What happens when you no longer feel fulfilled in your job?

Feb 17, 2020
 

Full Transcript:


So tell me if you resonate with this:

I've been, I've been getting so many clients coming back to me, who's been telling me that they no longer feel fulfilled by what they do. Do you ever feel that like this, like the work that you do no longer feels fulfilling or or it no longer feels like it excites you in the same way? This is a very common thing that I've been hearing back.

So maybe this describes you. In the beginning of what you started, you were quite excited. You were really excited by the energy, you know, but what you're going to do, you're excited and you're feeling energized. And you're getting a lot back from this thing. You're getting a sense of like, yes, this is what even though those early few weeks or months or even years, you'll work extremely hard. You worked extremely long hours you were doing all those things.

But maybe you feel now that you're not quite as fulfilled, and maybe you feel more tired now, maybe you feel more dread Going into the work, maybe you even feel a little bit of resentment. I want to talk about why. And I want to talk about how to get out of that. So there's a couple of layers to this. But you understand this, you must first understand ego.

Ego is not just a sense of like, Oh, I'm so great, like pompous, like arrogance, like, ego is essentially something that creates a project a sense of self, it creates an identity almost like I'm creating, like, this is me, I am the person. And I'm going to go poof, and like, there's this version of me that I'm supposed to become. So we use this in a very practical way. I mean, the ego is not a bad thing in and of itself. It exists for a reason. It is a protective thing and it helps guide us and what we're supposed to become.

But ego can also be very tricky and cause a lot more damage than we realize. So we take a look at the idea behind this. It really comes down to doing a versus being okay. Doing versus being so doing is the act of the work you do. So what is it that you actually do that gives you that energy of a filament as opposed to who you're supposed to be? And the stories that we create around it and emotional stories that we create around it, and the pressures that we create around having to be this ego version of ourselves, right, this version of who we are supposed to be.

And we come up with this idea. And usually this comes up with people who are high achievers who have a high set of expectations for themselves, who read a lot of books, who watch a lot of like Ted Talks and listened to a lot of podcasts, who are out there cranking it. This is the problem when you are out there and you are learning a lot.

Well, one, the good thing is you are becoming very knowledgeable, but who and this is probably where the downside comes from, is that you start building up all the Six dictations have I know all this now? So I should be more productive, more effective, better at doing this better than that person better than that person better than all these other people? I should? I should, I should, I should I should I should write because then we come up with all these reasons why we should.

Now, this is the problem. It is not the amount of work that you're doing that's causing burnout, it is the feelings that you're experiencing the stress that you create the stories that you tell, that creates a burnout, right? It is that that creates this lack of fulfillment that creates a sense, because you're focused, not on the present moment of what you're getting to create and what you're getting to do. Whatever that looks like for you. Right, maybe like you're an entrepreneur, but break down what you really do. Is it working with people? Is it teaching, right? Is it creating interesting products that solve problems? Is it solving the puzzles of every single day of like breaking through this like you love creating frameworks or, or strategies like that's what you're actually doing.


But when we start slapping on this label around it and make it about the ego, the ego loves this idea of, I am a successful entrepreneur on the person who builds six or seven figure businesses, even eight, nine figure businesses and we pump ourselves up, and we create this idea of who we're supposed to be.

Our mind is no longer on what we really enjoy, which is what we're doing which we're creating that image that you had early on, when you first started creating a, you know, when you first started creating something, when you first started, like, getting excited about rising through and doing the work that you loved doing. And then now it is about the work of having to maintain who you have to be.

Of course you're tired. Of course you're burned out good god how can you not be so much expectation expectation is not what you're actually producing expectation is who you have to be. Being the CEO has a certain ego thing that makes us feel good. But it also comes with a lot of expectations of who you're supposed to act like what you're supposed to think about. I'm supposed to a successful entrepreneur, you know, Gary Vee, you know, talks about hustle, I should work hard, and what does working hard actually mean?

And I feel like the word working hard, don't get me wrong. I'm a really big believer in consciousness and grit and like working through those things. But I'm a really, really big believer also of looking at the intention behind it and the energy behind it, and the emotions behind it, because that should be important.

Right? If you're working hard for the wrong reasons, you're not going to get anywhere because you're going to burn yourself out because it's going to feel like you're just pushing this boulder up the hill, right? You feels like you're like that Greek myth character of like Sisyphus, you keep trying to push this boulder up the hill and it keeps rolling down and you just get more More and more and more tired yet, you might be pursuing a hobby and you might be burning those like, remember, remember those days, were like you're up into two creating something, and you just don't want to stop.

And like your friends and family might be like, hey, like, maybe it's time to take a break. Like you're like, No, I can't I'm in this like flow mode. I gotta like, create more. Now you're working hard in those situations. But yeah, you weren't burning out. Why is that? Because you're focused on what you're doing, rather than who you're being. Because you're focused on not the stories of who you're supposed to become, and actually doing. So let me give you a piece of advice. If you if I can write, simplify it.

If you have to take on ego identity about who you are, what your purpose is, simplify it down. right for me, I'm a teacher. That's always what I've been, you know, for a long time I it I will go to these conferences and I was reading these books about like your mission statement and our right These very complicated formula of I am a blank who does blank so I can serve blank and do this. I was I was I have all of them. I had like the 10 second pitch, the 32nd elevator pitch the truven elevator pitch about who I am. And the one day when I was on a hike, I was I was at the time I was in, in Hawaii. I was going on a bit of a soul searching journey because I was so burnt out I was so tired, and I just want to be alone. I want to get away. And I was I was on this hike and I was going up this mountain in this like very lush, beautiful green forest in Hawaii ever been there? It's got some beautiful hikes.

And I was thinking about this I'm like, okay, so at the end of the day, what is my purpose? What am I doing here? You know, what am I doing all this for? I built this business but I wasn't feeling connected to it at all. Also tired. I was feeling so disconnected. I kind of resented going back into I kind of resented the work, the work that I used to love.

And then I started asking myself Okay, so what am I here for what is my purpose? And then my mind was generating as mines do, right? Your mind is a question and answer machine. And my mind was generating all these answers of like, oh, like, you know, I'm just supposed to do this and this and this. And then I was kind of like, No, no, no, that's not it. I checked in with my body and checked with my heart. And I asked, you know, okay, so heart. What am I here for? And my heart just brought back the answer of to teach. And I was like, Oh, right. That's all I do.
I am just here to teach.


And whatever it is, I want to teach wherever I feel connected to that's my job is my job is here. I'm just here my purpose is to teach. And that's the thing is letting go of the desire to be special, letting go of the ego, they go the big names of CEO and Founder and like look at my beautiful website and look at how many followers I have and letting go for that and being like at the end, the orders goal maybe it's too Right.

Maybe it's too soon to create, maybe it's to, you know, excite, maybe it's to inspire What is your verb? What is your doing? Not being what is your doing? What is it that you get to create every day? What do you want to create today? What gives you what lights you up? What gives you that energy? What reminds you of that sense of love and purpose that you have? At the end of the day? If he had some down to one word, what would that be? I will love to see you write that word down below. I will love to connect with you on that.

Anyway, create, be lit up. Enjoy what you got to do, and drop those stories. 

 

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