By Julie Cohen, PCC
Is your to-do list full, yet you feel very little fulfillment? Are you always busy, yet bored? Do you wake up with all that you have to do churning around in your brain, while lamenting the lack of real challenges – the kind that excite you and utilize your strongest skills? Most of us feel this way at some point in our lives.
At work, you may be constantly fighting fires while never seeming to have time to focus on projects that engage you or add value to the business. Perhaps you are always busy doing your job, yet you never feel a sense of accomplishment. Maybe that excitement and energy you felt when you started your last job or project is a distant memory, obscured by the sense that you’re never getting important and meaningful work done.
In your personal life, the symptoms are different, but just as depleting. You spend your weekends running errands with little or no time for enjoyment, relaxation or leisure; you fly past friends while rushing from your child’s sports practice to his music lesson without a second to say hello; or you always answer, “how are you?” with “crazy, can’t talk!”
This pattern can feel daunting. The idea of greater fulfillment, professional engagement and personal satisfaction seems very far away when you’re reacting to your boss’s crisis or waiting in line at the grocery store at 8 p.m. after a long workday. Making a change seems impossible and you may believe you can’t do anything about it.
I believe you can. And, here’s a roadmap:
Identify The Cost
You are most likely aware of the benefits of a more fulfilling career and life, yet that hasn’t motivated you to change. Perhaps it’s time to take a ‘stick’ approach to tackle this challenge. Consider the cost of continuing to operate this way. It likely includes some of the following: increased stress, low energy, boredom, poor sleep, no time for self-care, low self-confidence, feeling stuck and questioning your past choices. These patterns are not sustainable and will lead to burnout.
Define Greater Fulfillment
Take some time out of your busy-ness and reflect back to when you felt more engaged and satisfied. What were you doing differently? What type of projects were you involved with? How were you spending your time? What impact were you having? What excited you? Now picture yourself six months from now, feeling that way. What’s going on? What looks different? Spend 15 minutes answering these questions and recording your answers. Be specific about what you would be doing and how you might be thinking differently. This is your fieldwork.
Pick One Action
Review your fieldwork. Come up with at least three actions you could take in the next week to move you toward that desired place of greater fulfillment and satisfaction. It could be anything that is relevant to you: spend 30 minutes reading a professional journal to connect with new trends in your field; brainstorm with a colleague about a new marketing idea you’ve had for weeks but never had time to pursue; call a client you’ve been out of touch with who might need your services; or schedule lunch with a friend who is at a new company doing work about which you’ve always been curious. Your list will be unique and reflect your interests and curiosities, and will actually make you excited about the possibility of pursuing any of them. Pick just one!
Schedule It
Now, put it in your calendar. Make an appointment with yourself (or with someone else) to do it. This is the act of commitment, and you may need to say no to something else to make it happen. If it’s in your schedule it will more likely happen and you’ll be less likely to cancel. Allow this appointment to be as important as any other professional or personal commitment that already fills your calendar.
Evaluate, Celebrate and Repeat.
You’ve taken the first step toward putting more fulfilling activities into your work and life. The final step is to evaluate the impact of that one small step. How did it make you feel? If it gave you even a small feeling of greater engagement, celebrate and repeat the process. Go back to your list and schedule another activity that is all about your fulfillment. Make this process a priority in your week so you don’t continually stay on occupied autopilot. Allow a small oasis of engagement in your week, and you’ll see beneficial results quickly.
Prologue
Guess how I wrote this article. I enjoy writing and getting my thoughts out to others, but it’s often the last thing I have time for when I need to support my clients, market my business, present workshops and be a mother, friend, partner and community member. So I carve out several 40-minute periods each week for writing. I put them in my calendar, and I commit to them. These little chunks of time add up to real engaging, satisfying results for me and my business. I hope you have similar success.
