How to Feel Lit Up, Without Blowing Everything Up

Do you ever feel like you're just checking boxes on some invisible life spreadsheet? You graduated from the right school, got the prestigious job, earn the big paycheck - but still, something feels off.

You glance at your resume and see every milestone you were "supposed" to reach. It looks good on paper. Impressive even. But if you're brutally honest with yourself, you don't feel much passion for the daily grind anymore.

So you throw yourself into the next promotion, the next assignment, the next logical step forward. Hoping that will ignite the spark you've been missing. But it doesn't.

You're left wondering - is this really all there is? There has to be more to life than just building the perfect resume, right?

What if you could make a shift? Not a wild, dramatic reinvention (though that's always an option!). But a subtle change that helps you find a little more meaning and purpose in your day-to-day work.

What if you could rewrite the tired narrative that says you must stick to the straight and narrow career path, no deviations allowed?

What if you gave yourself permission to not just build your resume, but start building your life?

Recently, I had the privilege of speaking with acclaimed Karen Wright, Master Coach about how we can expand our vision of success beyond titles and achievement to more purposeful pursuits that light us up. Karen emphasized that while it may seem risky to pivot from a traditional career trajectory, aligning your work with your true strengths, interests and Sparketype? is incredibly rewarding.

Imagine being able to approach your job with a sense of playfulness and possibility, knowing that you have an opportunity to do work that energizes you every single day. What would that feel like? Here are 4 insights from our conversation that can help you get there:

1. Listen to your gut.?

When facing a new career opportunity, don't ignore any emotional dissonance or inner resistance - even if it seems like a logical next step. Making decisions with both your head and your heart takes courage, but it's essential. Don't ignore that tightness in your chest or sinking feeling in your stomach if something doesn't feel right. Your intuition knows you better than any job description ever could.

2. Start small.?

Radical career reinvention isn't always required to reclaim meaning. Try making subtle shifts in your current role before pursuing major disruptive change. You may find that slight adjustments bring you closer to the feeling you seek. If you're craving change, consider tweaking your schedule, responsibilities, or work location first. Transfer to a new department, adjust your hours, work remotely a few days a week. Small changes can add up to big fulfillment.

3. Rewrite stale stories of success.

?Let go of limiting assumptions about what a career "should" look like. Your capacity to achieve traditional standards shows that you have untapped potential to pursue work that genuinely excites you. Don't be afraid to diverge from the expected career trajectory if it doesn't light you up inside. Fulfillment often lives outside your comfort zone. Your purpose is waiting to be uncovered.

4. Discover your Sparketype? and build around it.

Your Sparketype is your unique imprint for work that energizes and excites you, gives you a sense of purpose, meaning and passion, and lets you lead with joy. You can discover the 3 key elements of your Sparketype for free, just complete the Sparketype Assessment . Knowing this will give you so much more clarity and understanding around what kinds of opportunities might fill you up or empty you out. It’ll help you diagnose why your current work makes you feel the way you feel, and figure out what to do in order to fix it.

The path to fulfillment rarely follows a straight line. But each small move towards aligning your talents and values with your work can help you build a life filled with passion, rather than just a resume.

If you're feeling that pull to find more meaning and purpose in your career, I invite you to listen to my full conversation with Karen on the SPARKED podcast. We explore this topic and much more. Discovering work that makes you come alive is within your reach - now is the time to take that first step. #careeradvice #careertransition #careertips

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To learn your Sparketype, check out the free Sparketype? Assessment .

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