My whole life I have been encouraged to find a job that I love and to “follow my passion.” However, in my experience, I’ve had more flexibility, purpose, joy, and overall happiness by focusing on honing my skills in a specific career area. The better I am at what I do, the more I am able to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want. Rather than “follow my passion,” I have focused on a certain valuable skill set – for me, that is civil litigation. In his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You, author Cal Newport compares the “passion mindset” – always on the lookout to finding the dream job, versus the “craftsmen mindset” – focusing on valuable skills in a particular area to build value or “career capital.”

I think this concept clashes with what we are taught as millennials – that we should love what we do, that we can be anything we can dream of, that we all get a trophy. But the “passion mindset” can overlook what it takes to get what we want. It seems to miss what it takes to find a career worth loving: deep work, focus and developing value to get us where we want to be.

So the quick tip is this: rather than stress about finding your dream job – which causes jumping around from job to job preventing you from developing necessary career capital – focus on being the best you can be and so good they can’t ignore you, right where you are today. Rather than dream about where you could be, focus on developing the skills where you are currently at work. This will allow you to have more opportunities for growth, more options for future careers, and lead to greater fulfillment and overall happiness.