Do Happy Work
The traditional definition of "work" is harming our society. We have embraced Sad Work as a norm. It has led us to view stress, anxiety, failure, competition and regret as an inevitable part of our work lives. It all began with the belief that work is only here to serve our financial advantage, and that struggle is just part of it. This is unacceptable, because it goes AGAINST OUR NATURE. In this podcast, Olivier Egli encourages a different approach to work: the creation of human value that leads to Happy Work. This approach removes the detrimental obsession we have with transactions, and replaces it with the joy of transforming human beings with human value.
Do Happy Work
Growth happens on the edges of the comfort and uncomfort zone
True growth doesn't come from taking drastic leaps but from understanding oneself and taking measured steps forward. This episode highlights the essential elements of self-discovery, encouraging you to embrace self-awareness and confront your fears. By addressing the root cause of "what-if" questions and expanding your boundaries gradually, you can transform a state of feeling stuck into readiness for change. The resources you need for this transformative journey are already within you. It's about taking mindful, aligned steps toward your truth and aspirations. Tune in for actionable insights that will help you navigate both your comfort and uncomfort zones effectively.
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My name is Olivier and this is the Do Happy Work podcast. Life happens outside the comfort zone. They say right, we all say it. We all say it we have this little imaginary box where we say think outside the box, don't stay within your comfort zone, and then things will happen. You know, the magic is out there. It's just so funny that we say that, but yet I see the whole working population inside of that box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's actually a good point, like everyone is inside the box.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's like everybody's waiting for something to happen. You know, we have all these friends and these acquaintances that have been stuck in jobs that are not good for their mental health and their physical well-being, but yet they give us excuses. They're going to wait another year, wait for the promotion, wait for this, wait for that. But at the same time I see those same people post little proverbs that say step outside the comfort zone and and take a risk, and life is risk, and change is risk, and and life is about change.
Speaker 1:and you know there's so many so we, we have all these things like. We know that we have to take a risk, but because we're not clear on how much risk is too much and when the risk is right, you know when is the right moment, or what is the right risk?
Speaker 2:right, we start asking all these questions.
Speaker 1:But you know, I just think that that specific proverb really shows the biggest problem that we have, that we know that there are two sides to the coin. There's the life in comfort, or so-called comfort and misery, and there's the life in the unknown, the side of the adventure, the expedition, and we are oftentimes flip-flopping between the two. You also know people who take a year off and they go on adventures but then they go right back into the comfort zone once they're back. Or we have these corporate jobs, but then we go on crazy expeditions.
Speaker 2:You know what? It's funny because right now that we're recording this, it's Burning man week, right? So we have friends that are like the most corporate friends that you've ever friended and they're like life is about experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they want to feel something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they come back and go right back into the same rat race.
Speaker 1:That's what I meant to say is that if we really believe that there is such a thing as the comfort zone and there is such a thing as the uncomfort zone, then flip-flopping between the two is not a very sustainable way of being, because it means we flip-flop between two different strategies the strategy of too much risk and the strategy of not enough risk and that is kind of like what leads to people breaking down. People break down either because they remain in the safety, in the so-called safety of the waiting room, the comfort zone, or because they throw themselves out there and then they break their neck, or because they flip flop and now they never have a balanced approach to growth, Because, let's be honest, there is no growth in the comfort zone. The comfort zone is where we all are when we just heed the advice of our parents.
Speaker 1:Complacency? Basically yeah, when we just follow the routine.
Speaker 1:We do good enough when we do what we're told to be doing, be doing. You know when we, when we get that job that our parents want, when we just follow in the footsteps of who, whoever you know, we admire at young age, and and? And the uncomfort zone, the darkness out there, what we call the magic zone, it's kind of like, where we imagine people that truly take big risks and throw everything overboard. And here's the problem, and that's not just a thesis, that's something that I observe. We all know about these two options and that is the issue why we're not moving forward. Because one option looks boring as hell but comfortable, and the other one looks terrifying Terrifying, but gratifying also potentially.
Speaker 1:And now if you, from your upbringing, you're not wired for risk, since there are only these two options, you will go for the comfort zone and now you kind of like, arrange yourself to be okay with it and you wait, you wait. Two options. You will go for the comfort zone and now you kind of like, arrange yourself, you know to be okay with it and you wait, you wait, maybe life will throw something at you, but if you're a risk taker, you're done with the comfort zone. But since you don't have really a notion of risk. You just risk everything. You risk house and family and everything.
