When To Leave Comfort To Live your life

Sean Buttner left Walmart and Apple to pursue coaching, and shares a four-question journaling framework to decide when to leave a comfortable job. Write down your dream, imagine the cost of not pursuing it, envision how your life changes if you do, and picture the legacy you'd leave behind.
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It can be tricky when we have to shake things up, right? And I say this as someone that has quit corporate America twice in my 40 years on this planet. First to start a business that failed, but then got me the second gig. So first main corporate gig after college was at Walmart as a software engineer and business analyst. Put that to create a business helping people with student debt. Did that for about a year that failed, but that work got me hired at Apple as a quality assurance engineer, software engineer. And so that latter part, working for Apple was the dream cutting edge technology, cool technology stuff that a lot of people use. That company was really great at reminding you how important it was to have the best products ever. They really believe that, did the work to make sure that when something was released to the general public that it was the best that we could possibly make it. So that in a nutshell was the dream tech job for me. And something was missing. And I remember believe it's Steve Jobs that I'm gonna paraphrase. You basically said, find something that you love and something you're passionate about, something you'll find light floor and do that. And if you're not doing that right now, stop. Whatever you're doing, figure it out. Because this idea that we need to find our purpose, our mission, our passion, it isn't so that everything is happy and stress goes away and you could live comfortable and easy for the rest of your life because that never happens, right? Regardless if you choose to follow your dreams, create your dreams or not make the choice to just do what you have to do to get by, there's going to be life that happens. There's going to be things that you don't expect that happen in the world or to your family or your group of folks. There's going to be things that you can't control in organizations and so on and so forth, but have that fire in your belly, that passion to do your best to push yourself, to realize something bigger than yourself. You can weather those situations with more resilience, with more joy, with more progress and growth and more impact with the community and the folks around you. And I believe so. How do you go from a great job like I had at Apple to giving that all up to start over, start another business, which is my coaching business, right? Excuse me. Let me tell you, it was not an easy choice again, because I had paid pretty well, felt comfortable in a lot of areas of my life, but didn't feel like I was serving. And really this is a video about how do you know when to let go, especially if it's of something great. And that could be a great relationship that's not really working out for you or a great job, great situation. And that's something. I help people out as a coach all the time, but I really think that we often don't do this reflection work to make sure we know we're chasing what we want and we're in that sweet spot of that passion, that drive, that fire and making things happen for us and. And also taking care of the obligations of family and whatnot that we have. But if you want to go from that kind of. I want to make this change and have this big thing that I'm chasing, but I don't know how to start. I don't know what I need to give up to get progress and momentum, because that's the other side. Like, sometimes when we have our full plate, it's really hard to chase our dreams as quick as we want. And so people will get really fed up about their sense of progress towards those big moves, those big strokes. And ultimately, people give up, people stop trying. People get beat down. People don't feel like they can fully show up as their authentic selves. And so we don't want that for you. So how do we go about it? First thing I'll have you do is grab a journal and. Or if you're driving or not out in the world listening to a podcast, then, you know, please do this when you get back. But think of something that you've wanted to do for your dream that you haven't yet, and write that down. And that could be like, I know I want to start a business, but I haven't looked into how to start an LCD port. I really want to switch jobs into this new field of research or science or service, and I just don't know the steps to get to there from where I'm at or know that I feel okay in what I'm doing. But I know that when I'm mentoring people, I know that when I'm working on this particular type of project, that I feel more alive. Increase that. And so if you have that dream, that vision, that thing out there in the world that speaks, you write that down. And really, then the second question becomes, what happens if you don't start trying to make that happen more in your life? And I've had clients and friends who, like, I just want to see my kid more because work, like, work 80 hours a week if I don't set some boundaries. And so what happens when you don't set those boundaries in that particular case. So what happens if you don't start the business? What happens if you decide to play it safe for the next 30 years of your life? What's that going to be for your life? So what's going to happen if you don't make that change, if you don't start chasing it? And again, if you are resonating with this and you're like, hey, I'm still stuck, or I need some extra help to progress even quicker, this is a great reason