482: How To Figure Out What Creates Meaningful Work For You

Have you ever wished that the work you were doing made more of an impact? Cindy and Scott discuss how to identify your unique definition of meaningful work, so you can make it happen!

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Guest

Cindy Gonos, Director of Client Success

Cindy is passionate about helping people in the first step towards finding work they love. She's the first person you talk to at HTYC.

on this episode

You’ve had your breakthrough, woohoo! To feel fulfilled you want your work to feel more meaningful, or you want to feel like you’re making a difference in people’s lives (or the world!), or you just really want to be doing work that helps people… or maybe all of the above!

You may think the question you need to answer is “What occupation is going to solve this for me?” Well… That’s actually the completely wrong question to ask (sorry). But never fear! You’re on the right path, and soon you’ll begin your journey to meaningful work. 

In this episode, HTYC’s own Scott and Cindy discuss how to figure out what creates meaningful work for you (the right question to be asking!) They talk about their personal journeys and how they’ve helped thousands of people identity their unique definition of meaningful work!

Pre-order Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach to Career Change and Meaningful Work, now and get exclusive pre-order bonuses! Learn more

What you’ll learn

  • Questions to ask yourself to figure out what is most meaningful to you
  • How to create your unique definition of helping others
  • The importance of knowing your strengths & how to use them to fill your cup
  • The connection between meaningful work and careers that help people

Cindy Gonos 00:01

So when I think of making an impact, it's how did you or how did I contribute to good in any other place? And then in return, what did I get back from that?

Introduction 00:18

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast, with Scott Anthony Barlow. We help you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does and make it happen. We help you define the work that's unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:38

Okay, let me know if this has ever something you thought or said, "I just want to feel like I am helping people" or "I just want to feel like the work I'm doing is making an impact." Chances are really high that you've thought or said something like this, because as it turns out, almost every single person we talked to about HTYC eventually comes to the realization some place throughout their career, that what they want to do is something that is helping people, at least, that's how everyone describes it. But once we dig deeper into that realization, it becomes apparent that what they're missing is the connection between how they're helping people, and how that relates to meaning and fulfillment.

Cindy Gonos 01:16

They want the work to be meaningful to them, right, but not just meaningful, they want it to be meaningful, and they want that work to have impact in some way, shape, or form. So impact on others and meaningful for them, I think, is the equation for helping people that most folks are thinking about when they say that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:34

What do you think creates fulfilling work for you, turns out is different for everyone. For this topic, I thought there was no one better to bring on than the first person people talk to at HTYC. Cindy talks to every person that comes through HTYC, so she's become an expert on really uncovering what people mean when they express a desire to help others. Here's Cindy talking about the process of identifying your unique definition of meaningful, fulfilling work.

Cindy Gonos 02:03

I hear a lot of folks say that they want to help people. And then I always have to follow up with the question of, "what does that look like for you?" Because I think it shows up in different ways for different folks. I think when some people think about helping, they think about it on more of a one on one– I need to be touching, feeling, seeing, being right there with the person that I'm helping. And then I talked with other folks who when they think about helping people, it's more of a global... a community impact, the city impact, there's a policy impact or a process impact. So everyone wants to help people, but there is definitely a spectrum of what that looks like.

Scott Anthony Barlow 02:43

I've seen the same thing. I think what's fascinating about that, to me, is that at a human need level, we all need to help people. I also think what's really, always interested me too, is like, wait a minute, hold on, if we look at literally every job in the world, this always puzzled me, it says like, "every job in the world, you could argue is helping people in some way. So if what we really want is helping people, and we're helping people in every job, why doesn't that feel fulfilling? Why doesn't that feel purposeful or meaningful?" So that's been this really kind of fascinating puzzle as I have thought about this over the last 20 years. And I know that you have had lots of questions about that and talk to lots of people that are looking to help people. So what do you think it is that they're actually asking or actually wanting? Tell me all your thoughts on that.

