The 4 Keys to Extraordinary Results – Depth, Passion, Connection & Distinction

Ep: 224

In today’s society, statistics show that more than 60% of people are unhappy in their careers. People are spending over a third of their lives in environments that leave them feeling depleted, overwhelmed, and burned out.

If you fall into this category, then it’s likely that you feel a disconnect between your work and the way you live your life.

If you’re not leading with intention, you won’t find alignment. 

Today on The Bridge to Fulfillment®, Blake explains why true alignment can only come when you understand what your passions are, and how to adapt that to your unique lens on life. Career coaching allows you to Unlock Your Fulfillment Framework® and discover your Secret Sauce Transferable Skills™, allowing you to dig deeper into what type of work can really enrich your life and bring you happiness.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to create the life you want by finding the intersection between who you truly are and your passions. You’ll understand why going deeper is a necessary process in order to discover your unique skills and understand what’s holding you back.

If you’re ready to live a happier life and enjoy a career that’s more aligned with who you truly are, then this episode is for you. 

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why going deeper is the key to understanding (3:14)
  • The truth about following your passion (4:08)
  • The thread that connects successful, happy people (5:45)
  • Why most job seekers don’t end up finding the right job (11:00)
  • The only path to true happiness (13:27)

Favorite Quotes:

  1. We’re trying to solve problems with a bunch of band-aids, rarely getting to the root cause that will truly be able to create the change that we want in our lives.
  2. Being able to go deeper into something and have a passion, a desire, and a quest to learn is truly the key to happiness in every single avenue of your life in your career.
  3. Passion is truly a key piece to understanding the right path and alignment for you.
  4. When we don’t understand who we truly are, and we don’t embrace and appreciate it, we can’t live a life that allows us to really be fulfilled.

 


Additional Resources:

Rather than hoping the grass will be greener, identify what the RIGHT next step is.
We can help you do just that.

Get clarity on where you are on your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optional paths to get there, and the right next step to take.

Start your complimentary, Personalized Career Fulfillment Plan by going to https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan

Want free resources to set your job search up for success? You can get them by going to: https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/mistakes

For other programs and opportunities to work with Blake, go to www.BlakeSchofield.com

Transcript

Blake Schofield 0:05
Hi, I’m Blake Schofield, founder and CEO of The Bridge to Fulfillment®, mom to three, USA Today top 10 professional coach, and former corporate executive who got tired of sacrificing my life for a comfortable paycheck. My mission is to expand women’s perspectives and empower them to achieve greater impact at home and work without sacrifice. This is The Bridge to Fulfillment®.

Blake Schofield 0:38
You know, my whole life, people have always come to me, and some form of transition in their life, where maybe things that you expected to turn out one way went to another, maybe you’ve been going down a path for a long time, and all of a sudden, you really realize it’s just no longer fulfilling you. Or maybe you just get tired of pushing and taking action only to find that, right, the grass wasn’t greener, it didn’t really solve that problem. And I’ve been talking, actually having several conversations this week about how I continue to see the same pattern, that the lack of depth and truly stay surface level, is what constantly creates so many of the challenges in our lives.

Blake Schofield 1:30
I’ve often said this, and if you’ve been a listener to the podcast for a while, and if you have thank you so much. And if you’re new, you’ll hear it new today, which is that often I see that we’re trying to solve problems with a bunch of band aids, we’re very rarely getting to the root cause of things to truly be able to create the change that we want in our lives. And I see this really in almost every avenue, every industry every, honestly, every person I meet. And you can look at this and see this challenge and learning and then consuming more and more and more information. But actually it not changing or shifting who you are or what you do. We can see this in the job search where people are applying and just praying and praying as though I just say, applying to all these jobs, but not really understanding effective methods to align with the right role or position yourself in a way that really stands out.

Blake Schofield 2:35
And I also see this in our relationships. I see this in our life, I truly see it everywhere. And today, I’m going to try and connect the dots a little bit for you. So this is maybe going to be a little bit more of a theoretical conversation, my hope is to begin to sort of rattle the cage of it, maybe help you see some areas in your life where you aren’t going deeply enough and why we don’t do that and what you can do instead.

