Frustrated with your career? It may be the best thing that happened to you

Are you frustrated with your career? I was, too, and learned I should trust this deep intuition and transform it into actionable change. Trusting that gut feeling may be the best thing that happened to you and the beginning of a breakthrough. Here’s how it works: first, turn the sound on and watch this video we just produced:

What’s your first impression of this short reel? It is designed to highlight the work I’m doing and the life of fulfillment and impact I help others to build.

What we don’t see is that the "sizzle reel" sizzles because of the lowlights of the many mistakes and failures, what it takes to never settle for less than what God has prepared for you. 

Let me tell you exactly how that works by telling you how I transitioned from my first successful career to pursuing a higher level of alignment and purpose.

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I was deep in thought, staring out the window of a train car, when something shifted in me. 

I was in my mid-twenties, enjoying a successful music career, and the train was taking me and my crew to the next stop of a multi-city tour promoting my next album. Playing to thousands of fans and hearing them sing along night after night was pure magic.

Only a tiny fraction of musicians get to live the life I was living, and I was well aware of how lucky I was. Yet, a persistent thought came from the core of my being on that train ride:

"Is this all there is for me?"

I distinctly remember this moment of extreme clarity as I considered the possibility of moving from music to other things. It was neither out of a sense of entitlement nor a lack of gratitude that I was feeling restless.

My dissatisfaction came from an awareness that I would not be happy or fulfilled if I stayed on my path. I realized I wasn't that quintessential artist who lives and breathes music alone. I was living the dream of that artist; it just happened not to be my dream. There were parts of me that remained dormant in an otherwise successful life.

In short, I was successful on paper but not happy in reality. There was more to me than this one thing, wonderful as it was. This realization was both liberating and confusing. 

After working so hard and being so fortunate, now what do I do?

In the same way that physical pain signals something is off in our body, emotional pain signals that something is off with our lives.

I decided there and then not to settle for anything less than pursuing a higher level of fulfillment. That one scary decision was life-changing. It allowed me to reach higher than I thought possible and serve more people than I would have otherwise. I’ve started three companies and two non-profits, spoken to audiences worldwide, and collaborated with some of the most talented people on the planet.

Now, I coach purpose-driven professionals, helping them answer the same question I asked myself on that fateful train ride and have a front-row seat to their growth and impact on the world. Time and time again, I see people caught up in the same one-dimensional version of themselves I was in. As I realized in that train ride, they live someone else's dreams and miss out on their unique contributions to humanity. When they find the courage and take decisive action, they come alive on an entirely higher level.

If we look closely at the life stories of people who inspire us, we find something we often miss.

We discover that most of them had a restless energy and intense curiosity about them that drove them to experiment, fail, and try again in pursuit of their unique version of success.

Apparently, "Is this all there is for me?" is a universal question. It visits us deep in the core of our being as a whisper we often sweep aside as frivolous or impractical. The people we admire are extraordinary because they pay attention to that whisper. We ignore it and maintain the status quo because acting on it means taking risks and stepping into uncertainty, making us anxious and fearful.

Ironically, the riskiest thing we can do is to aspire to someone else's version of a successful life. While the world around us teaches us to be realistic and stay in our lane, people who do extraordinary work and enjoy outsized success trust their intuition to live their own story. No one can compete with you at being you. 

I work with some rock star clients who will not settle for the “stay in your lane” story. Every once in a while, I interview them. This is the latest one with Tyler Gauntt. I've edited the conversation to capture the essence of his journey, and I think you'll find it inspiring. 

Tyler shares the vision for his new company, Gauntt Capital, which is focused on off-market commercial real estate in Austin, TX, and how we went from "corporate coasting to energized entrepreneur." Among other things, Tyler talks about the dangers of coasting and complacency and how introducing habits helped him go from stressed to creative on demand.

His insights into raising your baseline of creativity and performance are particularly valuable. Shortly after Tyler, two of his close also joined and they are closer than ever.

If you are moved by his story and would like free advice on building your future, we set aside a few spots a week to offer a free strategy call. I cannot guarantee that we would be the perfect fit for you; we are usually oversubscribed. I can promise you this: If we have a conversation, I'll offer solid insights to help you build a better life.

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I’m doing more speaking and podcasting these days. If you have an event or podcast you’d like me to attend - you can learn how to do that here.

If you find yourself easily distracted by competing priorities in life, you'll check out this post: 

Beyond Distraction: Strategies for a Purpose-Driven Life 

If you’re still on the fence about why fulfillment is not a vain thing to pursue, you’ll like this post:

Why fulfillment is a brilliant strategy, not just a vain chasing of dreams