Feeling alone trying to figure life and work out? Listen here to find out you are not alone.
Do you feel like you are the only one who is struggling to figure out a way to manage your time, your energy and/or your money at work or at home? You are not alone. In this week’s podcast I share with you the stories of 5 clients, all successful entrepreneurs and humans, who felt isolated, alone and “terminally unique” in their struggles. I share these stories because I want every hard working professional to know they are not alone and to assure you there is help out there to guide you through this tough spot. I promise.
“Terminally unique” is a phrase I borrowed years ago because it so perfectly describes what we all feel when life is unfair or unexpectedly tough. It refers to our subconscious mindset when we say to ourselves, “nobody gets what I am going through”, “nobody understands why this is so tough or unfair” and/or “there isn’t a viable or good solution to my problem because my circumstances are so different from everyone else” i.e., I am Terminally Unique so nobody understands and therefore I can’t be helped.
I want to help you stop feeling like you are terminally unique because it is not true. Yes, life can be terribly unfair and sometimes we have situations that are so tragic or so difficult that we convince ourselves that nobody else can possibly imagine our pain. I also agree that sometimes life is simply so awful that it’s hard to fathom anyone else having the sympathy or empathy we need to help us through our situation. I am here to tell you there are more people than you think who have been through something similar, and oftentimes they are more than happy to share how they made it to the other side.
Simon Sinek asks us what is our “Why”. What do we work for? About 15 years ago I started hearing stories from smart successful people about how they were struggling to manage important time, energy and money frustrations at work and at home and how they felt isolated and alone in admitting their struggles. At the same time I felt alone myself in trying to be a full time working mother, wife/partner, volunteer because I was surrounded by white, upper middle class, educated women who had decided they didn’t have to work outside the home and I had no friends in Minneapolis who were struggling with the same parenting, partnering issues as I was. I convinced myself that no one would understand or have a way to help me because my situation was…. you guessed it…. terminally unique.
I vowed then to build my business on the foundation of my purpose (later on I understood this to be my “why”) : I want people to know they are not alone in their struggles at work and at home and I want them to know there are people out there who can help them figure out a way through the tough stuff.
My hope is that by hearing these 5 folks share their struggles and how we worked together to find a solution that worked for them, you come to believe you are not alone.
We are all in this together. Let’s make it a great week by putting my stories, my strategy and my optimism #inyourbackpocket