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October 1, 2024 14 mins

What if you could transform your unfulfilling job into a springboard for personal growth? Join us on Big Questions, Short Answers as we tackle Oliver's dilemma of feeling trapped in a job he despises at a retail distribution company. With financial commitments and few opportunities in sight, Oliver's at a crossroads. Together with Andy, we explore the significance of aligning your work with your core values and offer actionable steps towards self-development. 

Through Andy's personal anecdotes from the media industry, we illuminate the struggles of being stuck in a soul-crushing role and emphasize the importance of self-awareness in any career journey. While recognizing the vital role of retail distribution, we encourage listeners to contemplate how they can channel their life energy into pursuits that resonate more deeply with their personal values. Tune in for honest, practical advice that aims to guide anyone feeling stuck in their career towards a more fulfilling path.

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For more content, check out Sian's website sianjaquet.com, and her online course: Create The Life You Truly Love.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Hey okie doke, okie doke.
It's one of those days, eh.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Aye, aye, aye, aye.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome to Big Questions.
Short Answers.
I'm Sian.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
And I'm Andy Sian's husband asking the big life
questions.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
And possibly adding a little bit of unsolicited
advice.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Maybe this podcast is brought to you by Sian's
value-based online course.
Visit SianJackaycom to find outmore.
Okay, so actually this israther good.
We've had an email from a guycalled Oliver and he's asking
for a bit of advice here.
He says he's been working for aretail distribution company for

(00:41):
about two years now and he justhates his job.
A retail distribution companyfor about two years now and he
just hates his job and he can'treally leave.
He's got rent to pay andvarious other life things going
on and there's not that manyopportunities out there.
So he's a bit stuck.
So what?
does he do.
Why are you asking me?
Well, actually people do cometo you in this scenario, all

(01:02):
right, so it's probably worthgoing through it.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hi Oliver, thanks for reaching out.
That's the first thing.
Clearly you're not a happybunny, because you've actually
spent the time to send us anemail.
So you know this isn't just afleeting moment of I didn't like
work today.
Look, I mean I think, before Istart pontificating about what
you should do and what youshouldn't do, let's be clear.
Right, I've got 15 minutes andthis is a little more than a

(01:27):
soundbite.
But the first thing I would sayto you is, in all the years
I've worked with people in thatspace of jobs and careers,
unless there is a meeting ofyour values with the people that
you work for, the chances areyou're not.
You know your heart and mindisn't going to be fed.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Now, a lot of people are forced into that situation
just to pay the rent, aren'tthey Rhett yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
absolutely yeah.
So from a very practical pointof view, I would say to you that
this is about you probably needto do some self-work and again,
you know it's first of allidentify what's important to you
in life, your values.
Yeah, once you've done thatpiece of work, you then look at

(02:06):
what beliefs have you got aboutyourself?
That is either holding you backor not allowing you to create a
vision of who you are and howyou can live.
Yeah, you're.
In some ways, andy, you'requite a good example because you
worked in the media, news,television cameras, editing
production.
Quite a good example because Iam.
You worked in the media, news,television cameras, editing
production.

(02:27):
It was absolutely your thingand throughout your career, the
times you've been spinning outof control was because you
couldn't see yourself doinganything different from where
you were at that moment well,that's it, because you've got
these commitments and family orwhatever, you're just trying to
make it work.
Yeah, so I understand that rightand I'm not belittling that.

(02:49):
But what I'm saying is, if youput some time, a little bit of
time, aside every week, don'ttry and solve it in a day.
Yeah, maybe give yourself amonth to do some
self-development.
What are your values, what areyour beliefs and what's the
vision of how you want to liveand what, what you'd like to use
your life energy for?

Speaker 1 (03:09):
it's very difficult and we'd be like stuck in that
kind of I don't know retaildistribution.
Whilst it's very important, itdoesn't strike me as something
that's particularly fascinating.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Don't talk about retail.
It's a very, very importantpart of how the world works.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
All those people in retail distribution, no offence.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
I'm telling you, your world would come to an end
within 24 hours if you didn'thave those people.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Absolutely Very important.
But to you boring is back to it.
Yeah, a little bit.
Same could be said for what youdo, yeah probably, but what I'm
saying is that we can be veryethereal about these dreams,
about what we want to be.
I don't want to be in retaildistribution, I want to be Well
look again.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
It's difficult.
I don't know if I was sittingin front of it and how old he is
.
I don't know what hisparticular situations are, but
what I would say is that youneed to look at the bigger
picture of what you need, right.
And as I say, oliver, I don'tknow who you are and how old you
are, and you know it doesn'tmatter whether you're 25, 45 or
55.