Blake Schofield 3:07
You know, I was thinking today and right before this podcast, I really wrote down a couple of words I wanted to talk about today, that depth truly is the way. Being able to go deep in something and truly have a passion and a desire and a quest to learn and an alignment around that is truly the key to happiness in every single avenue of your life and your career.

Blake Schofield 3:33
You know, there’s a lot of push pull out in society, people saying follow your passion, other people saying it’s terrible advice. And here’s what I would tell you, as somebody who has spent her life studying what makes people successful, why people are unique, why we lacked clarity, why we’re unfulfilled, the regrets people have at the end of their life, what is a purpose driven life. And what I’ve come to understand is that passion is truly a key piece to understanding the right path and alignment for you.

Blake Schofield 4:08
So many people confuse passion as something that’s connected with money. And I think that’s where again, we’re looking at this from a very surface level standpoint, that creates a lot of problems. Because the people that say don’t follow your passion are people that are fearful, they can’t make money at things they’re passionate at. And I’m going to tell you that’s just a straight up lie.

Blake Schofield 4:34
And the people that say passion is the key you just need passion, also aren’t understanding the full picture. Because true alignment comes from understanding what your passions are, but it also comes from understanding your limbs on life. Your natural way of working, your Fulfillment Framework®, your Secret Sauce Transferable Skills™, your unique wiring. Why and how you see the world. There needs to be a true connection to how you’re living your life on a day to day basis. That the life you’re leading truly feels like you’re creating it with intention, that the work that you’re doing has purpose and meaning behind it.

Blake Schofield 5:21
You know, Simon Sinek says find your why. Right, this is what he’s talking about, the elements of really being able to connect at a much deeper level. Because here’s what I know, I wrote down four words, depth, passion, connection, and distinction. And here’s what I’ve consistently seen across purpose driven people who are truly leading fulfilling lives. Across successful business people who have somehow tapped into work that they love. There’s a common thread, depth, passion, connection, and distinction. You know, in The Bridge to Fulfillment®, we really do dive deep, to truly understand who you are as an individual, what your Fulfillment Framework® is, the things you need in your career in life in order to truly be fulfilled and happy. What your Secret Sauce Transferable Skills™ are, what your natural way of working is. And where’s the intersection of all of those things, where there’s passion, there’s unique skills, there’s energy and momentum, and there’s a desire and a passion to learn and continue to learn. Because ultimately, those things enable a path and a life that’s fulfilling.

Blake Schofield 6:56
But most people never go nearly deep enough. We believe that these standardized tests are going to tell us the answer. Spoiler alert, they don’t. And I’ve had women come to me that have even spent 1000s of dollars on some of these tests. And then they’re disappointed that they aren’t going to solve their problem. Because here’s the thing. If you’re looking at yourself as a cookie cutter, “Oh, I’ll just take this test, it’s going to tell me the exact job to take. I’ll just take this test, and I’ll tell you exactly who I am”. You’re negating your own distinctions. You’re negating your unique gifts, skills, and perspectives. If you look at any truly successful entrepreneur in the world, they have a unique fingerprint, a distinction about who they are. Same thing, as you look at businesses, each business has a personality, in approach or unique stamp.

Blake Schofield 7:53
We have the keys that are showing us what it looks like to be successful. But as individuals, often we just don’t see it. And it’s very clear to me why we grew up in environments where we are told to quote unquote, fit in. We put our kids in schools where we teach them that you should be equally good at everything, you must get A’s and everything, we create standardized tests that we expect, right, everyone to ace. We teach by and large as if everyone learns in the same way. And then we create as a society, boundaries and challenges to actually leaning into who you are uniquely, we don’t celebrate what makes someone unique or special.

Blake Schofield 8:43
And often the things that are our unique distinctions, the things that really make us special, the things that enable us to see the world differently, or create different results in other people. Often, as children, we grow to wish that those things weren’t true of who we were. And so we have a society that waters everything down and wants to make everyone average, we have circumstances as children where when you’re unique or different, often that’s not accepted. And then we have the commonality of not appreciating, and sometimes in many cases wishing we didn’t have the gifts that we have. And so somehow through the journey we lose in understanding of who we really are, and what we’re really truly gifted at and what we’re passionate about, and the impact we want to make and we start listening to the lies about what life is really like.

