You’re Probably Ignoring the Best Parts of Your Career
A reflection from Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This is part of the "Meller Highlights" series with reflections from my personal book highlights.
One thing I’ve been trying to do every day is to pick one idea from my reading and think about how to actually apply it.
Not just understand it in theory, but find a way to live it a little.
Today’s highlight: Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
To pursue bright spots is to ask the question, ‘What’s working, and how can we do more of it?’ Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Yet, in the real world, this obvious question is almost never asked. Instead, the question we ask is more problem-focused: ‘What’s broken, and how do we fix it?’
When we think about growing professionally, most of the time, the focus is on fixing weaknesses.
What skills am I missing?
What am I doing wrong?
Where am I falling behind?
It becomes this endless list of problems we are trying to solve.
But what if we started by asking a different question?
What if we looked first at what is already working?
In our careers, bright spots are the moments when things actually go right. That project you finished ahead of time.
That conversation with a mentor felt easy and natural. That time, someone trusted you with more responsibility without you even asking.
Those small wins are not accidents. They are signals.
They show where you are strong, where you grow faster, and where your natural energy pulls you forward.
But because we are trained to focus on gaps and problems, we ignore them.
We think, “That went well, now back to fixing what’s broken.” And we miss a huge opportunity to build on what is already good.
I started seeing this differently when I looked back at my own path.
Most of the good things that happened in my career came from doing more on what was already working, not just fixing my weak areas.
When I had a project where communication with the team flowed easily, I looked closer.
What made that happen? Could I repeat that setup again? Could I protect those conditions?
When someone gave positive feedback about how I managed a meeting, I did not just say thanks and move on.
I asked myself what small behaviours helped at that moment. Listening more? Staying calm even when it was tense?
Instead of letting good moments pass by quietly, I started studying them. And slowly, repeating them.
You know what? The good stuff we do naturally is often a better foundation for growth than the things we force ourselves to be better at.
It is easier to grow where there is already some strength.
This does not mean ignoring weaknesses completely.
But it means not letting them be the only story you tell yourself.
In career development, it’s easy to become obsessed with what’s missing.
What certification do we still need? What title have we not reached? What feedback do we need to fix? There is always something…
But sometimes the biggest moves forward come from asking:
Where am I already strong?
What do people already trust me with?
When do I feel most alive in my work?
How can I build more of that into my days?
And when you find a bright spot, protect it.
Build around it.
Let it grow.
Because just fixing problems will make you average.
But building on strengths can make you different.
And being different is what opens real doors.
Have you ever looked back and realized that some of your biggest wins came from doubling down on your strengths, not fixing your weaknesses?
If you have a story like that, I would love to hear it.
This is your tip today, inspired by one of my highlights from Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
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