert Performance Movement and its ringleader, Anders Ericsson, a psychology professor at Florida State University, as reported in a recent New York Times Magazine article by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt.

At the heart of this research is the question: When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him or her good? To find out, Ericsson and his colleagues studied expert performers in all kinds of endeavors--from piano playing to software design.

They conclude in their "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance" that no matter who the expert performers are, they are nearly always made, not born. They practiced, set specific goals, got feedback and concentrated as much on technique as on outcomes, says the article. And they were motivated to do well.

They were willing to set goals, practice, ask for feedback and focus on their technique because they liked what they did. They enjoyed the actual work and what they were required to practice over and over again.

In my unscientific research I find that most people aren't very motivated to do that if they don't like what they're doing. Those who enjoy their work, are also very good at it. And those who don't like the work resent the effort it takes to become more expert at their craft. Salespeople who hate their work aren't open to perfecting their selling techniques. Software developers who don't enjoy the work aren't motivated to learn.

I've also found that most people don't like to do things they aren't good at. As a result, as the article says, they give up figuring they don't have talent for that particular thing. "But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better."

One of my clients was a dentist for over 30 years. Although he was quite competent at drilling and extracting teeth, he wasn't motivated to be really great because he didn't like the work. He was required to complete hours of continuing education and he'd tell me and how he'd "sit in the classes six to eight hours with everyone around me pontificating on drilling and new filling material." He'd be in the back of the room day dreaming and reading books on psychology. What he did enjoy was talking to his patients, hearing about their lives and the issues they dealt with. He was itching to spend his day doing just that.

At 62 he set a new, specific goal--to become a therapist. This required him to go back to college, practice new skills and focus on learning a new technique. He was becoming a good therapist--in part because he was motivated to do well. He wasn't born to be a therapist. But he had the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate process it required to make himself into one.

When it comes to creating a more satisfying career, start by looking at the actual work you'll do and techniques you'll develop to get better through practice. Ericsson says that a lot of people believe there are inherent limits they were born with, but "that there's surprisingly little hard evidence that anyone could attain any kind of exceptional performance without spending a lot of time perfecting it."

But then if it's something you enjoy and has meaning for you, although you have to work at it, you'll be inspired to do well and to get better. And that is a fun way to spend a day.

© by Andrea Kay