Welcome to episode #201 of the Own Your Best Life Podcast. When you’re surrounded by people who complain about their boss, workload and pretty much the overall business of life – it’s easy for you to also think that work is just not for you. Maybe you’ve experienced some pretty tough or toxic work situations that have turned you off from corporate life or the idea of the rat race. Either way, you’re starting to wonder if maybe you just don’t like work. You might even be starting to disengage, waiting or hoping for the day when your next vacation comes or even when you can finally leave so that you can enjoy retirement. Yet, this may not need to be the case and in fact – doesn’t have to be you. Today’s podcast will help bust this idea that you’re supposed to be unhappy at work and will help you become the outlier who doesn’t feel the sense of dread and Sunday Scaries each week.

There’s a common belief among achievers and professionals that being unhappy at work is just normal. If you don’t complain, it feels like you must not have enough work to do, right? Ask most of the people around you that you work with, “how have you been?” Most of the time, the answer is, “Great but just so busy” or “It’s been crazy around here” or “I’m just looking forward to the weekend.” Sometimes our life and work situations really are abnormally stressful or full of change. However, you will find that the same responses keep coming up all the time. Is life really abnormally stressful or is it that we’ve normalized being unhappy at work?

When you think about people who are really going after the work they want to do in the world, they will have moments of struggle and many failures along the way, but are they really unhappy? Is it really true that we should just bear our work because this is what our parents did or this is what your friend group feels about their jobs? What happens if we know that we have more potential in us and more fulfillment available, yet we don’t try to realize it?

When we normalize being unhappy, we start to believe that hiding at work is better than standing out. We lose trust in the organizations and teams. We start to resent the problems we’re solving and the people we work with on these problems. When we continue to foster more and more conditions of unhappiness at work, our health also suffers as we experience chronic stress that is longer term and as a result, burnout. Disengagement starts to occur and we begin to live days that feel like the past is repeating itself all over again.

People that have work that feel like it is their calling or vocation are those that have created lives where work feels like play. Where they almost can’t believe that they get paid for this work. That the act of working is important and of service to the world around them. They’re not buying into the belief that they should also be unhappy too. They’re willing to be outliers in the sea of people who can’t wait to leave their jobs each day, and instead they’re truly grateful they get to do this work. When you’re happy at your work, you end up serving more and creating more because you are more willing to go through the tough or harder times that are inevitable with any work that you do.

Now, how does one reverse the case of the Sunday Scaries so that they feel like they are able to be one of the outliers who don’t complain about their work?

One of the things you can focus on first is your spiritual path.

This means understanding who you are, why you’re here and what you want to do in the time you’re here on this planet. This creates a sense of conviction about what drives you and what your gifts are in this lifetime. You also own your life story, the decisions you have made and how it all ties together to put you exactly where you are today. I work with my clients to figure out what their “thing” is and I do this through a process that allows them to build confidence in what they truly want and how they can best serve.

You will be able to feel spiritually healthy, having defined your own personal understanding of what you believe about yourself and the world around you. This spiritual energy drives everything else that you do and is one of the reasons why you can start to break out of any boxes that you’ve felt have defined you before. Inner strength creates more resilience and helps you bring energy to situations where you feel less than your best.

The second step is to develop sustainable ways of working.

When you are working more sustainably and you have better routines, processes or structures in place that help you lead and do your best work, you have so many more options for what you want to do and how. Your capacity increases and you can lead with less effort/time. Instead of just being good at doing work, your impact grows because you’re also a model for those around you on how to do great work sustainably. This is one of the hardest problems to solve in organizations because so few people have mastered it for themselves. This is also why it’s such a powerful leadership advantage when you know how to do this for yourself.

You increase the quality of your life and have better mental/physical health as a result.

These 2 steps alone will create so much more space and time in your life to feel like you can have both great work and a great life. The sacrifice that most people make comes when they aren’t executing the two things we just shared which is your spiritual path as well as sustainable ways of working. I have really rounded the corner on both of these in my own life, which give me so much more energy to focus on how to show up well and to do the things that I know I’m capable of doing for a sustained amount of time. Parenting, growing a business, corporate work, volunteering and consistently working out and sleeping well. Those don’t come without some decisions and level of effort created by a knowing that I am choosing this life and that my spirituality and health matters.

Ask yourself how spiritual you really feel and if you believe that the way you work is truly sustainable, and you’ll know the answer to why you might be unhappy at work. You don’t have to be unhappy at work and you can be the outlier among the people you know who are resigned to a life where they don’t feel fully engaged. You can be more interested, committed and healthy while creating impact in the world. The beautiful thing is the more you do this, the more it helps the people around you see that you’re the one that they want to follow. A win win for both.

If you’re ready to Own Your Best Life, I want to invite you to watch the free training on how to Stand Out and Lead, using spiritual, high-performance strategies: STAND OUT AND LEAD.

You can then apply to join my Spiritual Achiever® program, where you’re going to create your next chapter with spiritual and high-performance strategies to achieve time and financial freedom using my proven method. It’s risk-free. You either start seeing results within your first month or I give you your money back. Schedule your call here at www.mayempson.com/contact.  We’ll see you inside.

Want to know more about what happens when you join?

1. When you join Spiritual Achiever® Coaching you’ll be supported for a full year: Career Revelation Academy: A 5-step career change process (if you have a job you want to stay in, I’ll show you how to love it even more) that can launch you into your next career chapter in 30 days.
2. 2x/month group training and coaching on Spirituality, Achievement, Earth Energy and Harmony. You’ll know how to design your days for breakthroughs, create a personal brand and community, lead yourself and others through change, become more physically and mentally fit, reduce stress and reinvent what’s possible in this next chapter of your life.
3. Discover your Leadership Strengths and Branding Workshop: Increase your awareness of what makes YOU different from others and how to become even better at your genius zone.
4. Your Best Year workshop: Create your one year plan and design this next year, no matter what time of the year it is.
5. Your Next 5 Years one-day virtual retreat: Vision what’s possible 5 years from now and break out of your old routines so you can step into new habits, behaviors and routines.
6. Tickets to all in-person Spiritual Achiever retreats (discounted rates): Highly immersive and intimate gatherings where we spend time in nature, experience energy work, eat and move well – all while making big decisions and committing to what’s next for us.
7. Monthly 1:1 Coaching Sessions: To help you break through obstacles, define your individual path, and to work on both strategy and mindset.

The next step?

Schedule a consultation to get clarity on how coaching can help you on your journey.

Once you’re accepted into the program, you’ll receive a calendar invite for a 2-hour deep dive 1:1 session to map out your personal goals and your own year-long journey.

You’ll have immediate access to the Spiritual Achiever process and philosophy – how to achieve your biggest goals and reinvent your life.

You’ll have immediate access to 5 modules of Career Revelation Academy – to love your career even more and launch that next chapter of your career in 30 days.

You’ll have the calendar invites for the upcoming group calls and retreats.

If this speaks to you, I can’t wait to talk to you live: Schedule a consultation.

Reach out at www.mayempson.com/contact for more information on my Spiritual Achiever coaching program. You’ll figure out what’s next and actually go and do it. 

That’s it for this week. Have an amazing one and I’ll talk to you next time.