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Shawn Buttner: everyone. Welcome to the Meaningful Revolution podcast. I am your host and certified high performance coach, Shawn Buttner. This is the podcast where we hope to inspire you to live a little bit more purposeful, a little bit more meaningful through hearing stories about what other people are doing or general topics on purpose.
And so today, when you're talking about. If it's not a hell yeah, it's a hell no. And this is such an important thing for feeling purposeful because so many times, and I'm not sure if you felt this way ever, but we settle in relationships. We settle in our careers, we settle in how we relate to our families and our communities and how we show up for in our lives.
And that. Oftentimes [00:01:00] leads to a life of restlessness or a fear of losing the what comfort we have. And it's really hard to be confident that you're moving towards your dreams, those big visions you have for yourself. That next level of abundance for your family, for your communities, for the impact you have out in the world.
And. It can be tricky when we have to shake things up, right? And I say this as someone that has quit corporate America twice in my, 40 years on this planet. first to start a business that failed, but then got me the second gig. So first main corporate gig after college was at Walmart as a software engineer and business analyst.
quit that to create a business helping people with student debt. Did that for about a year. That failed, but that work got me hired at Apple as a quality assurance engineer, software [00:02:00] engineer. And so that latter part, working for Apple was the dream, cutting edge technology.
Cool technology, stuff that a lot of people use. that company was really great at reminding you how important it was to have the best products ever. They really believed that, did the work to make sure that when something was released to the general public that it was the best that we could possibly make it.
So that in a nutshell was the dream tech job for me and. Something was missing. And I remember, I believe it's Steve Jobs that, and I'm gonna paraphrase here, basically said, find something that you love and something you're passionate about, something you'll fight for. and do that. And if you're not doing that right now, stop whatever you're doing and figure it out.
Because this idea [00:03:00] that we need to find our purpose, our mission, our passion, it isn't. So that everything is happy and stress goes away, and you could live, comfortable and easy for the rest of your life because that never happens, right? Regardless, if you choose to follow your dreams, create your dreams or not, right?
Make the choice to just do what you have to do to get by. There's going to be life that happens. There's gonna be things that you don't expect. That happen in the world or to your family or your group of folks, there's going to be things that you can't control in organizations and so on and so forth.
But if you have that fire in your belly, that passion to do your best, to push yourself to, to realize something bigger than yourself, you can weather those situations with more resilience, with more joy, with more. Progress and [00:04:00] growth and more impact with the community and the folks around you in my belief.
So how do you go from a great job like I had at Apple to giving that all up to start over, start another business, which is my coaching business, right?
Excuse me.
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let me tell you, it was not an easy choice. BEC again, because I had, I was getting paid pretty well, felt comfortable in a lot of areas of my life, but I didn't feel like I was serving and Really this is a video about how do you know when to let go, especially if it's of something great and that could be a great relationship that's not really working out for [00:05:00] you or a great job, great situation.
And that's something I help people out as a coach all the time. But, I really think that we often don't do this reflection work to make sure we know. We're chasing what we want and we're in that sweet spot of that passion, that drive that fire and making things happen for us. And also taking care of the obligations of family and whatnot that we have.
But if you want to go from that kind of, I wanna make this change and have this big thing that I'm chasing, but I don't know how to start, I don't know what I need to give up to get progress and momentum, cuz that's the other side, like sometimes. When we have a full plate, it's really hard to chase our dreams as quick as we want.
And so people will get really fed up about their sense of progress towards those big moves, those big strokes. [00:06:00] And ultimately people give up. People stop trying. People get beat down. People don't feel like they can fully show up as their authentic selves. And so we don't want that for you. So how do we go about it?
first thing I'll have you do is grab a journal and or if you're driving or not, out in the world listening to a podcast, then you know, please do this when you get back. But think of something that you've wanted to do for your dream that you haven't yet. And write that down. And that could be like, I know I wanna start a business, but I haven't looked into how to start an L C, or I really want to switch jobs into this new field of research or science or service.
And I just don't know the steps to go get to there from where I'm at. Or, I know that I feel okay in what I'm doing, but I know that when [00:07:00] I'm. Mentoring people. I know that when I'm working on this particular type of project that I feel more alive. Let me chase that. And so if you have that dream that, that vision, that thing out there in the world, that speaks to, you write that down and really then the second question becomes, what happens if you don't?
Start trying to make that happen more in your life. And I've had clients and friends who it's like, I just want to see my kid more because work, like work 80 hours a week if I don't set some boundaries. And so what happens when you don't set those palm trees? In that particular case. So what happens if you don't start that business?
