If You HATE YOUR JOB, This Is How You Can Create A PATH FORWARD | Tom Bilyeu

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Impact Theory. Today, we're going to be talking all about turning a bad job into an opportunity. Once you master this and realize that you don't have to stay in a bad job, that you can either leave or turn it into a rad job, and that there actually is a process to doing that, things will get a lot better. I've seen so many people live lives that they hate because we spend so many of our working hours at our job. If you don't love your job, yikes, it is brutal on the total quality of your life. All right, so let's dive into this topic and see what we can do to help you guys make the most out of whatever job you have. All right, first, what tips do you have for someone who wants to grow with their current company? So, the key here is recognizing that there really is only one path to success, and that is you're going to have to set the bar ridiculously high and then surpass all expectations. You want to really show people that you are capable of doing things that other people cannot. When you can outperform other people, and I know nobody likes to think this is a competition, but the reality is when you can do things that other people can't do, and if those things are valued by the company, you are going to move quickly through that company. Even if your boss is trying to steal your ideas, which I know is something that happens to a lot of people, if you really are the person that's coming up with the ideas, and your boss wouldn't be able to get very far without them, you've got leverage. And so, understanding that being able to outperform people is always the right answer. That's where I would focus. Okay, then the next thing is, so I've got this amazing skill set. Then the next thing is, one, I'm always going to be growing my skill set day after day. Two, I'm going to take my job description and I'm going to say, all right, this is the stuff that I have to get done in the first half of my day, and do it extremely well. And then in the second half of my day, I'm going to go find other projects that the company is trying to get accomplished, see what I can do to help, help other people, take on responsibility for projects that are beyond my job description, and then I'm going to do them just as well as I do my actual main job. People that do that are worth their weight in gold. Not only will you endear yourself to the people that you're helping, but when you go to your boss and say, "Hey, are there other projects that I could take on?" Maybe even things that are outside of the exact department that you're in, that's going to be a huge help. Almost every company is looking for people that um show initiative and are able to be trusted with additional projects. And if you're in a company where they just aren't interested in that, they don't want people that show initiative, which by the way, I challenge. I think if you put me into a company even with strict hierarchies, even with political intrigue, all that stuff, that I would find a way to be useful to other people, that I would find a way to help other people. Uh oh, there's a quote. I'm going to paraphrase it, goes something like this. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care about the credit. So, if you don't care about getting the credit and you're just helping people, I think people are definitely going to take that help. Now, the key is that you make yourself indispensable to them. Once you're indispensable to them, now you have that leverage. And so, being able to use that leverage to illustrate that you have a long track record of high-level performance within the company, now when you go and start asking for a raise, you're going to be much more likely to get it. And here is the secret to getting a raise. Go to your boss or whatever department it is you're trying to move into, and ask them, "What would it look like? I want this title, or I want to make this much money. What would I have to deliver to you in order to get that?" And if you get them to explain to you, like, "Hey, if you were able to do XYZ thing, that would be no-brainer. I would definitely put you forward for that promotion." Amazing. Now, you know exactly what you need to do. Now, you just need to go make sure that you get the skill set that's going to allow you to do that better than other people. Now, my thing is I'm always trying to reach beyond what I'm getting paid to do. Cuz remember, I started out as an employee, okay? I've not always owned my own companies. So, when I was an employee, that's what I was thinking about. Like, I want to be indispensable. I want to I want people to have fear of loss with me. I want them to be afraid that I'm going to leave because I am delivering so much value. I'm not saying, "That's not my job." Instead, I'm saying, "What does the company need?" And then I'm helping the company get that thing. And so, when you're able to assess what problems the company is facing and help make those problems go away, you become extraordinarily valuable. When you're communicating very directly about what you want and finding out what you would need to do to get there, and then delivering against that, you're going to find yourself going up. When you're constantly helping other people with their projects and delivering a high level of quality and not asking for the credit for that, you're just doing it because you want to help people, while I have no doubt some people will take advantage of you. The vast majority of people will not, and you will find yourself meeting those people again and again, and people wanting to champion you and lift you up. If you run that strategy, I'm telling you right now, you will be able to make things happen in your current company. What kinds of thought practices can I implement in order to approach my job differently? Okay, to really answer that question, I would have to know how you're approaching your job now, but the best way to approach any job is to, again, instead of asking