So many of us are unfulfilled at work and yet we continue with status quo because we don’t know what to do about it, aren’t sure we can do anything about it, and wonder if we shouldn’t just feel grateful for what we’ve got.
And yet this lack of fulfillment is making us miserable, ruining our confidence and affecting our health and relationships. We are burning out, spiritually.
Regular burnout is caused from burning the candle at both ends. Spiritual burnout is caused by living out of alignment with who we truly are. It’s something that we don’t give much credit to, even though it can seriously affect our lives and has similar symptoms to typical burnout.
Leah Tenove from Mortar and Mortar (which sells handcrafted accessories for your home made of pure concrete and inspired by simple, practical design) experienced spiritual burnout before she realized it was time to make a change.
She shared some of her insights with me about how she bounced back from spiritual burnout and is now living a life that lights her up.
“I thought about quitting every day, multiple times a day. I'd cry on my lunch break in my car, I'd cry on my way home from work. I was so tired after a day of work. Not tired from thinking too hard about the job itself, but from constantly feeling like I had to pretend to enjoy work,” Leah describes.
By not doing what she loved most - making things with her hands - Leah experienced an ongoing identity crisis with no sense of who she was or who she wanted to be.
“I tried the 'fake it till you make it' mantra for 4 years but the “make it” never came. I was just faking it. Not so much in the job, but in who I truly was.”
Leah also experienced a sense of guilt, as most of us do when we feel unfulfilled, because on the outside we know we “have it pretty good” and feel pressured to just be happy with what we’ve got.
Leah realized it was time to make a change when she suddenly lost a friend, which put things into perspective. It was a shock to realize that she had been unhappy for two years. Knowing that she ultimate had control over the situation that was causing her so much misery motivated her to make a change.
Leah finally decided to just take a leap and leave her job without the plan she thought she needed.
“The biggest roadblock for me was thinking I needed to have everything figured out before I quit. I know now that this isn't realistic. A general plan is smart, but if you plan it out too much you'll miss opportunities along the way.”
She invested in simple things she knew would make her feel good, like using her hands to make things and changing things in her house to make it a feel-good space. Reading, working out and making one small change after the next brought her to a place where she was proud of who she was and what she was doing.
Leah shared with me this quote from Oprah (and who better to take life advice from than Oprah!): "Do what makes you feel confident, contented and connected. Opportunity will rise to meet you."
If you are experiencing spiritual burnout and want to make a change, coaching can help you get unstuck faster and in a more supportive and tailored way than any other approach you’ve been trying, which is what makes it such a good investment.
If you aren’t ready to sign up, get the Get Unstuck Worksheet when you subscribe to my mailing list.
I know you can get to where Leah is today!
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