Lost in Life? How to Find Your True Calling (Career Confusion) #612

Mentioned On Today's Show:
🤝 Many people feel lost in their career paths, regardless of age.
🤝 Balancing purpose and profit is crucial for long-term satisfaction.
🤝 Clarity often comes from taking action rather than waiting for the perfect moment.

Lachlan explores the confusion surrounding career choices, the impact of these choices on personal identity, and the balance between pursuing passion and achieving financial stability. He share personal experiences of navigating career transitions, the importance of resilience, and the need for clarity in decision-making, especially when considering family responsibilities. The discussion emphasises that every experience contributes to personal growth and that taking action is essential for clarity and progress.

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Career Confusion and Change
• 12:16 Embracing Growth and Balance
• 17:10 Creating Clarity and Action Plan

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The confusion of life. Choosing your career, what do you wanna do with your life? It's the question that we all get asked, especially when we leave school. But for many of us, the answer isn't clear, especially at 18. I was freaking out when I left school and I experienced that pressure that I needed to have it all figured out. I had no clue. I felt the pressure to have it figured out. I saw some people going off to university. From the outside looking in, it looked like they had it all figured out. But what I've learned over the years, they were in the same position as me. They just decided on something and it made me feel like something was wrong with me because I didn't know where I wanted to go. Everyone seemed to be moving forward, choosing their careers and making progress. Meanwhile, I was left wondering what the hell I wanted to do, even with today's episode. I recorded this a couple of hours ago and I was feeling a bit flat, so I decided to go hit a gym session to get my energy up, to feel a bit better, to clear my head, which has now made me more excited about redoing today's topic, because when I was writing this a couple of days ago, it was really at the top of my mind because I'd been speaking to so many men, as they were just now joining the academy and ranging from about 27 years old to 38. These blokes are setting careers with families some of them, not all of them and they're still experiencing this confusion, like whether it's around career or what they want to do, what hobbies they have, and I was excited to write this newsletter to share some personal experiences and some insights and perspectives that have helped me that I could potentially pass on to you, and maybe one of those aha moments. So, as we go into this, now that I'm feeling awesome after my gym session, I feel like I'm definitely going to bring a whole different energy here.

Speaker 1: 1:39

So growing up, there was this expectation not only, I guess, from my family, but from myself and society that I should have everything figured out early on. Parents worked hard and I always felt that same work ethic had to be present in me. People would constantly ask what are you going to do with your life? And every time I'd feel the pressure of needing to have an answer. I would remember just sitting there and like shutting down for a moment and ticking through every range of what will sound cool? What would impress them? What is going to make them go? This guy's got it figured out.

Speaker 1: 2:10

I was always trying to find an answer that was about other people and not necessarily what I wanted to do, and every time I made up a bullshit story I was burying part of who I wanted and even the idea that I could explore other things that maybe I was curious about or I was excited about, and I'm sure, as you're listening along, you may have experienced that as well. Deep down, I was still figuring it out, and I think I still am. Was I supposed to follow the traditional route or forge my own path? The weight of those expectations made me feel like I was constantly letting people down, even though I was still on my own journey of discovery. I chased interests that fascinated me personal training, football, overseas building, door knocking but I wouldn't say door knocking was something I found fascinating. It was just, I heard you can make good money, so I wanted to do that and ended up learning a lot of great skills network marketing but I always felt like I was falling behind because I was constantly changing and there was this underlying fear that if I didn't figure it out soon, I'd lose my chance at success. But I want to remind you guys and probably talk about it for myself.

Speaker 1: 3:13

The reason why I kept changing careers was because when I wasn't happy, I didn't want to just sit with it. I was so inspired by people who had been successful and people who I had read their books or had noticed they looked like they had their stuff together, their shit together, that I wanted to be in that position too, and I felt that if every moment I was sitting in a role that I didn't like or that was having a negative impact on me, I needed to change that. And the cool thing about that was and I can talk about it now, even though it was never the intent in the beginning was going through these different industries and these different roles, I learned different skills which have put me in the position I'm in today. Now I would love to be able to say I went into network marketing, door sales, building, carpentry, all of these sorts of things, because I wanted to learn that specific skill, because I knew, 10 years down the track, it would help me. That's not the case, but that's where I am at now.

