Lessons from a Quitter

This week on the podcast, I have my former student, Lisa McFadden. From a young age, Lisa knew she wanted to be a writer but let other people talk her into a more stable career path. Burnt out and at her wits' end, she was absolutely miserable when she signed up for my 6 month program. During the program, Lisa had a major a-ha moment that changed her life completely. Since finishing the program, she has resigned from her corporate job, moved states and started her own coaching business helping writers overcome writer's block and develop their own process. Most importantly, she's overcome her own writer's block and is able to make a living doing what she loves. Lisa claims my 6 month program changed her life, listen to the episode to find out how. Find Lisa here: Instagram: @TheWritersMindset Facebook: Lisa McFadden Website: Lisa McFadden Film

Anxiety seems to be more present in our modern lives than ever before. But I think that is partly due to the fact that we fundamentally misunderstand anxiety, which prevents us from reducing it. In this week's episode, I break down what anxiety actually is and what steps to take to help you manage it.

This week I want to talk to you about finding your purpose. Most of us have this notion that there is one purpose to our lives and we should be deeply fulfilled and if we're not, then something is wrong. So we go out and try to find our purpose, but how do you even know if you've found it? This week, I explain the problem in finding your purpose and offer my thoughts on how to reframe this major issue.

This week, we're talking about self-trust. This is the foundation of where our self-confidence comes from. And, yet, along the way, we adopted the false belief that we can't trust ourselves. So we run around asking everyone else to make decisions for us, hoping they have the answer. Because if it doesn't work, now we have someone else to blame. I don't have to tell you that is a terrible plan. And it only comes from a lack of self-trust. So this week, we're diving into how we build up that self-trust again and put an end to the blame/shame cycle.

One of the biggest misconceptions about quitting is that you can only do it if you're miserable.

After all, if it's not terrible, why leave?

Don't be ungrateful. Other people would kill for this job.

Don't risk all of the uncertainty, regret, and judgment.

Suck it up.

And if these are the thoughts you're operating under, you're going to sabotage your own life in an attempt to have an "excuse" to quit.

You'll start focusing on all the terrible things about your situation.

You'll complain about it non-stop to your co-workers, spouse, friends…hell, anyone who will listen.

You'll refuse to find ways to be happy exactly where you are.

You'll start snowballing everything that is wrong in order to justify leaving.

Here's the truth: You don't need any justification.

You get to quit just because you want to.

Even if everything is ok.

Because you want growth.

Because you want new adventures.

Because you want to try something else.

In fact, that is the BEST place to quit from.

Because you're not doing it out of desperation.

Because you know you could be happy either way.

Because you're not waiting for some new circumstance to make you happy (spoiler alert: it never will long term)

So if you're putting off your own happiness because of the hope of changing your situation, stop.

Make yourself happy exactly where you are.

And then decide to quit because you want to.

This week on the podcast I go more in-depth about how to view quitting so you can still be happy where you are.

This week, we're going to dive into how we can take 100% responsibility for our lives. Even when we've been dealt a bad hand, even when things aren't turning out the way we wanted, even when other people won't just act the way we think they should. Ultimately, only you are responsible for your own happiness. If that triggers you into wanting to resist or reject this notion, then today's podcast is definitely for you. This is the hardest work I've ever done but it has been life-changing and I want to share it with you.

This week I want to talk to you about how you view your work and why it matters. If you've been around for a bit, you know that life is always 50/50 and that's true about work too. Your thoughts create your reality and impact your experience. So many of us are adding to our own unhappiness simply because of our own expectations. Today we dive into why that is and what we can do about it.

This week's episode is a replay of Episode 60: How Peter Glatz Quit His Dental Practice At 65 To Start a Second Career In one Of America's Best Restaurants.

How many times have you wanted to start over? How many times have you started thinking about the possibilities only to follow them up with the thought, "but it's too late in my life to do this"? If you're human, then you've probably had this discussion with yourself a million different times, and that's okay, we all have those moments. However, even though you may feel like it's too late to start over, it doesn't mean that it is.

Today's guest, Peter Glatz is essentially the holy grail when it comes to that myth. At 60 years old, Peter left his dentistry career of over 40 years in order to pursue cooking. He began his journey into the culinary world by reaching out to well-known chefs offering to work for free! (Who says you have to immediately start making money off of something you love? Just start!).

Listen to how his journey led him to eventually landing a dream job as a link cook at Nonesuch in Oklahoma City, Bon Appetit's 2018 Best Restaurant in America. Despite working long, 12 hour days at a physically taxing job, Peter has never been happier.

I love so many things about his story. There are so many people who count themselves out when they reach a certain age because they believe it's too late for them to pivot their path. But Peter's story is really a testament to the fact that there is always time to try something new! Not only that, but he didn't let his lack of formal experience stop him from feeling confident enough to reach out to those well-known chefs. There are just so, so many wonderful lessons to learn from Peter and his journey.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• How it's never too late to start over.
• How if you want something different you should do something about it.
• Why you should create a vision and then take action.
• And so much more!

This week's episode is a replay of Episode 31: How Shinah Chang quit the straight path of law for Crooked Calligraphy. And stick around for an update from Shinah at the end!

Shinah is a whiskey-loving, curse-word slinging, Harvard-trained former corporate attorney who left everything behind to find her passion. Shinah spent her entire life on the straight, "proper" path. She went to an Ivy League college, then a prestigious Law School, then worked her butt off as a corporate attorney for a big international law firm. But, after one too many days of uninspiring work and nights of sleeping under her desk, she decided she wanted to reclaim her life! She quit her job and explored so many creative avenues - knitting, woodworking, drawing, graphic design. But CALLIGRAPHY is what she fell in love with.

Shinah needed plenty of inspiration along the way, but the usual sugary, sincere stuff about beauty and dreams didn't reflect what she was really feeling. So she created Crooked Calligraphy to spread creativity, courage and honest, gritty life inspiration through calligraphy.

Crooked Calligraphy has worked with huge brands like Disney, Anthropologie, Jo Malone, and Dom Perignon, but Shinah's favorite work is teaching calligraphy and encouraging her students to look their fears in the face and move toward a life that will make them happy.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• How she spent her childhood working towards the predictable path to "success" including getting a 1600 on her SATs and getting into Harvard
• How affirmation and praise can become a drug that keeps you in doing things you hate
• How she started realizing that she wanted to quit her job as a corporate lawyer and what steps she took before quitting
• How she quit law without having any idea of what to do next
• What she did in order to figure out what her next steps would be
• The importance of exploration and experimentation in finding your passions
• How she found calligraphy and how it turned into a business
• How she figured out her unique brand and voice with Crooked Calligraphy

As we're coming close to the end of 2021, I spend this episode doing a recap of my year. While we tend to wait and start the new year with goals and resolutions, I'm excited to share the goals I've set for myself (that I started on a random day in December). As always, I want you to see that you can set big goals and not meet them but still accomplish something along the way. I hope my year is an example of how you can make small changes and still see growth. Happy New Year!