What happens if you decide to play it safe for the next 30 years of your life? What's that gonna be for your life? So what's gonna happen if you don't make that change, if you don't start chasing it? [00:08:00] And again, if you are resonating with this and you're like, Hey, I am still stuck, or I need some extra help to progress even quicker.
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This is a great reason to talk to a coach. And so below this video, you can always sign up for a free one hour strategy session with me, and we'll go through the certified high performance process. So there are particular habits and outcomes that we'll talk through. We'll tailor it to your situation, what you're chasing, what you're going after.
A cheer you on, we'll brainstorm any problems you have. We'll come up with a plan you can implement immediately, and then after that we can talk about a coaching relationship or not. So that's, this is how I find new clients. So full disclosure there, but it's all about having a good fit. It's all about showing you the value of the coaching, and it's all about getting you that fantastic plan so that you get cooking, you get chasing, you get moving forward.
And yeah. And then we go from there, [00:09:00] right? But I ha wanna deliver that for you for free. So wherever you're watching or listening to this podcast, it's in the show notes. We'll, leave that link there. So fill off the application, schedule a time and we'll get on the horn and we'll figure it out. Okay.
Cool. okay. So first thing we had you do is write down something that you really wanted to do for your dream, but you haven't yet. Or, Trying, just trying to get clear on what that next thing might be if you have that dream. The second thing is what happens if you don't make that change? The third thing to ask yourself is like, what happens to your quality of life?
To how you feel about yourself, how you feel about your life, how others will look up to you if you make that change. And think about that, like that is such a powerful question for yourself. what happens if you do make that particular change? and this is really how we get over those fears of, I'm not gonna be [00:10:00] enough.
I'm not going to be able to be successful. This is really going to be a painful process. th this question helps. Combat some of that human psychology that says, we're not enough, we can't do this, we shouldn't do this. this is crazy, because a lot of times our brain's trained to focus on the negative and this is getting you focused on what is possible.
and then fourth, if you wrote a memoir so that others could learn from you, what would you love that story to be? And I love this question to wrap up. These, this exercise here that we should be doing every week, we should have some type of journaling practice. I feel like this is something that on a weekly or monthly cycle can really benefit you getting in and realizing that big vision you have for yourself.
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But what's so great about this is it's thinking about legacy. It's thinking about. How you as the hero of your own story, right? [00:11:00] And so when I left Walmart that first time, I, one of the questions that, that I really mold about over is if in the future I was talking to my kids and they're like, Hey, how was your career growing up?
How were you when you were in your twenties? And I could see at that point in my life that I could say I played it safe. I had an I, I had something in my heart that pulled me and I chose not to chase it, and ultimately it killed me. It led to a lot of, of pain and stress and misery because I knew deep down there was something else out there for me, and I wanted to see what would happen.
So was it a story of being safe? And that is okay too, but, or was it a story of taking a chance on yourself of trying to figure out who you are and seeing if he could do something great or do something crazy or do something, and make a mistake and so that was a [00:12:00] hugely motivating for me to make that change at that point in my career.
when it came to the choice to leave Apple, it was, I wasn't. I didn't have my whole heart in the work. I had, I was constantly thinking about my coaching clients. I was constantly thinking about how I could be a better coach. I was not thinking about how I could be a better programmer.
When I realized that was going on in, in my career and that particular moment in my time, it's okay, need to make a plan. We need to make a change because this is just causing a lot of friction in life that's unnecessary and it's not fair to the team I was on to. Apple as an organization at that point, and the mission that I wanted to serve, the vision that I had for myself and my wife and our family, it was, yeah.
So this is powerful stuff. I wanted in that instance too, to be the person who chose. To lean into [00:13:00] life, not what life expected of me, but after figuring out if we could swing it, what I think I could make and the positive impact I could have out in the world. And I want that for each and every one of you, right?
I think we all have that gift inside of us that we can realize that we'll be better for all everyone around us. That's what I mean when I say, if it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no. So follow your passion. Make a big move towards that big dream or vision you have for yourself. I know it can be scary.
You don't have to quit everything like I did. In, leaving corporate America twice, but you could start something on a side, an hour, a weekend, or however, whatever works for you, but you can get in the game. You could start making these moves. You could start feeling that sense of purpose again, that, that sense of optimism that your actions matter and can impact [00:14:00] your family, the people.
That are in your orbit, your, coworkers and teammates, like there's a lot, of people looking at you, looking up to you and looking at what you're doing. So why not do the things that are in your heart and chase them? So with that, I'll leave it to you guys next week. be here at the same time, same place.
So Shawn Buttner saying, live with more joy in your life, more personal growth, and more impact in your communities. See you then. Take care. (ending) [00:15:00]
