Your Career Sweet Spot

In sports like tennis, golf, and baseball, there’s the concept of a “sweet spot.” These sports involve swinging a racquet, club, or bat at a ball.

These swinging devices have a certain zone that maximizes the physics and efficiency of the transfer of energy from the device to the ball.

When the ball makes contact with the device in this optimal zone, the ball moves with maximum force and accuracy.

This is known as the “sweet spot” on the racquet, club, or baseball bat.

If you’ve ever played any of these sports, you know what I’m talking about.

When you miss the sweet spot, the ball doesn’t do what you want it to do. You may get odd vibrations that travel down the device into your arms.

And when you hit it just right, the physics are absolutely perfect. Its swinging action and subsequent contact with the ball are so smooth, the transfer of energy so perfect, that with seemingly very little effort you hit the ball – and you hit it accurately.

This is an important feeling to grasp and remember. It’s a reference point for what you want to strive for in your career.

Every person has a “sweet spot” in terms of career skills. Everyone is very good (and very bad) at different things.

The more you have alignment between what you’re exceptionally good at and what you do for work, the more your professional life will feel like swinging a tennis racquet and hitting the ball in the racquet’s sweet spot.

Conversely, when your job requires you to do things that you’re not good at and you don’t enjoy, it will be a miserable experience.

(This is why I no longer play tennis, golf, and baseball.)

Now, with any sport or career endeavor, it is absolutely possible to practice and improve.

However, people who enjoy a particular sport or professional activity (even while they are learning) are far more likely to practice enough to become exceptional.

It’s far more advantageous in your career to develop a skill that you’re naturally good at and become exceptional at it than it is to focus on something you’re terrible at and devote an entire career to being barely competent.

Give some thought as to what your sweet spot is and evaluate whether you’re devoting most of your career time to it. If not, it’s worth considering if continuing to invest in the status quo is the best use of your time.