Since I started the Help for the Helpers podcast, I’ve noticed a common thread amongst all of the awesome guests I’ve had the chance to interview. More often than not, they describe experiencing a reckoning – a moment in which the need to self-prioritize and make changes to their career paths became a necessity. Here’s some of the ways guests on the show experienced this event:
Their workplace no longer aligned with their personal values and they felt that they had to leave in order to preserve their integrity.
They had life circumstances that forced them to get creative and make work for themselves that went beyond the red tape of the helping professions.
They felt called to entrepreneurship and the desire to answer only to themselves, on their own terms.
They noticed themselves fading away due to burnout and stress.
They could no longer afford to give of themselves from a place of scarcity, and so began to research how to cultivate financial abundance.
They saw gaps in the work that was being done in their area of expertise, and chose to fill the holes in themselves, in new and innovative ways.
In all of these instances, the guests on the podcast came to a place where they wanted and needed more. In that moment, they all made the choice to go after what they needed – often, by inventing entirely new ways of doing things. They went rogue.
These are some courageous humans. But they’re also everyday helpers. Their successes point to the fact that the things that we want are POSSIBLE.
We often think we need to be Better or More in order to level up. I don’t think this is usually the case. We don’t need another degree, or more expertise or years of experience, or more charisma or clout. To make what we want a reality, what we really need is vision, a little bit of motivation and discipline, and the belief in ourselves that it’s possible.
As the podcast guests prove each week, there are ways to navigate around and through the trickiest of challenges. Yes, all of the reasons that we feel limited are valid and need to be acknowledged – but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t more for us. We can start our own businesses, or work for a company with a mission we celebrate, or earn more than enough to care for ourselves and take care of our debts, or have enough time in our schedules to work AND take care of our families AND have friends, or create a lifestyle that fosters physical and mental health. We can form our lives into the shape that we want them to be.
I’m interested in hearing about the thing that you want to create for yourself. What’s holding you back? How can you innovate a solution to that problem?
