### Highlights

• This pattern is common in people who love what they do. Their satisfaction doesn’t come from the details of their work but instead from a set of important lifestyle traits they’ve gained in their career. These desirable traits differ for different people—some might crave respect and importance, for example, while others crave flexibility in their schedule and simplicity—but the key point here is that these traits are more general than any specific position.
• These traits, however, are rare and valuable—no one will hand you a lot of autonomy or impact just because you really want it, for example. Basic economics tells us that if you want something rare and valuable, you need to offer something rare and valuable in return—and in the working world, what you have to offer are your skills. This is why the systematic development of skill (such as McKibben ripping through more than five hundred articles between 1979 and 1987) almost always precedes passion.
• …begin by systematically developing rare and valuable skills.
• The way to get better at a skill is to force yourself to practice just beyond your limits.
• The second reason is focalism. When we contemplate failure from afar, according to Gilbert and Wilson, we tend to overemphasize the focal event (i.e., failure) and overlook all the other episodic details of daily life that help us move on and feel better. The threat of failure is so vivid that it consumes our attention.