what your job description is, to figure out what problems the company faces and what role can you play in helping make those problems go away. Now, the key to doing that is to really getting into a nitty-gritty tactical understanding of what the high-level goals for the company are, okay? So, you should be able to find those out. And if your company isn't broadcasting those, you have another problem. But find out what your company's high-level goals are. Find out how your department has goals that are feeding into the company level goals, and then figure out what you can do on an individual level in order to help yourself or help the company achieve those goals. So, there should be a direct line from what you're doing to what your department's trying to accomplish to what the company's trying to accomplish. So, that you know as you're working on that thing that you're actually contributing in a meaningful way. So, that you can point to something and say, "Hey, that thing contributed to this project, contributed to that goal." Right? And when people can actually track your deliverables and they see the things that you worked on and how that fed into these very meaningful goals, that's how you begin to develop that fear of loss and get people to think of you anew. So, as you're trying to think about your own job differently, you're trying to change the way that people perceive you. You want them to perceive you as a problem solver. And if you were to ask me, "What is one attribute that is just worth its weight in gold that I'm always looking for in any teammate here at Impact Theory?" It is problem solving. I don't want to have to solve all the problems by myself. I don't want to have to come up with all the ideas. People often think that their boss wants to come up with all the ideas. I promise you, even if your boss is stealing all of your ideas, they don't want to have to think of them. And so, you can make yourself indispensable and then leverage being indispensable to either get out from under a boss that's just stealing your ideas, to make it just undeniable that you're the one coming up with these ideas. But performance is always the key. Now, even if all you do is leverage that performance to get another job at a different company, being able to say, "I did this, this, this, helped with this, this and this. And you can convey that in a way that makes it pretty obvious that in fact you were delivering a high level of performance because you can articulate it so clearly. You really are able to demonstrate that skill set, you have a free ticket to go wherever you want. But the key is don't think of yourself as being bound by your job description. Think of yourself as being bound by your skill set. By wanting to put that skill set to use against the goals that the company have. When you do that, now you've got the right frame of reference for what your job is. What kinds of things can you do to balance your job and something you love without facing burnout? Burnout is a tricky beast. Burnout has a lot to do with the things that you I won't just say love doing, but they have a lot to do with aligning the things that you're doing with things that give you more energy. So, whatever it is that you're engaging with, you want to find a way to really engage with that in a meaningful way. And so there are a couple parts to that. So, number one, you want to make sure that you understand the why that you're doing this so that you can attach meaning and purpose to it. When you've got meaning and purpose behind something, everything changes. Getting good at life, being good at your job, succeeding, paying the bills, all of this stuff is so hard that if you don't have a why that you're able to plug in, so I'm paying my bills so that I can support my family. All right, that's an incredible why. But you really want to think about that. You want to focus on that. And then the other is just making sure that you're able to engage with it in a way that allows you to experience progress. So, getting better at something and moving forward in your life is one of the foundational pillars of human happiness. And so making sure that you are finding ways to engage with what you're doing in such a way that it allows you to be fed while you're doing this instead of having the energy stripped away. Okay, that's part one. Part two in all of this is making sure that you understand an idea that a lot of people, myself included, who like to be ultra hardcore, have to really learn. And that is doing less is always an option. Okay? Doing less is always an option. So, if you're starting to feel burned out, you need to pump the brakes. And I always tell myself, I don't do overwhelm. Now, I don't say that because I can carry an infinite weight. I cannot. I have my limitations just like anybody else. But the reason that I don't burn out is because as I feel myself getting close to my limitations, I don't tell myself like, "Come on, like you can do anything. Just keep going." Now, I am hardcore. I'll be the first to admit that I make sure that I am leaving it out in the field, that I'm playing as hard as I can. But, I make the demand that even hard work is done in a joyful manner. So, I am at all times pursuing fulfillment in a joyful manner. It just so happens that fulfillment by nature is working really hard to gain a set of skills that allow you to serve not only yourself, but other people. Okay? Working really hard, that's part of it. That's That's a directive inside of our brains given to us by evolution. So, you have a directive in your brain to work hard. And if you don't work hard, there will be a sense of disease in your life. You won't feel right. Something will feel like it's missing. You won't know what it is. You'll be grasping for something. And it will seem like it's going to be a thing you need to get, to attain, whatever. When in reality, you need to work hard. That working hard, there's a reason that working out leaves you with this amazing feeling. Nature had to incentivize that you would work hard because going