I make no secret of the fact that I thoroughly and totally dig my work. Whether it’s one-on-one with my private clients, facilitating group and team sessions, or connecting with seminar audiences, I am constantly inspired, challenged, and rewarded. Truth be told, though, underneath all of this that’s great, I do experience a pretty regular undercurrent of worry and dismay.

Here’s what happens.

Because of the deep and raw conversations that I get to have with people, I have a front row seat to men and women who are:

  • No longer ignoring their urge to experience success that’s more fulfilling and less soul-sucking
  • Feeling on the brink of some crisis-based decision that they’re not sure will really be what they want
  • Not doing anything despite the reality of the first two bullet points

Getting to the point where you know you need a change and feeling paralysis around that is a very hard, very real struggle. It’s rife with fear, anxiety, indecision, and stagnation. From my vantage point, I see many genuine and valiant efforts to explore ways, means, and opportunities to deliberately create a richer success. And then I also see a large share of retreat from that; a shrinking back into perceived safety, and sheltering from what is presumed to be certain failure. And that’s when my work is disheartening.

This pulling back comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s rejecting the option to even entertain the idea that there could be a way that brings professional achievement AND personal fulfillment. Sometimes its opting out of the inward search for what success WITH happiness would really mean. At other times it’s taking cover from some supposed threat to one’s identity, status, and comfort. And sometimes it’s the claim that it is just easier not to bother.

My dismay grows….

It’s easier and more comfortable to turn away from possibility, accept a level of day-in and day-out suffering? It’s safer to keep the burnout blaze roaring than it is to turn off the fan even briefly to consider another way? Digging with habitual self-doubt and denying opportunity protects our status and identity? Soldiering on, accepting that “reality just bites,”  and that “this is what it takes to earn success” is responsible?

It’s this collective throwing up our hands in this insidious way that troubles me. Thankfully it is possible to shift that, as evident in the achievements of my clients who make my work fantastic!

Even though there are too many professionals still unconsciously choosing to not actively manage and own their professional success and personal fulfillment, I get to partner with people who choose differently.

You can too!

Start by making the deliberate choice to believe that you have more control over your satisfaction than initially meets the eye. Choose to make the effort to uncover your unique needs and priorities that will make you truly successful. Then, choose to actually do something about meeting them.

Let me be clear that this “choice” is not about all of us jumping the corporate ship and buying a food truck or traveling the globe taking pictures of tree bark. Choosing to create real success and fulfillment does not have to be that outwardly dramatic. Truly some of the biggest shifts can come from things as seemingly small as being more deliberate in how you manage your communications with your boss. That’s not as sexy as a food truck full of falafel, or a coffee table book of your photos, but the resulting elevated experience of success can be just as freeing and satisfying!

So what do you choose? Be my inspiration!

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If you’re ready to stop passively choosing a version of success that’s burning you out, boring you, or otherwise bringing you down. Let’s talk. You can choose differently. And you can create success that doesn’t bum you (or me) out. Contact me today at liv@livsyptak.com or 303.912.5726.