Preparing to have a mission

I know, in the church that means something else. However, we also have our own definition of calling, where most of the world uses it more in the way Newport does, as something you feel drawn to as a life purpose, and a sense of mission goes along with that.

The final section of So Good They Can't Ignore You is Rule #4 Think Small, Act Big (Or, the Importance of Mission). It starts with a chapter called "The Meaningful Life of Pardis Sabeti".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardis_Sabeti

I still recommend reading the book, but if not, Sabeti's Wikipedia entry is still pretty impressive. What she does with her work is impressive, but there is also impressive field and charity work, and she plays in a band and in a volleyball league. It is a good life, and she does a lot of good in the world.

It is also a life that demonstrates the previous rules coming together. She did not automatically know what field she would work in, but worked at it, developing her skills and becoming very good at what she could do. She has skills that people are willing to pay for, and it gives her some control, both for the projects she sets up and for giving her the time for a personal life. As she goes down that path, she finds more things she can do.

For me the most intriguing part of this sentence was a reference to "the adjacent possible". The idea is that at the edges of what we know, there are new discoveries for which the base is already in place. Once those discoveries happen, they become the base for more knowledge and innovation, but at any given moment there are some things that are available.

The description made me want to know more, which is why I am now reading Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson. (For what it's worth, I also recently finished Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin because I wanted to know more about deliberate practice.)

I believe Newport mentioned Crick and Watson's discovery of the double helix formation as an example of a breakthrough that other people were working on simultaneously, and Johnson covers many more such examples, but there were two things that I got from Johnson's book that relate to Sabeti.

One of the common characteristics of people who make large discoveries or innovations is that they have hobbies, or they have studied other things. Working out the double helix required tools from biochemistry, mathematics, genetics, information theory, and a sculpture metaphor. And, perhaps because it is so impossible for one person to know everything, it is important to have contact with different sorts of people in different fields.

From that way of thinking, it is not just that part of a good career is that it gives you a chance to play volleyball against the other departments, or play in a band and spend time with musicians and music fans, but that it makes you better able to do well in your job.

I know many members whose jobs have been influenced in some ways by their time spent in the mission field, if for no other reason than that they have picked up a new language. I have also heard stories of older couples going on service missions where they use knowledge acquired in their career to serve others.

Even without a formal mission in the mix, life can be like this. We learn, we connect to people, we learn more, and there is a circle where knowledge leads to knowledge, connection leads to connection, and we not only make our own lives better but the lives of other people. That is something worth working for.