Paradigm Shifting Books - Drive

 Stephen H. Covey was interviewing Dan Pink on this episode.  In the early part of the exchange, Dan reveals that he was into writing for a while,  

While in law school, for example, he mentions that he wrote more articles/stories than papers.  He also advises us to watch what we do when we have some ‘spare’ time.  Those moments can reveal who we are aspiring to be.

Writing on the side takes commitment.  Churning out articles and stories demands fierce work ethic.  Each writing session, each work completed can be considered a datapoint.  The data points aggregate to reveal a fact based or data driven portrait of Dan as a writer.  

I think what Dan did is what Cal Newport calls developing career capital.  The two seem to agree that follow your passion is a poor career advice.  Rather, discovering what we are good at through the works that we do is a better way to go.

Indeed, watching what we do during our ‘spare’ time is a better yardstick to set a developmental path for ourselves.

I started writing this without going through the interview.  I found Dan’s comments about watching what we do in our private moments and their parallel to Cal Newport’s Craftsman’s mindset and career capital interesting.

These moments underpin Motivation 3.0; they portray purposeful thinking complemented with a deep sense of autonomy and a craving for mastery. 

 I can’t wait to go through the whole interview.