Your lifestyle?

As an evidence-based life-coach, one of the statements I often hear is this: I hate my job and I want to change but it pays well and I don’t want to give up my lifestyle.

This is curious to me.

I know that money means you can go to nice restaurants and travel to amazing places and invest in beautiful art and have a huge house and wear expensive clothes and buy the latest phone. But you work so much [and the people who most often say this to me are those in jobs demanding huge time commitments] that surely being in a role you absolutely hate and find soul-destroying is affecting your lifestyle too?

I think what is really going on is this: I hate my job but at least I have money that allows me to [try and] compensate for the way I make that money. The alternative is unknown. I could leave and get a role that I hate just as much but not be paid massive amounts and that would be worse.

I get that.

I also know that it is possible to have a job you like and be paid reasonably for it. You might not be as richly rewarded but I would put my own money on this: if you’re happy and fulfilled, you won’t feel the need to compensate for the way you make your money so you will end up feeling just as financially satisfied and you’ll wonder how you ever managed to spend as much as you did. [Incredible!]

But I know you are smart and rational: in order to leave the high-paid-but-soul-destroying-job you need to be convinced that the alternative will be worth it. Right?

The thing is, it is highly unlikely that you’ll ever get to the point of being convinced if you rely on the traditional approach to career hunting. [That’s the very intellectual method that involves: deciding – based on very little real, lived experience, if not none at all – on a career end; working towards it; getting there and deciding it’s not right; repeating the faulty process.]

A better way to determine whether a career shift would be worthwhile is to take a far more practical approach, one that will give you real insight into a role that will actually suit you and satisfy you, long term.

Sound interesting? I’d love to help – to explain the process and help you find a career that will deliver and sustain a really [truly] great lifestyle.

Tags: life-coaching, Melbourne