Cindy Gonos 03:43

Well, I think they're actually... and we get to this point in the conversation. So I'm not speculating. We just... it takes a little while to get there. So I'm just gonna save everybody a few steps for when they talk to me and they say, "I want to help people". What they really mean is that they want the work to be meaningful to them, right, but not just meaningful, they want it to be meaningful, and they want that work to have impact in some way, shape, or form. So impact on others and meaningful for them, I think, is the equation for helping people that most folks are thinking about when they say that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 04:16

And you make a good point. Because we have this conversation over and over and over again. And I don't want to diminish that part of the conversation in a way because I think it's an important step that people have to go through. We have to realize, at some level, helping people is important to us and we get there different ways. But that always then begs the next question of, I was like, "ah, wait. I don't feel like I'm helping people. So I want to go and help people." When, you know, after you have started to understand what do we need as human beings, you start to realize it's actually a bigger question than just "am I helping people?" It is much more about a slightly more nuanced question of what is the right way of helping people for you. And that's part of what I hear you saying too when you're talking about things like impact.

Cindy Gonos 05:06

I love that. I think the question that arises for us when we say "I want to help people", that's the spark, right? For a lot of folks, that's the spark that gets the wheels turning, like, something is missing. What is it? "I feel like I'm not helping people." That's the trigger. And then when we start to dive in deeper, you're absolutely right, it turns into a much bigger question of, "How do you help? How do you show up best?" right? Because it's great to help people, but it's also... you want to make sure that you're doing that in the best way that you can do it. So yeah, I love that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 05:39

Well, let's talk about some actual examples here too, because we've both had many, many conversations with our listeners, with our clients, and, you know, I think about, I remember one time in particular, where this person worked for Google. And she was so thrilled, initially, to get this opportunity at Google and actually loved it for a period of time. And then, years later, I ended up talking to her. And she's like, "I just don't feel like I'm helping people. I feel like all I'm doing is selling clicks. And that doesn't feel like I am helping people." Now we could go through and say that, arguably, like that is... those clicks are actually helping people to find what it is that they need on the internet in so many different ways. But it doesn't change that how she felt about it was that it wasn't the right type of help for her. So how have you seen this show up, like, what have you heard from different people as examples? And we won't use names here, but...

Cindy Gonos 06:43

No, we won't name any names. But I know I had spoke to one gentleman, one guy, and he talked about the one-on-one impact that he had been making in his organization with his team. And for him, he was able to grow and mentor lots of different folks on his team. And that was satisfying for him. But he knew with just a few tweaks in a different direction, that he could help more folks instead of just one on one. So he did a shift into more of leadership. So that way, he was still able to work with folks one on one, but he was able to work with multiple folks. The thing that I love about our folks who are those mentors, and those coaches, and those leaders, is that his mindset shifted to, "I can help one person and, as their leader, I can also help them help others." right? So he's impacting folks that he may not even realize that he's impacting, he just knows he can feel that it's a bigger impact. So sometimes folks will make that shift. And I've seen it in reverse, too, right? Where I've seen folks who work for the government, they work in policy, they're making these big changes, and they know they're making an impact, they know they're making a difference. But that impact feels a little to remove for them. Right? They want to know the names of the folks that they're impacting. So I've seen some of those folks go from more of those process driven helping and impactful roles into those more one on one actually working with folks roles. So you can grow in different ways when it comes to impact and helping folks too.

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:16

You know, one of the things that we mentioned about in the book, when you come to it and you're looking for what is the occupation that is going to feel like I'm helping people, that's actually the wrong question to ask. So if you find yourself asking variations of that questions, that's okay. Just like that's where everyone starts in some way or another. Because it's only as you start to understand what causes you to feel more fulfilled, what causes you to feel more meaning, what causes you to be more happy more often in a given opportunity, career, whatever, whichever way you want to call it, you start to understand some better questions. And a better question would be, "how can I identify the context that allows me to feel like I'm contributing to others? How can I identify the situations I've had in the past that feel like I am helping others in the way that I want to?" Those are a couple examples of better questions to be able to begin asking yourself. So what are some of your thoughts on that? Because there's a very big disconnect between like, where we start, and then what we have actually evolved to and how.

