the many faces of discontentment
As I’ve been working with my coach to begin being more proactive and intentional in bringing the AlignedLife+ and LifeDesign+ relationships to life, I’ve been trying to describe who I believe I can best help. Unlike many products and services, there is not an avatar that I can point to and say “that’s THE person I’m best serving.”
Instead of the typical gender/age/profession description, the best I have been able to come up with is a series of adjectives: risk-taker, high-energy (think frequency, not bouncing off the walls), creative (although may not be sharing with the world), optimistic, collaborative, entrepreneurial (not necessarily business owner, but the mindset of an entrepreneur), self-confident, spiritual, BUT discontent.
Most of those are easy to understand and easy to identify within your Self and in others.
However, I feel discontentment is not necessarily easy to identify within our Selves; I know this from personal experience.
Discontentment manifests itself in different ways. For some, it shows up as frustration, which is what I naturally think of when I think of someone who is discontent. For others, it shows up as depression as the dissatisfaction with their situation has spiraled into a much darker feeling.
It can also show up as “shiny object syndrome” leading the individual to constantly be trying new things, experimenting, and exploring looking for their “thing.” In this situation, discontentment doesn’t necessarily have the negative emotions attached to it as it does with frustration and depression–this is how discontentment manifested in me.
For years, I wandered professionally exploring different business models, niches, services, marketing, and even positions looking for my “thing.” During these years, I never felt frustrated, sad, or that anything was wrong. All of my exploring was met with excitement and wonder of where things may end up; I learned a lot during those years and became very good and comfortable with pivoting.
But now, as my wandering has slowed down and I’ve tapped into the current version of my authentic Self and life, I can see that all of those experiments and exploring were me searching for a greater purpose and my authentic life, even though back then I had not identified the concept.
I’m willing to bet there are many battling the discontentment of not living a life more true to their authentic Self but aren’t aware of it—I know I wasn’t aware of it until I was able to look back with hindsight and the understanding I now have about the authentic life.
Discontentment doesn’t have to be experienced through the negative emotions I think are normally associated with it. It’s also not easily diagnosed from the outside and can really only be identified by the individual experiencing it. My hope is once you’re aware that discontentment manifests differently for people, you will be better equipped to connect to how you’re feeling and why you might be doing some of the things you’re doing.
Despite the negative connotations of feeling discontent, I think it is a positive sign as it’s an internal signal that there is something bigger for you. Even if it manifests in frustration or depression if identified, it can be the guide you need to begin moving closer to your authentic Self and align with your authentic life.
🎧 Listen to today's Note on the LifeDesign+ podcast.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
🦅 Some ways I might be able to help you live your authentic life:
🤝 One on Ones Let's hop on Zoom to do a guided meditation, a creative brainstorming session, or an overcoming an obstacle session.
📝 LifeDesign+ LifeDesign+ is rooted in the Kinder Institute of Life Planning’s EVOKE process, which is a five-step process to help discover what your authentic life looks like and begin to design a plan to bring that life to reality. It continues to incorporate the alignment of your spirit, mind, and body to ensure you evolve with your authentic life, as the authentic life is not a destination, it’s an evolution.
💸 AlignedLife+ AlignedLife+ (and the one-time engagement AlignedLife) takes LifeDesign+ to the next level by aligning your finances with your authentic life at RLS Wealth. For individuals looking for a financial advisor to help design and manage their financial plan while maintaining the alignment of spirit, mind, body, and money, AlignedLife+ was created specifically for you.
📈 LifeDesign+ for financial advisors LifeDesign+ for financial advisors mirrors the LifeDesign+ relationship, including the focus on the alignment of spirit, mind, and body, with an important distinction—once the plan for your authentic life has been designed, we shift our focus to integrating your new plan with your practice.
🤝 Outsourced life planning As your outsourced life planner, you bring me in to take your client through the Kinder Institute of Life Planning’s EVOKE process to help them better understand who they are, what they want their life to look like, and create a vision of this life for you to execute on the financial plan. Since you are their financial advisor, you will be a part of each of the meetings, so you understand the “why” behind your client’s new plan.