Blake Schofield 9:40
You know, I’ll never forget it, when I started my first job ended up going into human resources because I was going to be a marriage and family psychologist and I realized something about this journey didn’t match and everyone told me, “Well, you love people going to HR”. And the first six months in this job I remember coming home and saying “Oh my gosh, please tell me this isn’t as good as it gets, this is terrible”. And then I was surrounded by so many other people that were unhappy. And then I was just told that’s just the way that it is. And you can look at statistics today where more than 60% of people are unhappy in their careers where they’re spending more than like, a third of their life. And you can look at society as a whole. Society as a whole is not happy.

Blake Schofield 10:30
We are overwhelmed, burned out. As a society, we’re having more and more challenges with mental health issues, being depressed, unfulfilled, we’re over medicated. And we believe that this is just as good as it gets. And I’m here to tell you that none of that is true.

Blake Schofield 10:52
All of that comes down to a very simplistic and band aid level approach to our lives. You know, the longer I’ve been doing The Bridge to Fulfillment®, the more clearer it’s become to me. Often people come to me because they want to transition into a new career. And through this journey, what they really realize is that it wasn’t the circumstances of the job, or the company that were making them unhappy, was actually really not understanding who they were, not living their life in alignment. It was all of the society conditioning and belief systems, and not understanding and aligning with how they naturally works, that were the misalignment that was actually creating the lack of fulfillment in their lives.

Blake Schofield 11:39
And I see that not just with my clients, I see that everywhere, whether you are working a corporate job, or an entrepreneur, whether you’re a stay at home mom, or a high level executive. When we don’t understand truly who we are, and we don’t embrace and appreciate it. We can’t ever truly live a life in alignment that allows us to really be fulfilled, have more joy and more ease in what we do. And lean into the gifts that we’ve been given.

Blake Schofield 12:12
And I say that to you, as somebody who believed that the things in my life were just what they were, I was a type A perfectionist, I needed XYZ, in order to be successful. I was uncomfortable networking, I believed all of these things. And this journey, what I’ve really come to realize is it’s all those limiting beliefs and all that stuff that we tell ourselves that actually keeps us stuck. None of its really true.

Blake Schofield 12:39
And so I want to encourage you today that whatever those barriers are, that you feel like are in your life. That however many times you have felt like you’ve tried to create change, and you haven’t gotten where you want to go that this isn’t just as good as it gets. That there’s so much more possibility for your life. And that begins by seeking the deeper answers, that begins by truly understanding who you are, what you need, and what is this aligned in your life. Because we’re constantly chasing the next thing, the next job, the next promotion, the next house, the next car, the next level of growth, the next solution that somebody’s promising us, in order to make us happy. But the reality is true happiness comes when you know and embrace who you are. And when you align your life and your actions behind that. It’s powerful in ways you cannot even imagine. And it truly is the solution.

Blake Schofield 13:45
Depth is the way, passion, connection to your life, to your purpose, to what you get up for every single day. And then truly understanding your unique distinction. And how you can leverage that to help other people make a bigger difference and lead a life of purpose.

Blake Schofield 14:08
And so if you’re listening to this today, and you think “Oh my gosh, that’s exactly what I want. That’s that’s what I need help with. I don’t know how to do that”. I encourage you reach out. I’d be happy to connect and see if or how I may be able to help you, finally stop chasing the next thing and truly get clarity on what’s the right next step for you in your life, in your career, or wherever that might be that you are feeling. Like there’s got to be something more but I just don’t know how to get there. Thanks again for joining me today. Until next time, have a great week.

Blake Schofield 14:46
Thanks for joining me today. Rather than hope the grass will be greener, identify what the right next step is. We can help you do just that. Get clarity on where you are in your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optimal paths to get there, and the right next step to take. Start your complimentary personalized career fulfillment plan at https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan. Again, you can get your personalized career fulfillment plan at https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan Thanks again for joining and have a great week ahead!