to talk to a coach. And so below this video, you can always sign up for a free one hour strategy session with me and we'll go through a certified high performance process. So there are particular habits and outcomes that we'll talk through. We'll tailor it to your situation, what you're chasing, what you're going after. A cheer you on. We'll brainstorm any problems you have, we'll come up with a plan you can implement immediately and then after that we can talk about a coaching relationship or not. So that's, this is how I find new clients. So full disclosure there, but it's all about having a good fit. It's all about showing you the value of the coaching and it's all about getting you that fantastic plan so that you get cooking, you get chasing, you get moving forward and yeah, and then we go from there. Right. But I want to deliver that for you for free. So wherever you're watching or listening to this podcast, it's in the show notes. We'll leave that link there. So fill out the application, schedule a time and we'll get on the horn and we'll figure it out. Okay, cool. Okay, so first thing we had to do is write down something that you really wanted to do for your dream that you haven't yet, or trying just trying to get clear on what that next thing might be if you have that dream. Second thing is what happens if you don't make that change? The third thing, ask yourself is like what happens to your quality of life, to how you feel about yourself, how you feel about your life, how others will look up to you if you make that change? Think about that. Like that is such a powerful question for yourself. What happens if you do make particular change? This is really how we get over those fears of I'm not going to be enough, I'm not going to be able to be successful. This is really going to be a painful process. This question helps combat some of that human psychology that says we're not Enough. We can't do this. We shouldn't do this. This is crazy because a lot of times our brains trained to focus on the negative, and this is getting you focused on what is possible. And then fourth, if you wrote a memoir so that others could learn from you, what would you love that story to be? And I love this question to wrap up this exercise here that we should be doing every week, we should have some type of journaling practice. I feel like this is something that on a weekly or monthly cycle can really benefit you. Getting in and realizing that big vision you have for yourself. But what's so great about this is it's thinking about legacy. It's thinking about how you as the hero of your own story. Right? And so when I left Walmart that first time, I. One of the questions that. That I really mulled about over is if in the future, I was talking to my kids and they're like, hey, how was your career growing up? How were you when you were in your 20s? And I could see at that point in my life that I could say I played it safe. I had an. I had something in my heart that pulled me and I chose not to chase it. And ultimately it killed me. It led to a lot of pain and stress and misery because I knew deep down there's something else out of out there for me, and I wanted to see what would happen. Right. So was it a story of being safe and that is okay too, but. Or was it a story of taking a chance on yourself, of trying to figure out who you are, seeing if you could do something great or do something crazy or do something and make a mistake? And so that was hugely motivating for me to make that change at that point in my career. When it came to the choice to leave Apple, it was. I wasn't. I didn't have my whole heart in the work I had. I was constantly thinking about my coaching clients, was constantly thinking about how I could be a better coach. I was not thinking about how I could be a better programmer. And when I realized that was going on in my career, in that particular moment, in my time, it's okay, need to make a plan. We need to make a change. Because this is just causing a lot of friction in life. That's unnecessary and it's not fair to the team. I was on to Apple as an organization at that point and the mission that I wanted to serve, the vision that I had for myself and my wife and our family, it was, yeah. So this is powerful stuff. I wanted in that instance, sue, to be the person who chose to lean into life. Not what life expected of me, but after figuring out if we could swing it, what I think I could make and the positive impact I could have out in the world. And I want that for each and every one of you. Right? I think we all have that gift inside of us that we can realize that will be better for everyone around us. That's what I mean when I say if it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no. So follow your passion. Make a big move towards that big dream or vision you have for yourself. I know it can be scary. You don't have to quit everything like I did in leaving corporate America twice. But you could start something on a side, an hour, a weekend, or how. Whatever works for you. But you can get in the game. You start making these moves, you can start feeling that sense of purpose again, that sense of optimism that your actions matter and can impact your family, the people that are in your orbit, your coworkers and teammates. Like, there's a lot of people looking at you, looking up to you and looking at what you're doing. So why not do the things that are in your heart and chase them? So with that, I'll leave it to you guys next week. Leave it here at the same time, same place. The Sean Butner saying, live with more joy in your life, more personal growth, and more impact in your communities. See you then. Take care. Sa.