out, hunting, foraging, protecting your family, all of that stuff was brutally difficult when you, you you go back hundreds of thousands of years. And that's what we came up through. And so, nature only has two tools, pleasure and pain. If you're doing the right things, pleasure. If you're doing the wrong things or not doing something you should be doing, like working hard, then walloped with pain you get. So, that's a key. You want to be working hard towards something that matters and allows you to serve not only yourself, but other people. When you start doing that, now all of a sudden you're back in that energizing mode and you don't have to worry about burning out. But, working hard is a key part of this. But, when I get to the point where it's like, all right, I'm I'm really working hard, but I'm now reaching a limit where even with all the meaning and purpose and all the joyful pursuit of fulfillment, I'm now reaching a point where this isn't fun. You need to acknowledge that and back off. That's not the time to keep pushing, right? You needed to gut check yourself. You needed to make sure that you weren't just being lazy, but when you realize, I'm not being lazy, this is just not fun. I'm now at a point of diminishing returns. Need to be honest about that, acknowledge it, trust yourself to have busted your ass, that you don't just grab for the uh woe is me, you know, I'm exhausted. It's like, no, man, I've really played hard. I've really gone after this. I've made sure that there's meaning and purpose. I've made sure that I'm pursuing fulfillment. I've made sure that there's progress in my life, but now we've hit a point, it's not enjoyable. Back off. Relax. Take a Tuesday off. Meditate daily. Find some way to get calm and creative. Prioritize your sleep. Make sure you're eating right and exercising. All of these things matter a lot when it comes to burnout. So, be very thoughtful that even something that you love, that you recognize, there can be a point where you just need space. You need a minute. You need to take some downtime. And that you actually allow yourself to take downtime. But that you're checking yourself to make sure you're not just being lazy. What is that, my friends? I am very excited to announce that Impact Theory's major Web3 project, codenamed The Avatar Project, is almost here. As most of you know, for the past year we've been focused on building the future of this company in Web3. If you've already joined us as a Founder's Key holder, you know exactly what I'm talking about. We have so many different reveals for the project coming up, guys, including the real name, glimpses of the characters, the world, and more. So, I invite you to join me in my Discord channel for more information and frequent competitions and challenges. When you click the link on the screen, you can accept that invite. And once you verify that you're not a robot, with or without any knowledge of Web3, you'll instantly be a part of the most empowering community I've ever put together, and we'll make sure to keep you up to date with upcoming news about Avatar. Get ready to level up. Click the link and join me in the Discord. Until then, be legendary. Take care. Peace. I'm not in love with my job, but I have no dream or passion to succeed further. I don't know what else to do. I feel like this job has taken all creativity and imagination away from me. What do you recommend for someone like me? All right. So, first and foremost, we are going to have to figure out what exactly has happened. So, is it that you don't have a dream or passion because you haven't taken the time to define that? Because let me be very clear. Passion is not an archaeological dig. It's an architectural build. So, you don't turn inwards, look inside yourself, and find this glowing ember of passion and excitement that's been sitting there since birth, despite that some people will tell you that that's how this works, but it is not. If Steve Jobs were born a thousand years ago, he would not have dreamed of making the iPhone. What ends up happening is you decide. There is something that you decide means enough to you that you're going to invest in it. And then over time that investment turns that thing into a deep and abiding passion. As you get better and you get feedback from the world that they value this thing that you're getting better at. But it isn't just lying dormant within you. And this is like the number one confusion that I encounter with people is they think that either they're broken and other people were born with a passion and they were not. Or they just think that you know, if I do enough introspection I'm going to find something sitting inside of me and finally my life will be amazing. Once you realize that in fact what happens is when you look inside all you're going to find are these um sparks of interest. And from that spark of interest through pursuing it as a process of gaining mastery it will become a passion when you're able to use that skill set that you gained in the pursuit of mastery to serve not only yourself but other people, okay? So, doing that now you're in this passion loop of you worked really hard, you gained this set of skills, allows you to serve other people, they give you feedback, oh my god, thank you, this is so amazing, I'm grateful for what you've done, built, created, given me, whatever the case may be, and that feels good which makes you want to go get better and that's the passion loop. Now, as you're doing that, you're able to really be energized by the things you're doing. But, it doesn't start by looking inward and finding something. It starts by realizing that you have to fan those flames of that spark of interest to turn it into the raging inferno that you want to feel of that passion. But, that comes from that loop. Okay, so that's the first thing to assess. Now, if you already have or had a passion, but this job has somehow beaten it out of you, that's a very different story. And so, if that's what's going on, we need to figure out what is it in the structure of that that is robbing you