Cindy Gonos 09:29

The first thing that I thought of was actually when I was interviewing with you.

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:34

Oh, let's talk about this.

Cindy Gonos 09:36

It made me think about that. So you know, I have a background in health and wellness. I had done weight loss, consulting, weight loss coaching for a long time, I really enjoyed it. I've done lots of different types of coaching. And I was talking about my clients and how I love helping them reach their goals. And you asked this question, I felt like it came out of nowhere and you said, "Well, what does that do for you?" And instantly, I didn't want to seem greedy or selfish, but I thought it was a really great question. And for me, when I was able to help clients reach their goal, there was a sense of pride. Their joy was my joy. We shared that together, right? So it was about the gut check. Like, what's that feeling that you get when you're doing that thing? What's the feeling that you get when you know that you've helped someone in that way? Now, if I were to help somebody, I don't know, fix an Excel spreadsheet or do something like that, those aren't things that fill my bucket, I'll help you. But I'm not going to get as much joy out of that as I would with helping folks reach goals, which is something to me that fills my bucket. So that was what I thought of when you said that, I was like, I remember when Scott asked me about that, "what does it do for you?"

Scott Anthony Barlow 10:42

That's so interesting. And I started asking that question, or some variations of that question, like trying to understand, like, "Hey, what are the..." I don't think they're necessarily selfish elements. But a lot of the time we have a tendency to think they are selfish elements. I'll even phrase up the question that way where it's like, "Hey, be selfish for a minute. What do you get out of that?" Just to help people focus on what they are actively getting, because I feel like, as a leader, if I can understand what really matters to people, then I can do a better job of helping them do more of what really matters to them. Or, like in the case where you and I were talking about it in an interview context, like, I want to make sure, and I know everybody else on our team really wants to make sure that we only have people on our team, that the work that we're doing really matters to them. Otherwise, it's hard to fake this type of work, right? So that becomes important, like identifying what really actually moves the needle for you, and gives you those types of feelings that you're describing. So okay, so here's... this was not in our plan to talk about, I'm pulling an audible. So let's compare notes here. Like, what's something that you used to think that was valuable for you? As it relates to, like, what you're getting out of work that you now no longer is, and then what has kind of replaced it?

Cindy Gonos 12:06

Oh, man, okay. So when I was younger, it was recognition, right? It was recognition. So I wanted to be number one, whatever it was, I need to do the best. Number one. Top person. And as time went on, for me, it was more about the relationships that I was building, the people who I had an impact on their life. So I could tell that I had made an impact because those people, we kept our relationship years and years later, too. So for me, I measure success more by the number of reliefs, because to me, when I build a relationship with someone, that means I trust them, and they trust me. And for someone to trust me enough to build a relationship with me, that to me, is all the gold stars. That's all the recognition that I need now, but it used to be like, "Yes, I wanted the trophies."

Scott Anthony Barlow 12:55

Oh, that's so interesting. I was thinking... I don't know if I know the answer to this, but I'm gonna throw out a couple of things I think are true. And will sift my way through it. I haven't thought about it in a long time. So I know I asked you this question, and now I have to...

Cindy Gonos 13:11

I always throw back at you.

