“After years of hard work and education, I have found myself in a restrictive work environment. I have no ownership of my projects, only requests to follow directions and complete assigned tasks. Even my evenings, weekends, and vacations are controlled by my manager, making it impossible to fully disconnect from work. The burden of my workload and the stress of tight deadlines have drained my creativity and passion. I’ve tried changing companies, yet everywhere I go, I face the same situation. I resent myself for many years of investments in this field and I feel trapped by financial constraints and social pressures.”
This is a common challenge that I often hear from my peers and clients. Many of us, as engineers and professionals, have faced variations of this experience, and most of us have struggled to address it and improve our situation despite years of effort. Our approach to shield ourselves from our deep disappointment has been to lower our expectations and standard from having a fulfilling career to simply performing a day-to-day job. As a result, it has become the norm to view professional life as merely a job, lacking any deeper meaning.
You Hold The Pen
The truth is that we cannot fundamentally transform our external world without first transforming within, as our external reality is simply a reflection of our inner state. This is why as long as we do not change within, we continue to experience the same challenges in every workplace, encountering the same struggles, managers, and work systems. We are the only ones with the power to break this seemingly endless cycle.
This is exactly how I broke free from my cycle of unfulfillment. I believe the most empowering step is to recognize that everything reflects from within and that we are the writers, directors, and actors in our life story. Every external reflection serves us on our journey of growth, providing opportunities to fully feel and embody the vibrations that we offer to the universe.
As I often say, there is no right or wrong vibration, and therefore no right or wrong feeling, emotion, or life experience. So let’s set our judgments aside. However, it’s crucial to understand that if we want to experience something different in the outer world, we need to embody that experience internally first. For example, if we want to be respected in the workplace or have the desire to be considered worthy, we first need to cultivate the sense of empowerment and worthiness within ourselves, qualities that are inherent to our essence. If we want to have more freedom over our work schedule, we must first acknowledge and embody the innate freedom and liberty that is our core identity and operate from that perspective. With this understanding, our questions shift from "Why is everyone and everything against me?" to: 1) "What do I want to experience?" and 2) "How do I embody that experience in the present moment?"
Answers to profound questions are equally impactful and life-changing. Once you ask the right questions and tap into your true strength, the answers, tools, knowledge, and wisdom that you need on your journey of self-creation will flow to you, guiding you along the way. Keep your heart open to these resources and gifts, allow them into your experience, and remember that they are summoned by your own deep desires and inner guidance and wisdom.
This shift in perspective needs to be practiced continuously, returning to ourselves again and again. Every life event is an opportunity for us to connect with our inner essence and grow. Be gentle, forgiving, and compassionate with yourself and others. We all live by the same universal laws; while some may be aware of and practice these laws more often, others may not yet be on the path of conscious awareness. Nevertheless, we are all rooted in the same essence and at every moment, we are all doing our best.
With this understanding, begin writing a life story that is joyful and fulfilling to you. Remember, regardless of the life scenario that you create or the experiences that you choose to live, you are deeply loved.
Attieh Shahvarpour, Ph.D.
Founder & CEO at Aligned Reinvention Coaching LLC