of that. What's going on exactly that's making this overwhelming or stressful or not fun? Is it politics in the office? Is it just the work environment is too fast-paced? Is it that you're not being honest with yourself about, you know, going back to this idea of 50% of you is hardwired, 50% of you is malleable. If the hardwired part is out of step with the life that you're trying to lead, there can be a lot of frustration there. So, having the self-awareness to understand, did you put yourself in the wrong position? Are you trying to be Steve Jobs when you should be Steve Wozniak? That's a really imperative thing to look at. Now, I find that a lot of times, uh companies have their own issues. Whenever you get a large group of people together, there are going to be weird things that have to be navigated. But, at the end of the day, while you can't control everything that everybody does, you can always control how you react. And so, you can reorient yourself within company to figure out one, if there's a a path back to finding that joy, but that comes from breaking down what exactly happened that made you stop feeling the joy. And two, are you able to perform at a high enough level that you're able to create the space for you to get back on track? Because if you're going to go in and try to move things around and make some changes within the company or within your role or within how things work, you're going to need to be performing at a very high level to have the credibility to make that ask. And this is where it gets difficult. Nobody wants to hear this. I get it. Everybody wants to point fingers and say this is just a toxic company, but in reality, if it's that bad, leave. Do not waste time. Start find another job first. I'm not just saying quit. Find another job, but get out of there. Don't act like you're actually in prison. You are not actually in prison. And yes, I understand that you have obligations and you may be a single parent with kids and huge responsibility. I completely understand and I have the most empathy for that in the world, but I want you to understand. You are only as trapped as you allow yourself to be. If you have a useful skill set, you will be able to find another job. And now is the time to go looking for that while you're still getting paid. Now, if you don't have skill set that's marketable, that's where we have to start. And so, building up the skill set so that we can be marketable somewhere else. That's going to give us the ability to perform where we are or leave if it's too toxic, but assuming that we're going to stay, now we need that skill set to perform at a very high level to create the credibility to make the ask and go to your boss or whomever is creating or maybe not even creating the problem, but who has the ability to help you create the solution, now you go and say, "I'm performing at a high level." Yes? Yes, "Oh my god, you're amazing." Okay, cool. Here are the things that I would need to change. So often people's first instinct is just peace out and they don't realize that there are many things that they could have done to restructure the role, to create more space for themselves in order to stay. But what people end up letting happen is they let themselves burn out and then they want to leave and go somewhere else not realizing that they will have the same problem at the the job. And instead of doing the work themselves, solving the internal problem of how we ended up here, whether it's lack of skill set, not setting boundaries, whatever the case may be, but keeping that ownership, keeping that responsibility, recognizing that if you make different choices, you get different outcomes, so that you can go ahead and change things there. Now, again, if you want to leave, leave. By all means, take your skill set and go elsewhere. But make sure that you're not doing what I was doing in my early 20s when I was about to move to New York because I was unhappy in LA, and I thought that LA was the problem. In reality, it was my mindset. Once I changed my mindset, suddenly LA was amazing. Because it wasn't about LA. It was about me. And I thought, "Ah, like something's got to change." And so I just wanted to go as far away as I could. But it wouldn't have solved the problem. I would have gotten to New York only to have the same issue again and again and again. I had to address my mindset. And once I did that, then everything changed. So, be very careful, be very thoughtful about how you approach unwinding this problem. If you're always blaming other people, you're not going to get where you want to go because you're not looking for the things that you can do differently. You're letting your psychological immune system take over, make it other people's problems, and then you're not able to change. And once you realize that your life is an exact reflection of your choices, now, it's not so you feel bad, it's so that you remember, if you make different choices, you get different outcomes. And so now you can make these changes or gain more skills or whatever it is that's needed to get the life that you want. Now, no matter where you go, you will feel completely comfortable that you can shape things to your liking. But you have to know how the game works. You have to know that building skill set is the key. You have to know that communicating with your boss what's working, what's not working, and to have earned the credibility to make the ask. Do all that, you'll have no problem. I have financial obligations to stay at my current job. It has made me feel more depressed than I can say. How do I find purpose and fulfillment in a job like this? Okay. We have to figure out why you're feeling depressed. Is it your financial obligations? Is it that you hate this job and really the question you should be asking is how do I find another job? So, let me ask you a question. Have you ever written down in a single sentence what your ideal job is? I find that oftentimes the reason that people's lives are not what they want them to be is because they lack clarity. There's a great