Scott Anthony Barlow 13:12

I know. Okay, well, so here's one thing that makes me think of, and this might be a little bit similar to what you just described, it's less about recognition for me, like, if we look at DISC profile as an example. So if you're familiar with the DISC profile, it's, you know, the DISC, and each letter means a different thing as it relates to a personality and communications set of results, if we just won't talk about it at a really high level. So I'm a high DI, which D, in most cases, usually stands for Driver. And I, often, am representative of those people that like to be in front of crowds, in many different ways that like to be the center of attention. So that's something that I used to think really was valuable for me. And I think early on, I was getting a high out of it, because it was so new, you know, when, I don't know, when as an HR leader, and I get on a stage to talk about HR changes or something like that in front of hundreds of people, like that was really fun. And it was a little bit like jumping out of an airplane in some ways. I rush. So I think I confused that early on with something that I really needed and wanted to have. And now, years later, I know it's less about being the center of attention for me, and much more about being able to see what comes from something that I have made or something that I've created and I really get a lot of it, this is going to totally make sense for, you know, Happen To Your Career and the podcast and the book and everything else but, I really get a lot of joy out of passing on new ways to think about things. And obviously in the book we're talking about, like, "how do normal people make seemingly impossible career changes?" And that requires some very new ways to think about things. So that's something that does it for me, and actually creates much more meaningful and fulfilling work. And I feel like I'm helping people when I do that, and I'm getting some of that feedback back, saying, "this helped me change how I'm thinking about it."

Cindy Gonos 15:24

I love that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 15:26

Well, thank you. I do too. As it turns out.

Cindy Gonos 15:29

I know. And I was thinking about it, too, as a leader, because I've had leadership roles. Sometimes for me, it's almost about being the dance mom now, as opposed to the dancer like, audition on the stage, right?

Scott Anthony Barlow 15:39

Oh, interesting. Yeah.

Cindy Gonos 15:41

Because I was... So I'll use that analogy, I guess. But I get the same feeling now when I see someone else who, great example, like our clients who get amazing jobs, like a proud mom moment, right? Or a team or a team member who is able to hit a goal that they didn't think they could get. And I'm like the mom, like behind the stage. For me, that feels as good as when I was younger, and it was me that they were clapping for. So when you said that, I was like, I feel you on that status for that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 16:14

That's cool. I'm glad that we pulled an audible and went that direction. What do you think then, not to shift topics too much here, but I'm curious, when people are listening to the... Here's a set or something that happens over and over again. People hear us on the podcast, and then on many episodes, not all, but on many episodes, I invite people to say "hey, if you want help in figuring out what is most important to you, if you want help in creating an extraordinary career for yourself, that's obviously what we do. You know, email me, Scott@happentoyourcareer", and then we get many of these emails, and then I introduce them to you. And then you get to have many of these conversations. So when you're having these conversations, what are some of the biggest questions you find yourself asking that are helpful for people to sift through what creates more meaning for them?

Cindy Gonos 17:09

That's a really great question, Scott. Well I like to go back in time with folks too, right? So when I talk about signature strengths, and what makes up our signature strengths, it really is that blend of our natural abilities, our experiences, and then the things that we enjoy, and that fill our bucket. So I will, a lot of times, talk about things that are not job related in order to get to that... to answer that question. Right? So just talking about, what are the things that bring you joy in general? Right? And then when we start talking about it, they pick... people will pick up. And they're like, "oh, wow, I do that at my job", right? So what we're trying to figure out is, or I'll ask folks, what is something that you can get lost in? Tell me something that you can get lost in for a long period of time? Right? I love using the baking example. Because a lot of people like to bake, which I do as well. So folks will say, "I love baking." So I'll say, "what do you love about baking? What is it that you love about baking?" And they'll say... It depends on the person, right? So some folks will say that they love the articulation of baking, it's very mathematical, they know that when it's done, it's going to be perfect. And then other folks will say, "I love to put my hands in there, I like to feel it and touch it. That's what brings me joy– is using my hands. I think hands are the best kitchen utensil, right." And then there's other folks that will say, like me, "I love baking because I know if I'm baking something, it's usually going to be shared with someone else. And I'm going to get to share that with them." So then I'll say, "Okay, think about that. Now take it back to how you like to show up at your job. How you like to show up for people there and how you like to make an impact." And they start to connect the dots between. Because, again, when folks are helping, sometimes it's because they have technical knowledge and they're able to simplify that technical knowledge for other folks on their team, and that's how they're helpful. Sometimes they're listening to their struggles, and they're helping them overcome that. Sometimes they're helping them come up with ideas. So there's all these little parts of our life where our strengths are showing up, where our buckets are getting filled, and it's about paying attention to all of those things and putting them together. And that's how, Scott, people are able to make these fantastic, amazing leaps in their careers, it's because they're pulling from all of their goodness, not just this is what's on my resume and this is my skills and all this sort of stuff.