Speaker 1: 4:04

So if you're younger, listen into that, maybe think about what skills you want to learn that will help you build the life that you want to live. Or if you're older and you're not happy, it's just like what interests you. And if you don't know what interests you, just do something different and you're going to get feedback. What's the worst that could possibly happen? Society often pushes this idea that success comes from sticking with one thing, grinding away and becoming an expert. Now, becoming an expert is something that I believe we should do.

Speaker 1: 4:31

However, the world has changed so much that the generations before us, where they did stay in their careers for 30, 40, 50 years, has now changed. Not only are employers seem to be just moving people on faster than ever, we also have a lot more opportunity, and I feel that, because we can learn, skill or knowledge is more readily available to us. We can actually just go through seasons where it's like there may be a season where you want to even for me right now sort of adjusting how my life is so that I can pursue these physical experiences that I want to challenge with the 58 marathons and what's to come after that, because I very much want to have those experiences and be able to tell those stories, which means I'm shifting how my life works and how my business works, whereas prior to that I was in carpentry because I was trying to survive, and then I got into network marketing because I was sold the dream that you could create financial freedom and stuff, and so all of these things have had different seasons and I've changed. So as much as I felt like I'm falling behind because I'm constantly changing, I do think there's some benefit in looking at where you are currently at in your life and the situation and adjusting your career based on that and based on what's important to you at that point.

Speaker 1: 5:40

What happens when you're unsure of what you want? When you switch careers? It can feel like a step back. I've had that feeling constantly over the last 15 years. Every time I moved from one role to the next, I thought I was losing ground. It wasn't just a career shift. It felt like I was losing my identity.

Speaker 1: 5:56

The frustration of not knowing where I was headed hit hard, especially when I looked at my friends advancing in their careers, you know, to the point where everyone was finishing university and I was still like scratching my head, going what on earth am I going to do? It impacted my confidence massively, my relationships and even my mental health. I questioned myself constantly am I falling behind? Am I building something or am I wasting time? I would still remember when we'd go for a steak with my mates who'd just finished university. Some of them were going into law work as lawyers, some were doing their extra stuff as doctors or some had bricklaying businesses, and I would be sitting at the table and just listening to the challenges that they were having or the excitement of moving into that next phase of their career and I was still really doing odd jobs, trying to figure it all out. That really hurt. I really felt like a fucking loser, to be honest, because I didn't know what I wanted. I guess hindsight's a great thing where I now have a lot more experience than most people, and now that it's almost coming full circle and I guess this is why, potentially, midlife crises may happen because people sacrifice so many other experiences when they set themselves on one thing Now in some situations that works out really well for people.

Speaker 1: 7:07

But I know there's a number of you listening to this who have found yourself in a career and in a role where you're like I mean, I need to shake it up, but I don't know what shaking it up looks like. One defining moment for me came during a conversation with a mentor. He told me Lachlan, every experience you're having is preparing you for something bigger. Now, when you don't have too many experiences, you sort of take that with a grain of salt. But looking back, I'm like those words could not have been truer. You may not see it now, but trust the process. And this conversation stuck with me for years and, although it didn't immediately remove the doubt, it gave me a different perspective. Right, I realized that every role, whether it was personal training, network marketing or construction, was teaching me valuable lessons that I could carry forward.

Speaker 1: 7:49

And now, after years of working on myself, I'm still asking the question am I doing enough? Yes, I love what I do, but sometimes I get stuck between helping people with their fitness or with their mindset and I know I can help people. But when you are, I guess, unsure with the direction that you want to take your business, it impacts your earning potential and your ability to grow. And the doubt still lingers because there's a little bit of confusion. You may be sitting there going lucky, like mindset's linked with fitness and vice versa. Of course it is.

