Welcome to the next episode of Season Two: "Introverts at Work," which is all about empowering introverts and sensitive souls in their professional journeys. 

In this episode, we go beyond conventional career advice, exploring the essence of ideal work for your unique self. Our focus shifts from job titles & career paths to the inner experience of work— how it feels, how we show up, & what success means for you.

Our conversation begins with a moment to breathe and ground yourself before we get introspective. I walk you through areas to focus on that will help you create the conditions of ideal work, no matter what job you’re doing. We’ll take a high level look at how you think about work, your unique definition of success, simplicity, spaciousness, honoring energy cycles and expanding our concept of what constitutes “work”.

……………………………………..

Resources I mention:

The Wildly Successful at Work Guide helps you craft your unique definition of success based on your needs & desires and then create a strategy to implement it into your life. You can download it for free here: heidijandel.com/wildlysuccessful 

The Wildly Successful at Work Workshop walks you through the guide so that you can have a classroom “space” to apply this valuable work to your own work and life. It’s available for purchase on-demand here: heidijandel.com/wsw

Excerpts from the Episode

“When you know how to be more YOU in your work, you can take that to any job and improve your satisfaction."

"It becomes less important to find the perfect position and more important to just know yourself deeply."

"The more you understand and support your unique needs, the more you can build those into how you work."

Links

Schedule a Tea Date: heidijandel.com/tea

Listen & review: Podchaser.com/empoweredintrovert

Instagram: instagram.com/heidi.jandel

Facebook: facebook.com/hjweiland

YouTube: youtube.com/@heidijandel

Hi, my beautiful introvert friend.

Ideal work for introverts and sensitive folks.

So this is part of our new season, season two, introverts at work.

That explores ways to help you feel empowered and aligned and in love with

the work that you do whether you are working for somebody else or for yourself.

Now today's episode.

I want to explore this topic.

I'm not from the place of like, this is the career types that work best

for sensitive people, but rather.

From the perspective of really, like, what does ideal work look like for

you in terms of how it feels and how you show up, how you behave?

Your your patterns, your energy flow, the way that you are

in relationships, because.

When, you know how to, when you know what you desire to feel and

be in your work, you can take that.

To any kind of job to anything that you do.

And so then it becomes less important to find the perfect position.

And more important to just know yourself deeply.

So that's what we're going to explore today.

Before we get started.

I want to just take a moment.

And invite you to take a few deep breaths here.

This is something that I do often with clients or on Tea Dates, just

to help us arrive in the moment, let go of whatever our bodies and

minds have been doing until now.

So if you can be still, amazing.

If you're jogging or driving, no problem.

I'll just invite you for the next three breaths to go ahead and start now.

And breathe a little bit more into your belly.

And exhale out your mouth.

Breathing in through your nostrils.

And exhale out your mouth.

One last time.

One conscious breath in.

Exhaling fully.

How does that feel?

I know for me, I just can't.

Like turned down my agitation level about two.

To two points on the dial.

So effective.

And amazing.

Skill that you can bring to your work or anything in your life.

Okay.

So, if you're listening to this episode, I'm going to assume

that you are in a place of.

Of questioning or of searching for work that brings more

satisfaction to your life.

And so often we come to this place because we are dissatisfied with something right.

We're feeling stressed out.

You might be feeling burned out.

You might feel that you Thur.

You're being called.

There's an internal desire to express yourself in the world or have a different

impact than you're having right now.

And that you want to that you think that work is an avenue to do so.

And so, you know, Like when you're unclear about.

When you're unhappy or unclear, it can create a lot of, of confusion

or overwhelm, but also underneath it, there is this like that.

That drive that's seeking that I want to really key into here.

And to clear away some of the.

Ways of looking at it that might actually hold.

You back.

Because, and I say this because oftentimes we look for

satisfaction in the perfect job.

Right.

We have, we have to have the right kind of relationships.

Not too stressful.

We want to feel respected by the people that we work with

by our boss, by our clients.

We want to have time to have a rest of our life.

A good work-life balance.