Speaker 2:I think that the biggest issue, though, before you continue on this is that most people don't know what they're supposed to be risking things for. They know that there's something they want to launch into out of complacency.
Speaker 1:Of course they know, and that is actually a good point. They know because their heart is telling them Like, actually, yeah, let's bring it back to that. Why are we even talking about comfort and uncomfort zone? Because we all feel something. We all feel that what we're doing when we stay in a comfort zone, when we just wait for pay, when we have a job, that's just good enough. When we just follow those mediocre lifestyle advices, we sense that something is missing. We sense it and therefore the idea of risk sounds very romantic and interesting.
Speaker 1:We have literature that we then read, that takes us places, and we have movies that spark our imagination. But here's the thing Nature does not do that. Nothing that grows naturally either waits out for its life to somehow, we think, threw themselves out the window. They actually didn't. They didn't. Look at Ronaldo, the soccer player. Everybody always thinks that this is a guy who just gave it all and just threw himself, and now he's this incredible star. No, it's decades of investment. It's self-investment. It is actual, menial, slow, incremental growth. It's not waiting nor throwing out the window. It is this beautiful zone in between that nobody talks about. We don't have proverbs that talk about this zone. That's why we don't even realize that there is an option C, which is the natural one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's funny that you keep saying natural and everything in nature. One of the pictures that I always see about like something about like just launch yourself in the comfort zone and blah, blah, blah, is that little bird that flies out of the nest and, sure, like literally it just tosses itself out. But what happened before? As you said, the mom has been feeding it. They have been learning ways of surviving out there, and taking flight is just like the transportation that they get out there.
Speaker 1:It's about everything that works up to that point I agree, but we're also talking about a bird here.
Speaker 2:Birds launch themselves that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:That's just a vehicle to get out there, but there are so many things that happen before that of course, but what I mean is that we use the analogy of, like you know, dropping out of the nest, and then we, we think that it's like us, we have to drop ourselves, you know, out of our comfort zone. Birds fly, they have wings, you know. So we don't have wings, we have legs, we have feet, we walk, we take steps. Why would we have to launch ourselves? Why would we have to throw ourselves from, you know, a branch of a tree? We don't do that. We have feet because we are intended to walk on our growth path Step by step. I do not understand why we think that the sole two options for growth are either sitting and waiting or jumping off a tree. It's bullshit. We're human beings, we need to know. Our nature is to take steps, and steps are incremental.
Speaker 2:Even if you're running, it's still steps right, You're still going step by step by step by step by step.
Speaker 1:Yes, but guess what? Before you run, you walk. Before you walk, you crawl Yep. So that is something that the modern world has completely forgotten. We human beings, we have forgotten that we have all the tools and all the indicators for our growth and yet we disrespect and disregard them, we ignore them. It's right there in front of us, it's attached to us and, to add insult to injury, we see how things grow around us. I have never seen a tree. Just, you know, you plant a seed and the next day there's a fully grown tree hung with fruit. But we kind of pretend like that is the jumping out of the comfort zone. You know, like risk. Dare to be great, no, don't dare to be great. Just dare to be you. Dare to take a step.
Speaker 2:Dare to be yeah, yeah't dare to be great, just dare to be you, dare to take a step, dare to be yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dare to take a step as yourself, but a step nevertheless. And you know like I have mulled this thing over, because I heard this thing again. I was involved in a conversation about the comfort zone and risk-taking and risk assessment, and to me it's actually not a science, it's a very simple, natural thing. The only risk you have to take is to sit where you are right now, you know, be okay, like really really sit into the spot where you are today, but then take the next step. You have to first be somewhere before you can take a step. We're just running. You know, the act of running disregards the validity of each step. We're never anywhere, we're always on the run. But when we walk, there is a moment where we are in a place where we are conscious of the place, of who we are, what we are right now.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that there, though, is key. We talk about this again, and I mention in every episode you'll hear this in other episodes it's just that we start, we want to run before we know what we want, and before we even know what we want, we don't even know who we are, and unless we know who we are, none of it matters. No, Because then we're just running, hoping that we can figure all that out when we get. Wherever we're going.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah out when we get wherever we're going. So when you say the biggest risk or one of the risks that you have to take first is just to sit there, stand there, be there and just figure out who you are, yeah, complete self-ownership.