Tony Robbins quote. If you don't know where you want to be in 5 years, you're already there. That one hit me so hard the first time I heard it. If you don't know where you want to be in 5 years, you're already there. Where you are now is where you're going to be in 5 years, 10 years, because you don't have the clarity to steer towards something else. Because ultimately this is a steering problem. We have to know where we want to go. We have to figure out how do we end up here? How did we end up in a job that we hate? Is it that we chose the wrong job? Is it that we let ourselves be the boiled frog where it was just, well, that decision wasn't so bad. Okay, that I don't love that, but whatever, it's fine. And it's just day after day, month after month, year after year, it's things like that where things have gotten worse, you never set boundaries, you never push back, you didn't gain new skills so that you could demonstrate that you're capable of more, you didn't take on additional responsibilities and carve your own path through the company. Are you waiting for people to come to you and tell you, "Hey, you should apply for this new role." A lot of times people are waiting because they don't have the clarity. Or a lot of times they are afraid to go after it. They know what they want, but they either haven't built the skill set or they're so afraid of rejection they don't even try. On that you're going to have to build some I won't say fearlessness cuz you're going to be afraid, but you've got to be willing to embarrass yourself. You've got to be willing to fail. Like you've got to be able to sit in failure and be okay with it. Because let me tell you, the people that end up succeeding are not the ones that just never make a mistake. They're the ones that aren't afraid to make a mistake. Or they're certainly not paralyzed by it. Right? There was that amazing Michael Jordan commercial where he's talking about, you know, I've missed this many game-winning shots and I've failed this many times and it's because I have failed that many times that I've had the successful career that I've had. Now, it sounds counterintuitive. So, you need to understand what's really going on. What's really going on is that you have to be willing to take those risks. It isn't that you will never fail. It's just that you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. You are guaranteed to stay where you are if you never try to reach for anything more. A guarantee. It is a guarantee. It's guaranteed. You're never going anywhere else. If you don't try, you are never going anywhere else. It is 100% guaranteed. So, you're going to embarrass yourself. You're going to make mistakes. You are going to look stupid. And if you can emotionally deal with that, then you'll actually get better. Because every attempt that you make, you get a little bit better. At least if you're willing to be honest about the ones that failed, why they failed, own that responsibility so that you understand next time I can make a different choice and get a different result. You do that enough, it's what I call the physics of progress. You take your best guess, you try it, fail to some degree, improve, start over again, try something new, fail to some degree, and you just keep iterating like that until you get better and better and better and better and better, and you make that progress. That's really the key. But you have to do the work. You have to be honest with yourself. You have to take responsibility. You have to keep trying. You can't give up. If you hate your job, and you want to find fulfillment, and you want purpose, you also have to assign meaning and purpose. Like a passion, there is no meaning and purpose hiding inside of you. There are things you care about, for sure. And your goal is to look inside of yourself, and to find one of those things that matters to you, and say, "I'm going to make this really matter. I'm going to make this the meaning and purpose behind what I'm doing." Now, again, if you haven't read the book Man's Search for Meaning, read it. Viktor Frankl talks about exactly how you assign meaning and purpose to something, so that you can suffer and go through difficult things, all the while knowing why you're doing this. Why am I doing this? When you have a compelling answer to that question, you will move forward. If you don't have a compelling answer to that question, you will not move forward. So, we're going to make sure that we figure out how we've ended up here, why we're depressed, and then we're going to assign meaning and purpose. We're going to work to get the skill set that we need to make progress towards this thing that matters, right? Because it's not enough to just have something that matters. You've taken the time, you've assigned meaning and purpose to this thing that you're doing, but now you actually need to make progress towards that. And that's all about skill acquisition. So, this requires you to be very honest with yourself about how you ended up here. Retain your power by really looking at things from what did I do to end up here versus making this somebody else's problem. Oh, it's a toxic work culture, the environment here is terrible, my boss is an idiot. Don't do Even if those things are true, don't waste any time with that cuz you can't control that. What you can control is what you do, how you react. So, focus on that, assign that meaning and purpose, get the skill set you need in order to make meaningful progress towards that, and it will turn you around in terms of how you feel. And then remember, you can always leave. So, if your work really is that terrible, then go somewhere else. Just don't forget that all of your problems are going to follow you. So, solve the mindset issues first, and then see how that manifests in terms of your job. That's it. Those ideas I think will serve you very, very well, but you have to put them to use. And speaking of putting good things to use, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. And until next time, my friends, be legendary. Take care. Peace.