We want to feel like we are contributing in a way that, that,

that people recognize and that really helps to helps the mission right.

To move forward.

So with that can also lead to, however, is if we're unhappy, as we look at our

job, when we say things like, well, "this isn't working", "I don't fit

in", "There's nothing I can do here".

And it might even look like.

This is just the way things are.

I don't fit into any job.

There is no good answer for me.

So I'm going to have to force myself to do something or to show up, to

work in a way that isn't right for me.

This can create a lot of frustration stress and disempowerment.

So we want to go ahead and acknowledge that if it's happening.

It's so good to notice.

And then simply take it and.

Kind of put it on the shelf.

It's like, I see that I'm looking for a perfect job or I don't believe that

it's possible that I can find a job that works for me, I just don't fit in.

And let's put that on the shelf.

And as we begin here, I want to encourage you to.

Think about how you want to think about work and who you are in your

work and what's possible in your work.

How can you think about that?

In a way that is supportive and affirming.

And opens you up to the possibility of something greater than you

might've experienced thus far.

So that might look like simply choosing to entertain the idea that

it's possible for me to create better work no matter what else is happening.

That it's possible to create better work.

The more I understand and support my unique needs, the more I can

build those into how I work.

I get to define my own vision of success.

I'd like to think about work as the way that you impact the world like you are,

if you're a sphere, And your work is a larger sphere with you in the center.

Like that larger sphere.

It's like the sun shining light out into the world, bringing your

unique perspective and skills and vision to create a positive impact.

So one thing that I see a lot with introverts and unconventional

folks, you know, me included is that when we are looking at work and.

Oftentimes we're coming from.

A place of PR like we're pre-programmed ideas about the

value of ourselves within work.

What I mean by this is often we think to be successful, we need to have charisma.

We need to be seen on social media all of the time.

We need to maybe be available and say yes, when people request

our skills and our input.

That we need to make a certain amount of money or work a certain amount of hours

in order to be worthy and successful.

So the first thing to do is to really get clear on the

way that you think about work.

And what is, yours, what you want to keep and what you don't want to keep.

Because if you have thoughts about work that are essentially making you

feel like you're not good enough, that if your colleagues don't respond

to you in a certain way, then you don't fit in then now is the perfect

opportunity to re-examine those beliefs and what they're creating for you.

So most of the angst that comes with work comes from the way that we are thinking

about it and the expectations and the judgements that we have on ourselves.

And even if someone is explicitly telling us that we're not doing a good job,

the way that we react and internalize that will, will dictate whether or

not that be is like super stressful and makes us question everything about

ourselves or we take it as feedback and try to see what the learning is

and apply it and get better from it.

So when it comes to ideal work, The next thing that you want to consider

is what your definition of success is.

What is your personal definition?

Of success.

This is influenced by separating out your beliefs and what you want to keep and what

is coming from outside yourself as well.

Because our, oftentimes we're programmed to think about success as,

you know, getting that, getting the, a plus of having sir having people,

praise us of making a certain amount of money, looking a certain way

achieving certain steps, all of which.

Are dictated by systems outside of us that you did not choose.

But it is your life.

And those systems are not created for probably for people like you.

Like for introverts unconventional folks.

People who have varying cycles of energy.

Neurodivergent folks.

The systems of work were not created for us.

So it's so important that you detach from defining yourself by their values

and decide your own version of success.

I do have a worksheet a guide that helps you create a strategy

called wildly successful at work that I will put in the show notes.

Essentially.

This, it walks you through.

Deciding what it is that you want to consider successful for yourself.

You know, work is like for, for me what I feel my definition of success right now.

It's much more about the experience and the way that I feel.

I want to feel spaciousness in my work.

I want to feel connection.

I want to feel a little bit of luxury.

And.

Ease, right.

I want to feel less stressed out.

So by identifying those versions of success and yes, I want some

money, but that is not the primary.

Primary goal, right.

And I can be very, very happy without having tons of money.

Right.

Because I, my personal definition of success is, is much bigger than that.

If you're, if money is big for you, that's awesome.

Not like excellent.

Excellent.