(04:12):
If what you're doing is notfloating your boat, which it
clearly isn't then there aremany, many, many, many other
things that you can do, and I'mjust going to take this
opportunity.
I don't know whether this isright for Oliver.
All right, I'm not trying tofix him from a distance, but
what I'm trying to say is thatrecently, in the last couple of
years, I've become aware of aprocess that is now in place

(04:35):
here in New Zealand.
I don't know what the story isin the rest of them all, but
there are several people overthese last couple of years that
I have referred to thisorganisation and over half of
them have taken up theopportunity, and that is to go
and retrain to be a teacher.
But you're older and they payyou to do the training, and the

(04:55):
training is on site in schools,with some modular online
learning, and you've got acomplete support system from an
academic establishment, but alsofrom the schools right.
And I can honestly say thepeople I've chatted to who have
embraced this as an opportunity,every one of them are like some
kind of evangelical oh, this isthe best thing that's ever

(05:18):
happened.
They're earning money,they're're contributing, they're
developing their lives.
I mean, again, there are somepractical things here, aren't
there?
Yeah, I mean, where do you usemanagement experience and people
skills?

Speaker 1 (05:31):
I mean, we're better than in school so you know,
people really couldn't see thatkind of I suppose.
I suppose it depends what hiseducation was in if he did a
degree, but people don't seemanagement, as I don't know,
transferable.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, it's very hard for any of us to see what we're
good at.
Again, I would have a look atthat professional values
workbook that I've got up there,because one of the parts of
that is looking at what yourskills are.
Yeah, and usually we don't,unless we need to throw a CV

(06:08):
together for some reason.
Yeah, we don't look at ourskills, and back in ye olden
days, skills weren't even partof a CV.
It was.
I had this job from this timeto this time, yeah, yeah.
Well, now it is about your corecompetencies and skills and
abilities and again, I canhonestly say to you I have never
worked with anybody who's donethat piece of work that hasn't

(06:30):
come out thinking I'm actuallyquite smart, I can do a lot of
stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
It's not it's breaking it down, isn't it?
We're very critical ofourselves, aren't we, in terms
of what we think we're capableof.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
And when you've been doing something in a job for a
few years, you're just doing it.
You're not even reviewing whatam I doing and how well am I
doing it?
So I would say, Oliver, look,it's evolution, not revolution.
I'm certainly not saying to yougo and hand in your job, roll
the dice something else.

(07:03):
You need to do some work onyourself first, because
otherwise you may well bejumping from firepan into fire.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Well, what about if okay, so it pays really well,
may obviously pay more than oneteacher gets or a few other
tools, but outside that justdoing, you know you use your
work to pay your rent and thenyou do something outside to
float your boat, kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, I mean, that's an equation that a lot of people
live by and it works, andeverybody's different.
As I say, you know, all of usreached out to ask, but the
reality is there isn't enoughinformation there for me to, in
a qualitative way, give him someidea.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
I suppose the key is there.
Why does he hate his job?
Is it the people?
Is it the process?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well, usually if you ask somebody why they don't like
it, they can give you a wholelist.
It's what you want.
That is where it's like I can'tfind.
People don't know what they want, exactly Because they don't
know what's possible.
They don't know if you've nevertried it, if you've never

(08:10):
experienced it.
Hence why I would be saying youknow, you have to look at your
circumstances.
How much money every week,every month, every year do I
need to bring in to live at thatlevel?
So, if that's the equation,where can I go and earn that
money?
And I know I'm sounding like, ofcourse, but it is what I'm

(08:31):
really saying is get out of theemotional motorway lane of I'm
unhappy, I don't like this, Iwant change.
Right, get into the motorwaylane of okay, what does change
look like?
What does success look like forme?
How much of my life energy am Iprepared to put into doing that
?
Because, let's be clear, I knowpeople who've got three jobs,

(08:52):
and it's because they want toearn a lot of money, relative,
because they want something.
I personally know somebody whois house sitting and dog sitting
and travelling all over thecountry for months at a time,
living out of a bloody suitcaseright To save rent.
So they've got deposits to buya house.
So do you see what I'm saying?