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:31

I'm so glad you pointed that out. Because when we get to witness an entire change, and we get the opportunity to help people through that, like that's, first of all, that's one of the hardest and funnest things that I have ever done– being involved with that in so many different ways. And we do it over and over and over again. And also at the same time behind the scenes, it is this perpetual uncovering of... and piecing together. It's almost... It's much more like forensic science, like, CSI in some ways or another. You and I have had this conversation.

Cindy Gonos 20:09

It's detective work.

Scott Anthony Barlow 20:10

It's so detective. So Cindy has a thing for Colombo, as it turns out, so we'll just acknowledge that right now. And then... but it really is, it's detective work. And in the respect that it is, I have this one clue or a couple of clues that then leads me to another clue that then leads me to another uncovering of a clue, which leads me to a set of realizations, which leads me to a hypothesis, which then I get some more clues, then eventually, over a series of many months, and actually, we just, like, about a week ago, less than a week ago now, just went back and analyzed the last four years worth of data, and realized that on average, many of the changes, like the big changes that you hear on the podcast, are taking someplace between six months on the lower end, typically, and 10 months as well. And for people who are higher income earners, you know, 150,000 plus, you know, 200, 300, 400, 500,000, it has a tendency to even take longer. And that was really, really interesting. So I say all that to be able to say the next thing, which is, it becomes this process of piecing together the whole, which is what I think you were pointing out that there's no way you can just, like, sit down in one session be able to piece together a whole. It really is a process of discovery.

Cindy Gonos 21:39

It is. And I also think that part of this process, at the beginning, is also about... I sometimes will joke and I'll say, "we're gonna Marie Kondo" right? We're gonna Marie Kondo your career. Because a lot of the folks that we work with, have worn lots and lots of hats in their organizations, and a lot of the hats that some people have worn, they may not want to wear next time around that is not filling their bucket, right? So I always say this is a really great opportunity to figure out what are the things that you want to take with you on the next leg of your journey, and what are the things that you want to leave behind, right? So there is also, you have to do detective work with that as well. Because we don't want to take everything, we want to take the things that are the most impactful and the most meaningful to us.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:26

One place that is a wonderful resource to be able to get started, if you haven't already done this, we've had, oh my goodness, someplace between 40 and 50,000 people that have gone through and done our eight day mini course, eight day figure it out mini course. And you can go to happentoyourcareer.com and click on the eight day mini course or you can go to figureitout.co. That's figureitout.co. And you put in your email. And we send you an email each day that has a series of questions, just a couple of questions every day for you to consider. And although we do have many people that email us and say, "Yeah, like I made it very clear the direction that I should be heading." For most people, it is a wonderful way to begin thinking about your career in a completely different fashion, in a completely different light. Either way, we find that it is very helpful as a way to begin thinking about what creates more meaningful work for you. So I would encourage you to do that if you haven't taken advantage of that. What else would you advise people to do to get started thinking about what creates more meaningful work for them?

Cindy Gonos 23:35

Sure. I would say, I think one of the most important things that you can do is really start to uncover where your strengths are. I think that strengths are a really, really great baseline to start with. And strengths can be tricky. I say this, I've said this on every podcast episode I've been on. Strengths can be so tricky, Scott. Because when things tend to come naturally for us, we will dismiss them. Right? So I think the Clifton StrengthsFinders is like the best tool ever for helping to figure out strengths. So folks can take the Clifton StrengthsFinders, and that's going to help them get started with some words as opposed to trying to skim through and figure out what their own strengths are. But I think when you can find out where your natural abilities are, that's a really great place to figure out what comes next and how can I help those strengths show up better. So I'd say strengths are definitely a good place to start.

