If Your Work is Stressing You Out, Join the Circus!

If your job is stressing you out, burning you out, what work would you do instead if money were no object?

Would your current work change if, in perpetuity, all your bills were paid, all your needs were met, and you always had plenty of extra cash to do what you wanted when you wanted?

You might dismiss this question as unrealistic and insipid.

Yet as seemingly ridiculous as it may seem, this question is a technique designed to stretch your mind to consider new possibilities. Coach stuff. A similar coaching conversation might go like this:

Coach: “So you hate your job, and you’d like to brainstorm ideas about what else you might do. Okay, I have one. What would it be like to run away and join the circus?”

Female Client: (laughing): “The circus?”

Coach: (seriously) “Yes, the circus.”

Client (still laughing, but playfully considering): “Okay. I might have to let my beard grow…that won’t be a problem; I’m perimenopausal…I’d probably say ‘No’ to being shot out of a cannon, but you know what? I might make a pretty good clown.”

Coach (smiling): “What other work might you enjoy?”

Client (still enjoying her clown persona, pondering): “You know, I love to laugh and make other people laugh. I don’t know what work that would translate into yet, but I’m pretty sure want more laughter and joy in my work, like yesterday.”

Coach: “Let’s definitely explore that.”

Do you see how a ridiculous question allowed the client’s mind to expand and liberate what she truly wanted?

We tend to use our rational, formulaic mind exclusively to solve our problems. We always try to think ourselves out. We weigh pros and cons, often ending up with a drab, unmotivating list of tasks, and our only joy lies in crossing off the tasks. But when we use our creative mind, we’re fully able to access the vivid, exciting, and joyful realm of Possibility.

And then once we've explored our possibilities we can bring then back into the realm of reality and shape them up using our rational mind.

It’s like throwing a boomerang.  It goes way out into a place far beyond yourself, but it comes back to you. That’s how you bring something new and different to your work.

Now it’s your turn.

I won’t ask you to join the circus unless you want to. But money and financial stress are huge obstacles for people trying to access their creative minds. If you’re dragging yourself to work, hating Mondays, what work would you do instead if money were no object?

Please complete this sentence:

“If money were no object, I would ________________.”

Throw that out there. Go to that marvelous land of creative possibility.

Now, your answer will probably look weird and not make sense. It might even be frightening. That's totally OK. The point is to release it, to throw that boomerang.

Now, bring something of that back into your current reality. How do you take one small step to do that? To get more of that in your work? That, my friend, is where the beauty lies.

Consider your answer and make that change today.