Many professionals continue down paths they dislike simply because they excel and receive external validation. This pattern of ignoring personal dissatisfaction for the sake of praise is a form of self-betrayal that systematically trains you to ignore your own inner guidance.
Related Insights
A leader won't address their limiting beliefs until they feel a palpable tension. This dissonance arises when their actions conflict with desired results (like a promotion) or their own values. This feeling of 'something's not working' is the essential starting point for genuine change.
When facing a major career crossroads, the goal isn't to find the objectively "best" option, as it's unknowable. The key is to make a decision based on intuition, commit to it fully, and refuse to entertain "what if" scenarios about the paths not taken.
From a young age, we suppress our authentic selves (intuition) to maintain connection with caregivers. This creates a lifelong pattern of seeking external validation over internal knowing, leading us to distrust our gut feelings.
Individuals with a powerful sense of calling often develop an overinflated view of their own talent. This "career tunnel vision" makes them resistant to discouraging feedback, even from trusted mentors, causing them to pursue high-risk career paths without objective assessment.
Society elevates pursuing passion to a moral good, which makes people feel they are 'bad' if they don't have one or choose to leave one. This pressure can trap individuals in unsuitable roles and denigrates other valid, meaningful life paths.
Founders often start with strong intuition but lose it after achieving success. This occurs because long-held societal conditioning, which teaches individuals to distrust themselves and outsource authority to experts, resurfaces and mutes their inner voice.
Intuition is often overridden in professional settings because it's intangible. A bad decision backed by a rational explanation is often more acceptable than a good one based on a "gut feeling," which can feel professionally risky.
Amateurs rely on external voices—bosses, mentors, critics—to validate their work. Professionals cultivate self-validation, the ability to assess their own output and know when it's good enough. This internal locus of control is a crucial step toward an entrepreneurial mindset.
People mistakenly believe their current selves are final, underestimating future personal change. This cognitive bias leads young professionals to take unfulfilling but high-paying jobs, wrongly assuming they can easily pivot to a passion later in life.
To build a sustainable career, creatives can't rely solely on external validation like sales or praise. Motivation must come from the intrinsic value found in the act of "making the thing." This internal focus is the only way to avoid an insatiable and unfulfilling need for approval.
