HOW YOUR EMPATHY CAN HELP YOU LOVE YOUR CAREER AGAIN

So often career oriented empaths, who find value in succeeding in their chosen field, hit the wall at work. You wake up one day and realize, your performance record has declined, you haven’t had an amazing review in years, you have to triple check your work and even worse, you are always passed over for promotions. No wonder you feel resentful and like you can’t keep up at work. And no matter what your career choice, it usually looks something like this.

You finish college, which was most likely easier for you, you get into the company of your choice, and you start excelling. Almost immediately moving through the ranks with ease. You recognize that life, although it has it’s bumps, seems to unfold fairly easy for you. And you have a feeling, more than a feeling a knowing, that it is connected to your sixth sense, your gut feeling, those little flurries of feelings that has always guided you through life. You may not recognize it as your empathy yet, but you know that your gut instinct has always led you in the right direction, and when you are in tune with it, man do things happen. 
You are probably both amazed and excited at this point. And at this point, you enjoy the little secret you have, the way to tell when to move ahead and when to step back. As you move into your 30’s, you are still using this gut instinct, but are probably starting to feel some of the effects of the energy connection to others. In an effort, to mitigate the negative impact on yourself, you start to naturally turn down the volume. Your movement through the company starts to slow down, but you don’t really put two and two together. You find that it takes you more effort to achieve the same results and you are getting more tired. You chalk it up to aging, although by now you are only in your late 30’s, early 40’s.

As work becomes more of a struggle and you start to shut your emotions down bit by bit, two major things happen. First, you feel more disconnected from your coworkers. This disconnection causes you to be more judgmental and suspicious than you would naturally be. It also causes you to be more frustrated with them. You no longer have that edge that allowed you to so easily connect with and work with others, you can no longer see how things will unfold and act accordingly. That missing edge is also the cause of number two. Because things are no longer coming easily to you, you are no longer guided by your gut instinct, work is literally a physical, emotional and mental struggle. You keep taking more and more action and getting the same or less results.

Until finally one day you realize, you feel trapped in a career you once loved. You take stock, trying to figure out how this happened. And you can’t really think clearly enough to pinpoint it, because honestly, it is so hard to think of anything but the despair you feel each day going into work and maintaining your composure. You start to realize that you’ve been sleep walking through work in an effort to keep it together. This coupled with your choice to disengage from your emotional connection to yourself and others has been the real cause of you getting passed over for promotions. You’ve gotten angry, blamed others, but never took the time to pause and reflect. Until now, you can no longer ignore it.

Now, it’s virtually impossible to sustain your work persona, and you know something has to shift. But you don’t know what. You think about leaving, but besides being overwhelming, it doesn’t seem like the right choice. And after some reflection you start to realize, it’s not your work that is the problem, it’s the actions you’ve been taking. After years of moving forward from your intellectual intelligence and not including your emotional intelligence, you’ve hit the wall. Your intuition, your empathy, your emotional intelligence is the key to everything.

The big question is, how do you dust it off and put it back into circulation. Is it outdated? Is it rusty? How will you even know what to do with it, if you can even get it started again? These are all valid concerns, but rest assured, your empathy is a natural part of you and all you have to do is connect with it, be intentional and be consistent. It really is that simple. Instead of power housing it through your work day, give yourself permission to stop and take a few breaths every hour. Give yourself permission to walk away from what ever you are doing and reconnect with your emotional intelligence. Make pausing, your new favorite co-worker. Do these simple things and you will start to notice a difference. Before long, you will be able to recognize the inspired action you used to thrive on.

Your intellectual intelligence is fueled by your emotional intelligence. That is how you were designed. Your mind/intellect is really only there to process and the inspiration that comes from your emotional intelligence. So you can bring it into this 3D time and space. The more intellect you have, the more ways you have available to you to interpret your inspired action that comes from your emotional intelligence. The marriage of these two intellects is what got you to where you are and it can get you to where you are desiring to go.

So take a deep breath, step out of your intellect for a moment and into your emotions. You will be amazed at the infinite possibilities.