I was talking with a potential client last week, and like many such conversations, there was a moment where we both saw that the problem that he had come to me with, a passion project of sorts, was not the problem that he actually needed help with.

The passion project, while commendable, was only a way to get relief from the life he had built. Or rather, the life he had let others build for him.

For years, while being a very successful professional, he had also created a life where others felt they could make almost unlimited demands on him. He was on call to someone almost 24-7.

Yet when he wanted some space for himself, to rest, to pursue a cause, the people around him accused him of being selfish. They had come to rely on his generosity, his willingness to drop everything for them.

This was true both in his professional life and his home life.

And now he is paying the price.

He had not seen this before we talked. But now he does, and he still doesn’t know what to do. It feels like the moment Neo sees the Matrix. He might be able to go back to his former life. But can he unsee what he just saw?

Can anyone?

He is uncomfortable moving forward, to claiming a new life for himself, after years of avoiding confrontation, avoiding discomfort.

He sees where that life has brought him. The question is what he will do about it. The opportunity, if he can get through the discomfort, is freedom.

What is it that you’re not seeing that’s holding you back? What would it be like if someone could help you see it?

Is the door closing on making a change? Could we be heading into a recession? Am I going to have to wait even longer to make a move?

Maybe. But right now could be the absolute BEST time to create what’s next for you.

I know a lot of people assume that a recession is a terrible time to be looking for a job. But to me, it’s one of the best times.

Why?

Because the jobs that are out there right now are jobs with successful growing companies that have an urgent need. They are looking for people who want to be passionate about their cause, who want to build and grow something.

Is that you?

If it is, now is the PERFECT time.

The perfect time to find a job with more money, more joy, more meaning and purpose.

Are you ready to create that? Would you like to support from a group of other amazing creators?

Reach out to me. Let’s talk. Let’s see what’s really possible for you.

Let’s see what you really want. Instead of what you think you can get.

Getting good grades.

Going to a good school.

Graduating with honors.

Going to a top law school.

Working in a top law firm in a highly rated department.

Getting married.

Buying a house.

Having a child.

Getting promoted. Getting promoted. Getting promoted and relocated.

Becoming a partner in a big consulting firm.

Buying a bigger house.

Buying a luxury car.

You get the idea.

At some point, I started to figure out that the temporary happiness that I got at each of the steps toward my supposed success was followed by more stress. And less actual happiness.

It took a long time to figure that out. And a lot of ups and downs along the way. I lost my father when I was 23. My first marriage ended when I was 37. I lost my job (the first time) at 38.

But not pushing myself, which looked to me like settling, like mediocrity, looked ever worse.

There was no way out of the prison I had built for myself. I could be miserable on the inside and successful looking on the outside. Or I could be miserable on the inside because I was no longer successful looking on the outside. I went through both of those, and then, slowly, I went through to something else.

Because there is something on the other side of that struggle for success. Something that looks a lot more like freedom. Something where you can actually be you, where you can do good work, where you can make good money (more money in the job you felt stuck in), where you can be happy while doing something you love.

The thing that most gets in the way of this is the belief that it is not possible. But it is. I have created it, and so have my clients.

The people who come to me have gotten to the point where they simply can’t take another day of the prison they have built for themselves.

I do not free them. I show them how to free themselves. How to create the thing they most want.

Are you ready to create that? Because it’s waiting for you. But you have to commit. To letting go. To seeing that you are already free, that you can choose and create from freedom. That seeing can happen in an instant.

Are you ready to begin?

No matter what kind of person I am working with or what kind of challenge they are facing, there is a very good (99 plus percent) chance they are living into at least two BIG lies.

We have been told that stuff “out there” will make us happy, and that the way to get stuff out there is to make other people like us.

So we show up how we think others want to see us, to get stuff that we don’t actually need.

And we wonder why we feel like we are missing something.

First lie—you do not need anything “out there.” There is no out there, first of all. Your entire experience of the world is internal so there is nothing out there that can make you happy because there is nothing out there that you ever directly experience. Your experience of life is 100 percent your thinking about life.

Second lie—that you need to be anything other than who you actually are.

The journey of our lives is not the journey to get stuff. It is the journey to being who you actually are, rather than pretending to be someone you are not to get something you don’t actually need.

So, if it isn’t already obvious, most of us are living backwards. We are pretending to be who we are not to get things that we don’t need.

Do you see why you aren’t happy?

The ONLY thing that will ever make you happy is to experience who you REALLY are. You are literally MADE OF happiness, if only you could actually see and experience it.

The work that I do with people shows you that directly, so that it becomes abundantly clear.

You see that at your core, you are a creator. You are creating whatever you are experiencing as your life right now. Innocently, but directly. And you can create something different.

Of course when you see that you are the capacity to create, any sense that you are not enough simply falls away. If you can create anything, how could you be missing something?

And when you create just because you really want to, and not to fix anything lacking in yourself, you end up getting all the things that you thought you needed to make you happy. Your happiness, the purity of your creating, brings all that other stuff to you automatically.