Scott Anthony Barlow 24:26

Strengths are some wonderful clues. And I've said this once or twice on the podcast over the years, but I love strengths because, although many people are thinking about them as, "what am I strong at?", that's not what strengths actually are, particularly what Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology, would call signature strengths. And when I think about signature strengths, those are the truest form of who you are as a person, and how it shows up in ways that you can't help or often don't realize that you're doing. That's what we mean when we say strengths. And if you can begin to understand what those are and articulate them, then you can start to make decisions on purpose that actually are going to leverage those strengths. And when you can start to really leverage the truest form of who you are, that allows you to go places that most people in the world just don't get to go to at this point. And I'd like to change that, I'd like to make sure that many more people are getting to leverage their strengths. But currently, it's a very small number of people, and we do need to change that.

Cindy Gonos 25:34

Yeah, no, I love that. And I love that you mentioned signature strengths. Because when I think of signature strengths, it really is that combination of things. And so often, I'll talk with folks, and when we start to get down to the nitty gritty of why something is meaningful to them, very oftentimes, it's something that's tied to an experience that they've had, someone who's been influential in their life, something that they've seen, that all makes up part of what their signature strengths are, is their experiences. And I see so often, I talked to a gal a few days ago, and she went into criminal justice, specifically working with juveniles. Because when she was younger, she was that... by no means, like a huge troublemaker. But she had had some experience with that and was able to see how that affected kids and was able to recognize, "hey, if we can get to kids early, we can intervene. And we can help them make decisions and changes that will affect them for the rest of their lives." So that was something that was really important to her. And as we were going through the process, one of the things that we talked about that was very meaningful for her, not necessarily working in criminal justice, but it was more broad now into, "I want to make an impact on how can we change folks behavior early enough, even if they're not juveniles? But how can we help them shift their mindset so that they can make better decisions, right?" But all of that stemmed from, you know, getting picked up from the cops when she was 15, right. So it's all those little things. And that's why the detective work is so important, because you never know where there's going to be a clue. And what the coaches are really amazing at, is picking up on those little subtle things that you may not think to dive into, like, "oh, let's dive into that." And then all of a sudden, you've opened up an entire Pandora's box of goodies that you didn't realize, because you didn't think to dive in a little bit deeper into that area. So I love that too.

Scott Anthony Barlow 27:26

It's like it was hidden in the back corner of the house, and you just never knew it was there. It's just been sitting there the whole time. If you walked over and opened it up.

Cindy Gonos 27:33

Right?

Scott Anthony Barlow 27:34

Yeah. Strengths are definitely one of the biggest clues in this whole detective style process that we've been talking about. Yeah, for sure. And we, oh my goodness, we could spend the next 4 to 52 and a half hours, just talking about strengths alone and breaking down the science behind it. We actually do a lot of that in the book, which by the way, is available for preorder right now. If you're hearing this, it is available for pre order, and then it'll be available for regular order, October 18th, 2022. But if you want to get a copy before it actually goes live, go preorder the book, and you'll get a whole bunch of bonuses that we've put together, including negotiation scripts that we regularly give to our clients, including an actual Limited Edition copy of the book, before it's available for sale, we'll send it to your house, we'll ask you for your address and send it to your house so that you can have a copy. And even get access to all of the bonuses that come with the book before everybody else does. So to unlock all these bonuses, what you do is go on, preorder the book, send a copy of your pre-order receipt to Scott@happentoyourcareer.com, and then we'll ask you for your address and a few other things and then get that right over to you. I would definitely encourage you to check it out. Cindy?

Scott Anthony Barlow 29:05

Yes, Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 29:09

I was gonna go into it all serious, and you just foiled that.

Cindy Gonos 29:13

So sorry.