Speaker 1: 8:17

But when you're delivering a service or creating a product, it's very important to have a very specific outcome now, or a result that you can market to people, because marketing is what creates an emotion which leads to a sale, which leads to transformation. And if I'm constantly blurring the lines between how I help people with their businesses and their mindsets and relationships, they go are you a PT or like, what do you actually do? And that works well in one-on-one, because I can take the time to sit down and to find out what people want and really personalize that. But on a more broad and scalable landscape, when you're talking to a group, that's a little bit harder. Then that's where it's very important to get clear on what outcome you're looking to deliver. And so, from a fitness standpoint, people go oh, he's a fitness guy, easy. But I really gravitate to the mental health and to the life improvement stuff. But that's where it's been getting a little bit murky, okay, and I'm not going to sit here and say I've got the solution for that now, because I'm still figuring that one out. And that's where I guess the academy works really well, because I do get to get on the phone with people and help them set their goals and we've got people from focusing on fitness to finance, to health, marriage all of that sort of stuff which I really enjoy, and I guess that's why it's my favorite program that we are working on at the moment.

Speaker 1: 9:28

One of the biggest challenges I face is balancing my desire to help people with the reality of needing to provide for my family. So I've always been passionate about helping others live better lives, but at times it feels like I'm choosing between doing what I love and generating enough income. There have been many nights when I wondered if I should just focus on scaling the business and leave my deeper purpose behind, but then I remind myself that purpose and profit don't have to be mutually exclusive. I just need to find the right approach, and that could take time. Thinking about starting a family with my wife has shifted my entire perspective. I no longer just think about what I want. I think about the kind of life that I want to create for my wife and for our future children.

Speaker 1: 10:08

There was a moment when I sat down with my wife and we had an honest conversation about our future, and it wasn't just about my business anymore. It was about ensuring that we had the financial security, a stable home and the freedom to raise a family without the financial stress. And that conversation lit a fire under me, not only to grow my business, but to build the life that we could be proud of. And up until that point I thought I had been doing that. We've been living an awesome life traveling around the world. Money's never really been an issue. If I were to be honest with myself and say, could that still be attained if we had extra responsibilities, it probably couldn't. And that was a tough pill to swallow because I'm like, okay, well, maybe I've been building this. I wouldn't say I've been building it wrong. It's just now.

Speaker 1: 10:49

The way that I built it has to adapt and evolve for this next chapter. See, things can change quickly and I can't just think about myself anymore. We may move to a single income household for a while and I need to be prepared for that. I need to be more consistent with my revenue streams, not just a cycle of selling and then serving, which is what we do in the academy, when we open it up for a couple of weeks at the end of every quarter and then we start a new quarterly intake and then we continue doing that. So it's almost like sell, serve, sell, serve, sell, serve. While my business offers flexibility, it's not to the level that I want or need for our future.

Speaker 1: 11:23

So for the longest time I resisted the idea of systems because I thought they would restrict my freedom. And it sounds stupid saying this, because I do have some systems, and systems that serve a purpose to run the business, but there's not systems that I am not involved in, and so I've systemized the things that I'm involved in, not systemized the things that I'm not involved in, which means if I'm not there, they're not working. Is that a system? Maybe not, maybe not, but I've come to realize that systems are the only way to create a consistent result. I remember the stress of launching a program and realizing that I didn't have a steady stream of leads coming in, so it was hard to continue upselling and scaling the business and helping more people. It felt like I was constantly or always scrambling, trying to sell while serving clients, and I knew something had to change. The more I've learned about building systems, the more I've seen how they can free me up to focus on what I love helping people while still growing the business.

Speaker 1: 12:16

In my journey I've been very fortunate to have some incredible role models, and one of the most influential figures was a coach that I worked with early on. He showed me the power of resilience and how important it is to stay adaptable in business and in life. And little spoiler, I will be having him on the podcast over the next couple of weeks as well, so I'm very excited to have Troy back on there. So watching him balance his family life while running a successful business that involves a lot of travel gave me the belief that I could do the same. I've learned that the key is not perfection, but progress, taking consistent steps forward even when it feels like you're not moving fast enough.

Speaker 1: 12:51

I also struggle with how I see myself. For some reason, I attach, not shame. Shame is probably not the word I attach. I need to think about this a little bit more, because I had written shame here and now that I'm reading it out, it's not the right word, but to be the being the idea of personal trainers. Now it's interesting. When I view personal trainers and I see the life, the results that they're doing for people, I'm blown away and I think it's.