If you have identified that on a personal level, that independent

of society's values, right?

So w your personal definition of success will often guide how

you show up in your work and the things that you choose to focus on.

So some of those things might be, creating simplicity, creating spaciousness.

If you value spaciousness and as an introvert, as a sensitive person,

you probably also really benefit from spaciousness from having less scheduled,

having less stimulation because our nervous systems are so sensitive.

So bringing that desire into any job can help you decide to how do you maintain

simplicity, how you maintain spaciousness?

Well, Oftentimes that's having very loving and strong boundaries.

Being able to say no, being able to choose the way that you use your time.

Like block your time in certain ways, schedule the way that you work, so that

you feel that sense of spaciousness.

Along with that, one of your personal definitions of success might be to feel

more ease and less stress in your work.

So.

Having systems that support, that that help you to work efficiently to.

Help, you know exactly what to do and how to do it your best.

Oftentimes there's softwares and processes , we've got amazing tools

like more every day to help us do this.

Also looking at cycles and ways of using your energy.

So not just in the way that you schedule your time, but also the breaks and

habits to support your energy flow.

Some people need naps.

And naps can be an incredibly powerful tool for production for helping

your production being productive.

And helping you be present and efficient so that then you can finish your work

and go and enjoy the rest of your life.

No unconventional insensitive folks we often have variable energy.

And the more that you can understand and build your life around that the more

ease that you create because you can sync with your energy when you have it.

And then you can take care to restore it without overtaxing yourself.

And some of these things, if you're a solo preneur that has more control over

your schedule, a can be a bit easier, but there are absolutely ways that you can

bring this to whatever work that you have.

And in fact, this is what we need to do more.

We are in a place and time where we're rethinking the way

that we show up in work and.

So the more knowledge you have about yourself.

The more that you can advocate for yourself, right.

So ideal work.

Your version of success.

Probably oops.

Include.

Reducing stress.

And.

We can do that in how we show up to work.

The expectations and how we manage our energy.

But also in activities that help too.

Reduce stress, just like we did.

When we started this episode where we took three deep breaths.

Something like that.

It's a very simple tool.

That you can do pretty much anywhere.

I like to think about these tools, about cycles and empowering

rhythms, these things that require that we do something a little bit

different, that these also are work.

They are an investment in us to work.

And not just to be more productive and show up better

and to feel better as we work.

But to make work, not just about productivity, but it's also

about us taking care of ourselves and being more whole humans.

That our work work, isn't just when we're on the computer, doing things.

We are, are caring for our work when we're caring for ourselves.

When we are on vacation, we are caring for our work because

we're resourcing ourselves.

So the last things that I want to touch on regarding ideal work for

introverts and unconventional people.

Is that your sense of self-worth?

Not be tied to your experience of the work.

So that your identity, how you feel about yourself.

It's it.

It is strong and loving no matter if you're talking to a kind person.

Or a mean person.

No matter if you are, are burnt out or feeling well resourced.

So this comes down to you, really loving yourself and being proud of yourself,

even when you're totally messing up.

That's your strong self-worth.

That's a strong self-concept.

And something that you, that you develop that you can build and nourish.

No matter what kind of work you're doing and it's going to be incredibly empowering

in any work in any area of your life.

So if I was to wrap this up and summarize, it would really be to empower yourself

in order to empower your work, in order to improve and love your work.

So know yourself, love yourself, care for yourself, advocate for yourself.

And when you bring that into work, you're going to create work that fits you better.

That feels better.

That hopefully you love better.

So, if you have any questions about this, please let me know.

I Coming up with these episodes as I go based on inspiration and input.

So your questions are so incredibly beneficial because

it's probably not just you.

That has, has the question.

And I love, love, love, responding.

And riffing off of what's actually happening in your lives.

All right.

And again, if you want some help creating a strategy for feeling wildly successful

at work, I have the wildly successful at work guide, which helps you to do that.

There's also a workshop that you can purchase on my website.

Which I will include the link in the show notes as well.

All right friends.

Thank you so much for joining.

I wish you a beautiful rest of your day.