Career Brainwashing Part 1

I recently sat down for a series of raw and unscripted conversations with my ever-supportive mentor, psychotherapist and highly sensitive person expert, Ane Axford. In the first of our 3 conversations, we talk about my own experience struggling to create a career that feels good and to find my rightful place in the world of work.

We talk about the logical conclusion I reached — that there must be something very wrong with me and how I naturally am. Or else why would this career stuff be so hard?

Ane goes on to explain a very different way of viewing the situation, a very different way of understanding and interpreting these kinds of experiences, which can totally turn them around.

We also go on to explore where that sense of wrongness can lead –

To questions like: Am I crazy? Am I insane? Is that why I can’t get myself to function well in traditional environments? Is it sane to choose another path, to choose an unclear, risky, creative, authentic path? What should I do to make myself be successful and fit into a traditional path?

And we end our conversation with how it is essential to:

Express what you are going through and experiencing.
Articulate all of the questions moving around inside of you, for that is how you move towards the answers you are seeking.
Receive support from people who are willing to listen and be okay to stay with you in the messiness and not rush quickly to try to find neat and tidy answers to these deep, challenging, unfolding questions.

Click the play button to watch it here:

If you have technical issues watching the video, you can also view it here on Vimeo or here on the blog. If you watch it on the blog, be aware that it may take extra time to load.

8 thoughts on “Career Brainwashing Part 1”

Hey Sarah – saw your interviews on Ane’s website and I just wanted to stop by, comment and tell you that I think you rock (!) and did a hugely brave and amazing thing by putting yourself out there on video like that.
The exploration you’re going thru is something I too have been going through over the last few years. After an M.F.A. (which I’m still paying for) and a life long passion for filmmaking, I’ve come to the realization that I’m not sure it’s what I want for the rest of my life – I want more. The idea of what “more” is…is overwhelming and totally freakin’ scary.
So thanks for exploring this and sharing your journey with all of us. And know that you’ve got a fan + supporter (in Oakland, CA).
Cheers!

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Hi Stephanie — Thanks for coming by and so generously showing your support! And ooohhhh…the “more” you are sensing…that is awesome…it sounds like you are opening up to something…opening up to the “unknown” as Ane says.
You have probably read Ane’s article here about cracking open to the unnerving unknown, where the essential, true, unconstructed self awaits to be expressed: http://mentallyill.info/2011/06/26/the-red-book/ But there’s the link for other readers who perhaps haven’t. I’m so blessed to have you as a fan and to have you so visibly expressing your support for me.
Talk to you again soon, sarah

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Sarah, great to see your site back up and running. I LOVE the direction of your new project.

For some of us, it doesn’t seem to be about doing our best work; rather it can often be about doing the work at all. The intelligence and capability is not the question. It’s getting ourselves deprogrammed from the “career brainwashing” (love that term) and putting pen to paper as it were. Not just doing the work, but also WHAT work to do?

Fascinating stuff. I think about it all the time because I am living this phase.

So many do well at performing in the puppet show. You think beyond, and in fact often ignore, the puppet show. I love that.

My best,

Mike

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Hi Mike,
I’m so glad to see you here. I’m really glad that you pointed out — it’s not about intelligence or capability. This is the mind-f*** of it all. If we are so smart, then why is it so hard? This is part of what I want to flesh out, explain, articulate here in the blog. So that the path to work that feels good can be shorter, less rocky and tormented, and dare I say, less shameful, for others. Because I am starting to believe and integrate that there really is nothing wrong with those of us who struggle with this issue. The there-is-nothing-wrong-with-you perspective is one of the primary messages that Ane Axford communicates in her work.

It turns the you-must-overcome-your-limiting-beliefs perspective on its head. It starts to identify that there is an essential nature we have and a natural way of functioning that must be honored and is even a source of strength for our self-expression in the world and with other people, as opposed to something that must be squashed in the race to career and professional success.
I look forward to many more conversations together!
sarah

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