You’re Not Broken — Success Is What’s Keeping You Empty
Choose your preferred written, video or audio version: - Read the full post below or on my blog. - Listen to the podcast on Soundcloud, or Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. - Watch the video version on YouTube. ---- Why Do the Most Successful People Often Feel the Most Unsatisfied? Today, we’re going to have a look at why even successful CEOs, C-suite, and top leaders feel unhappy—and look at something called imposter syndrome and the paradox of success. I’ve been coaching high achievers since 2013, and I’ve noticed trends where people who are often successful by everybody else’s standards are also often miserable. Why does high achievement negatively correlate with satisfaction and enjoyment of life? I’ll start by sharing a story about one of my clients, Lynn, who has basically crushed it since she was a teen. She has come from a difficult home environment, and she took that as motivation and ambition to get out on her own, to be independent, to never be controlled by anyone. And so she went out there and she crushed it, job after job. She climbed the ladder. She just got better and better at what she did. She got more and more responsibility, and of course got paid more. It seems like every time one door closed, 20 other doors opened. She’s just kept doing better and better, and yet still she feels not good enough. Still she feels like she’s an imposter—that she’s going to be found out as being a fraud who isn’t really deserving of the success she’s had. She’s hyper-focused on her failures and weaknesses, completely dismissing or overlooking the massive achievements she’s made over decades.