Scott Anthony Barlow 29:14

It's okay, I'll survive. Here's the closing thing I wanted to ask you. When you're thinking about impact, because that's something we started off the episode talking about. Helped me understand some of the different ways that you thought about impact over the years. Let's break that down. Because I think about impact in terms of contribution and a few other things. But ultimately, it is a big part of feeling like work is meaningful, feeling like work is more fulfilling overall. So tell me a little bit about what you mean when you say impact and then also what are some examples of impact.

Cindy Gonos 29:54

Sure. When I think of impact, it can be a tricky word because it feels like a very big word. It feels like when I say impact, it's an earthquake or something that's catastrophic. But it really isn't. An impact to me can be anything that pushes the needle in a positive direction. Now you can make a negative impact. That's not what I'm about. I'm not trying to make negative impacts. But when I think of making an impact, it's... how did you or how did I contribute to good in any other place? And then in return, what did I get back from that? Because I don't think it's... I think it's difficult to make an impact without getting something back from it even if that's not your intent. Most of the time, it's not our intention to get something in return. But I feel like you know you've made an impact because it goes out, and then it comes like joy– my favorite thing, joy. So I've seen folks make impacts in small ways where, okay, I'm going to tell a story. This is very dear to me. So I got an opportunity to talk with a gal a couple of weeks ago. And I told Scott, I'm busy. I'm really busy. And it would have been a long week, and I was getting a little fatigued. But I love what I do. And I have high energy. And this gal was feeling really low. And I always want to show up. If it takes me two extra coffees, I'll drink those two extra coffees so that I can show up. But we had a really amazing conversation and it actually happened that we knew somebody in common, which is not normal. She does not live in my state. And she had told me how she had been feeling really down. And I thought she was amazing. I wasn't BSing. I never BS. I can't. She was really awesome. And she was really amazing. And we got done with our call. And she sent me an email later that day. And she said, "I know that you do a lot of these calls. But I wanted to let you know how important this 45 minutes was for me." I'm gonna try not to cry. But she said, "I was trying to articulate it." And she said, "But I went downstairs and my son articulated at best. And he said, “Mom, you look really happy.”" And she said, "Thank you for bringing some hope back into my life." And that, like, to me, like I've cried every time I've told that story, Scott, because I had an impact on her. And guess what? She had a huge impact on me, too, right? Because that was meaningful to me, like, that conversation was meaningful for both of us. And I think that anytime we think about meaningful, that's what we're looking for. We're looking for that back and forth, that I've been flow that we can give and receive with others.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:28

Yeah, contribution works both ways.

Cindy Gonos 32:30

Yes, definitely.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:33

Thank you so much for sharing that story. Appreciate you coming on. And, as always, I mentioned it earlier, but if you want more help, don't hesitate to email us. This is what we do. It's what we love to do. And arguably, we are some of the best in the world at helping people figure out what creates more meaning for them. So if that's something that would be useful to you, don't hesitate to drop me an email, Scott@happentoyourcareer.com. I'll connect you up with Cindy here or another member of our team and we will be able to help figure out the very best way that we can support you.

Cindy Gonos 33:09

Awesome. Thanks, Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:11

Thank you.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:17

Hey, I hope you loved this episode. Thanks so much for listening. And if this has been helpful, then please share this podcast with your friends, with your family, with your co-workers that badly need it. Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up in store for you next week.

Speaker 2 33:35

I was quite disillusioned very quickly, and felt like I had made the biggest mistake of my life by becoming a nurse even though this is something I had worked for.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:46

All right, here's one that we see all the time. What happens when you have the realization that the career or industry you've been working towards for years, isn't the right fit for you? Many people have this epiphany when they're well into their careers or after years of schooling. And some have it the first day they walk in the door and realize, "this is not at all what I was expecting." It can be a really hard pill to swallow. Because our identities are often closely tied to what we say we do for a living. So how do you untangle your identity from a career that you once felt passionate about in order to start working towards the right fit for you? All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click Subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep, and you get it automatically, even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week. Adios. I'm out.

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