(09:13):
It's all about what yourmotivation is.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Right, so it's setting a goal, and then, once
you've set a goal, you can Ihate that word Goal, I hate it.
Oh, it's Well.
What do you want to call it?
Aspiration.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Creating a vision of who you are and how you want to
live.
Right, because a goal has thatframe around it.
You know you, literally you'rekicking a goal and you scored.
It's great, you've done it.
Well, life ain't like that.
It's not a goal.
You're not going to suddenlyreach something when there's
this euphoric feeling whereyou're pulling the shirts over
your back of your head andthrowing it on.

(09:50):
All right, you're my point.
Yeah, it's much more to do withcreating a vision and let me
tell you now, it's hard.
It's very, very hard to do it.
It takes courage, becauseeverybody around you all of your
life, your friends, your family, your schoolmate, bloody
everybody has got an opinion onwho you are and what you should
be, and woe betide you to go andchange and think that you're

(10:15):
better and think that you want.
Yeah.
So I'm trying to.
I'm trying to just bring outsome of the obvious things that
usually come up when you have aconversation of that nature.
But I would always say tosomebody you don't do anything
for at least a month.
You do the work for a month andjust observe what you're
thinking and what you'relearning about yourself.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Because sometimes with clients you do a vision
board, don't you?
And that's actually quitepowerful.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
We flick through magazines and see just what
images kind of resonate and thenput that into some kind of a
there was a guy in Australia Iworked with some years ago names
will not, but he worked in theconstruction industry, in a very
specific area of construction,and he'd done it all his life
and he was really good and hemanaged teams of people and you

(11:06):
know he was general manager of areally quite successful company
and not unlike Oliver.
You know he rang me up and saidyou don't know me, I've been
giving you a number.
I don't know what I'mcomplaining about.
I've got a job, I earn moneyand that's it.
But I just the thought of medoing this for the next 20 years
.
I want to stick a fork in myhead.

(11:29):
And it was through doing avision board which, again, I've
got to be honest.
I suggested it to him and I'mused to it now.
So I explain.
You know you're going to yourtoes, are going to curl into
your shoes and you're going toroll your eyes when I tell you
to get magazines, cut them outand create a collage.
Anyway, he did it and lo andbehold, literally from that
which he took a photo somewhere.
We had the next session.
He ended up creating and westarted having a conversation

(11:52):
about his hopes and dreams, ofwhat he really wanted to do and
he now works for one of thelargest, very, very successful
charities in Australia and hehas a senior role there and is
contributing and giving of hisheart, soul and mind in a way
that, yeah, I had reason tospeak to him a few months ago

(12:13):
and and it was a light.
So my point is that it ispossible to make change.
Of course it is, but it'sfrightening, yeah, and you need
to take time and you need to dothe work yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you've got it isn't?
a fast forward here.
There isn't a.
Go on, you know, the internetand find a job.
And oh, does that match mysalary?

(12:34):
Can I get there in a car, on abus?
Right, I'll go and do it.
Yeah, that is not.
And and the word I use, and Iwould ask everybody to kind of
if you're in this and you'rethinking about you know what am
I doing with my life energy, theword I I use, which usually
shakes people up, but is thecore is contribution as human

(12:55):
beings, we feel really good whenwe contribute to something in a
positive way.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well, we're going to have to leave it there.
Thank you very much, Oliver,for your email to spark a
conversation.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Send more.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yes, if you have got a question, reach out to us the
email's on the site and goodluck in your ventures and think
about creating that vision.
Yeah, if you go to the websiteactually this programme is
sponsored by Create the Life youTruly Love and go online, do
the course and hopefully we'llshape your vision.

(13:28):
Very posh, back to school.
Join us next time on BigQuestions.
Short Answers with Sian Jacquetand me, andy.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
If you have any questions you want to ask,
please send them via the websitesianjacquetcom.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and
share it with everyone you knowwe really do appreciate you
sharing 15 minutes with us andif you want to do a bit more
learning, go on to charleswebsite charlesjacquetcom.
There's a course on values tocreate life you truly love.
I did it and it really does dowhat it says on the can see you
next time.
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