Speaker 1:And that is the advice for listeners today, and I know that applies to a lot of people. I know most people, most people who are working today find themselves in the situation of someone who's strapped to a couch in a waiting room waiting for life to happen. I know that right, this thing where you feel like your life is put on hold. Someone has pressed the pause button. You're waiting for the play button to be pressed. Well, you're the only one that can press the play button, but you're not going to press the pause button. You're waiting for the play button to be pressed. Well, you're the only one that can press the play button, but you're not going to press the play button because you're terrified. You're terrified of taking risks, you're terrified of making a change. You're terrified of losing what you have right now, which is a scarcity outlook on life, which nature cannot afford. Nature cannot afford to have that outlook.
Speaker 1:Nature needs to know that the next step is imminent. It needs to happen. So for you, it also means to understand that maybe right now you need to sit still. Maybe right now you need to sit still, but not to be comfortable, but to start being uncomfortable. You need to sit down now and ask yourself the deeper question of who am I? What am I here to do? What is my truth? What is my big dream? What is that thing that will make me do those steps? It is a chance for you to be right now in a place of waiting, because it will allow you to shift that waiting into preparation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you say preparation. I immediately thought, because some people will be like, okay, I want to do this, but what if? But what if? And that's preparation mode, Like you, you, if you can at least have carry out that sentence, but what if this happens? How will I do this? How will I start all of that? You're starting to ask yourself. All of your fears are coming out. Instead of you ignoring them, you're asking those questions, You're making those fears like they're in your face now. Now you're preparing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how can I do this? And because you're bringing them out into the daylight, you can now work on them, because we don't need to discuss that what-if questions are here to hold you back. Yeah they're totally here to hold you back. Yeah, they're totally here to keep you in the waiting.
Speaker 2:You can't even finish the sentence, like sometimes. You're just so terrified. You're like but what if you don't even finish the sentence? You don't even know what if, what if?
Speaker 1:is the projection of the scarcity mindset that wants you not to move, it wants you to stand still, it wants you to keep everything as is, because it's terrified, because it feels like life is a matter of survival and risking your odds, yeah. Yeah, risking your odds is stupid, but we cannot deal with that. We cannot live like that. We cannot. You out there have to understand there is no life in a human that embraces what-if questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's no life if you're not living. Yeah, exactly, there's no answer to what-if questions.
Speaker 1:There's no single answer. You will never find the answer that you want. But sitting in silence and preparing yourself to walk that incremental path, you know that step-by-step path of growth along the boundary line of the comfort zone requires you to actually work on yourself to get rid of the what-if questions, that thing that causes you to ask what-if. That's what you need to look at. You don't need to look at, you know, answering the what if question, there will never be an answer. You need to look at the creator of the what if question. That is what this tingling feeling of wanting to step out of your comfort zone is meaning. That's what it means. That's what it is here to tell you. Your heart wants you to take a risk, but it is not unreasonable. Your heart is not unreasonable. It just tells you we have a unique, beautiful nature and that nature demands for us to go on a journey. And here you are, strapped to a corporate job, not going on a journey, finding every possible excuse not to go going on a journey, finding every possible excuse not to go, and you're even validating not going with numbers, with money, with with gifts and goods and boons and victories and whatnot. All of that is going to go away is what you tell yourself. And so you stay. And now is a chance for you to actually take some time off outside of your work and sit in silence and revisit where these questions come from. Because I guarantee you, the minute you let go of that which causes the questions, you are instantly on your path, you start walking, but, but you don't start throwing yourself off a cliff. That's stupid. I would never recommend anyone doing that.
Speaker 1:But we're so unclear when we say life happens outside the comfort zone, we are not specific about the fact that it actually happens right on the edge of the comfort zone. You know, like just on along that, that little boundary line, the fringe between the known and the unknown. And as we move outward in circles along this boundary line of the known and unknown, guess what happens? More and more is known like we map our world slowly, slowly, our territory expands like the tree that grows in rings. That's what life wants us to do. It doesn't want us to throw ourselves in the dark and then which is somewhere in the middle of a forest, not knowing where to go.
Speaker 1:He wants us to move in circles around what we know today, what we have today and, mind you, what you have today is enough to do that. You're already equipped and ready. If you sense that, if you have that nagging feeling, if your heart is speaking to you and telling you something's got to know life is put on pause. Why you kept asking me these questions? You were the one who kind of poked me years ago, right, yeah, like why does it feel like my face is falling asleep or like my feet are cemented in the ground? We have all these analogies for the waiting room, for the comfort zone, and just the fact that you become conscious of that shows that you're ready for the journey. You're ready to leave the comfort zone, you're ready to step outside the box, but you must do it in a natural way that is aligned with your truth, with who you are.
