Breaking Work Journal

Michael Gardon

You're least happy in your 40's and I know why.

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Hey Reader,

I came across this chart last week:

I was shocked, but it also makes a ton of sense.

Why your 40's are so hard

On the surface, your 40's seem like they should be the best of times:

• Peak earning years
• Still have your health
• Kids are growing up

Yet below the surface, your 40's carry a ton of tension:

• More meetings and responsibilities
• Demands that never stop
• Expense of kids
• Aging parents
• Confronting your own mortality
• Questioning the impact you've had in your career

You start to feel the clock ticking faster and faster.

Ray Dalio calls this the squeeze decade, and it breaks a lot of people.

What's going on?

From my perspective your 40's are when you become trapped.

Trapped between "who you are" today, and "who you always wanted to be."

Midlife triggers a bunch of psychological accounting. You can't avoid it. The clock forces your body to reconcile and compare what you've done (your past) to what you are likely to do (future).

This is some heavy stuff, and when it's done unconsciously it feels like:

• unfulfillment
• burnout
• demotivation
• shame

We're forced to come to grips with a fundamental question:

"Am I using my time and gifts to their best use?"

Sadly, most answer no - I certainly did.

What to do about it

You can't "manage" through this issue. The only thing you can do is design for it, head on. Here's what I mean.

1.Create space

Start blocking off time to really get into the weeds of what is going on, what you want and who you want to be.

This can't be done randomly thinking about it for 5 minutes between meeting or shuffling kids to activities.

Start with an hour every Friday (that's what I did). I called it "Future Friday."

2. Decide who you want to be and why

Pour that time into painting a compelling future of who you want to be, how you want to work and what you want to achieve. This is a reckoning moment to use to your advantage.

3. Inventory your Uncopyable Advantages now

You're good at many things, and you've built a career using your trained skills. BUT, part of the problem you feel is "not using my gifts to their fullest potential."

By getting a true, unbiased view of your most impactful advantages, you can begin seeing HOW you can use those for greater impact, purpose and wealth building.

4. Design your fulfillment path

ONLY when you have a vision and your true Advantages, can you design a high odds work path to greater fulfillment and purpose.

The truth is there are infinite ways for you to do this - your vision and your Advantages clarify which paths are high odds and which ones are not.

This could be a business you create, OR it could be clarity on a much more aligned and sane career in a different field.

The process is the same.

Case Study (Application)

My recent client James is mid 40's, 3 kids and a full time job in technology.

Problem

He's frustrated with the demands of his current line of work and wanted to get clarity on what he was world class at and how he could build a more Self-Directed career by leveraging his talents.

He had a side hustle that was small, and he was discounting it's potential and questioning his alignment with it.

Solution

James created his "perfect week" calendar, then started blocking off chunks of time at work. He immediately got a sense of control over his work life.

He developed a powerful vision for himself, which he reads and connects with every day.

Through Advantage Mapping, he understood that he's a systems thinker and a problem solver at heart. He connected his "problem solver" Advantage to his current side hustle and he decided to pour more effort into designing systems to grow that business, while handing off the execution to others.

Now

James just had is biggest revenue month ever, and is running "experiments" right now to unlock even more leverage in that business.

We're now working on branding, messaging and sales systems to take that business to the level he can BREAK his corporate job for good!

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You can do it too, just step into your 𝘄𝗵𝘆 and let go of needing to know 𝗵𝗼𝘄.

Light that 🔥,

Mike
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Michael Gardon Founder, Rejoin Coaching Host, Breaking Work Podcast​ Author, Breaking Work Journal​

Want to take your shot? I help unfulfilled and burned out professionals break free from the corporate chains and build Self-Directed businesses without quitting their jobs (yet). Step 1: Watch this video and see if it hits in the right places ;) Step 2: Book your free call (no pitches. No sales. Just for you.)