Speaker 1: 13:19

I feel like everyone should have a personal trainer, but there's something for me where I feel like, if that's all I am, I haven't lived up to my potential and I'm going to speak this out loud because I definitely don't believe that. But I think for me, I have such a high expectation on it, and this is where I get confused. This is probably what brings the confusion sorry into what I was talking about earlier around shifting between personal training and then like life and business coaching, because I sometimes fall into the trap of feeling that if I'm working on people's business and families or life as a whole, that's a bigger problem to solve than just the fitness. But the fitness is such a key and core component that it needs to be addressed before any of the other stuff can be. So I'm going to not say that I feel shame that's probably the wrong word but I feel like I haven't lived up to my potential. So I want to keep growing that perspective.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Now I'm not sure if I just want to be labeled as a coach. As I said, I love the fitness sides of things and I love life coaching, but I feel like I'm just here for something so much bigger and I'm still trying to figure out what that is. That's where my life confusion comes in, because I know people see my life and the travel that I get to do and how fulfilling it is, and the adventures that I have, and I'm super grateful for that. But there's still this internal fire burning to continue growing and to continue exploring what else is out there and I hope for those of you who can resonate you don't settle for that. You continue to grow and stretch and strive and sometimes you're going to make mistakes, like I could make mistakes moving forward from here, but I just know within that I have to do that to feel good about myself.

Speaker 1: 14:46

As I think about the future, especially with a family mind, my focus has shifted. My ideal business would bring in you know X amount a year, mainly online, so I would have the flexibility to be a present father and also a supportive husband. I don't need to build this legacy business that I thought I had to. My legacy is how I show up as a dad, as a husband and as a friend, but to do that I need financial flexibility, in my opinion, the ability to earn while still being available. I picture the future often. I imagine waking up and having the freedom to spend the mornings with my kids and taking them to school and being there for every moment. I see myself working on my business in a way that doesn't drain me but energizes me, knowing that I'm providing for my family without sacrificing quality time that we have together. That's a life that I'm continuing to build and while it's what drives me to put in the work and put it in now so that I can enjoy the balance later.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Do not want to undermine that. I am living a great life now, but just with the reality of where I'm at, I know that I need to step it up. So that's why I'm sort of going between like I'm not there yet, but I'm also very grateful for where I am, and I'm sure a lot of you can relate. You're definitely content with where you're at and you're grateful for where you're at, but maybe there's something more. Maybe you're ready to continue to expand and continue to stretch what's possible.

Speaker 1: 15:58

So, if you're in that similar situation, here's a few things that I've learned. The struggles, the shifts, the confusion they've all contributed to a deeper understanding of what I value most. You know, I'm grateful for the opportunity to grow, both personally and professionally, and I'm thankful for the support systems around me. That has encouraged me to keep growing, even when things get tough. I've learned that resilience isn't just about grinding endlessly. It's about knowing when to adapt. It's about taking action that aligns with what matters most For me, that's my family, and I want to create something that provides for us, not just financially, but in terms of time, flexibility and peace of mind.

Speaker 1: 16:32

If you're in a similar situation, questioning whether you're enough or whether you're doing enough, remember that clarity comes from taking action. I've spent too much time and too long, second-guessing myself and doubting my ability to grow my business, but now, with the responsibility of a family on the horizon, I'm ready to step up, and you can do the same. If you're feeling the weight of responsibility, whether it's for your family, your future, I challenge you to take the step forward. Maybe it's time for you to revisit your priorities and build new systems that allow you to grow. Whatever it is, don't wait until you feel ready. Start now. Take the action that your future self is going to thank you for. The journey might be tough, but clarity comes from movement. Let's move forward together.

Speaker 1: 17:10

And, gents, I'm opening up the wait list to the Life Design Blueprint, which is going to be a four-week program. It's going to be $200. It will be run weekly. Live with me Now. The purpose of the Life Design Blueprint is to help you gain more clarity and understanding around what you want and then get you towards creating the plan to move forward, which, once again, if you get a great plan and you have, I guess, a battle plan ready to move forward I'm going to invite you to enjoy the academy where we help you action that when the next intake's open. My name's Lachlan Stewart. As always, do something today to be better for tomorrow. See you on Monday's episode.