Speaker #0If you are seriously considering stepping out of the corporate system, but you're afraid that leaving might mean becoming less serious, less competitive, or less ambitious, this episode is for you. A lot of highly capable professionals stay where they are, not because they love the work, but because they don't trust their ambition outside of the corporate machine. They worry that without the hierarchy, the urgency, the constant escalation, they're going to lose their edge. Today we're going to examine that belief, not emotionally but structurally. We're going to look at how corporate environments condition us to equate pressure with performance and why stepping out doesn't mean lowering your standards, it means finding out whether your ambition belongs to the system or to you? If your career looks great on paper but feels wrong in your bones, you're not alone. Welcome to From Corporate to Calling, your lifeline into meaningful work. I'm Alyssa Murphy, a regenerative business mentor and former startup CEO who walked away from corporate systems to create work that brings life. Each week I share stories, reflections, and provocations to help you recognize the signs of burnout quote. and make a career change with purpose. If work looks good but feels wrong, this is your invitation to get out of corporate and into your calling. First, let's look at the belief that most high performers never question. Because corporate teaches us that pressure equals performance. That urgency is the same thing as importance. And that stress you is just an inevitable part of ambition. We get used to operating at a completely unsustainable pace. We burn out and we just accept that as par for the course. We make personal sacrifices and we tell ourselves that we will claw life back later. And we do it not because we're stupid, but because we've all had this kind of career held up to us as the pinnacle of success. And we also do it, let's be honest, because it's highly addictive. It feels amazing to solve impossible problems, to hit hugely challenging targets, to deliver on whatever is thrown at us. It feels really good to learn how to play the corporate game and get really, really good at it. And we get used to operating at that pace and we become reliant on the adrenaline that comes with us and with time we stop. believing that that is who we are. So when it comes to exploring options outside of corporate, the worry becomes, can I really succeed if I choose a different path? This might sound like, if I relax, I'm going to lose my edge. If I step out of the system, I'm going to fall behind or be forgotten. You know, corporate is where serious people win, isn't it? I need this machine behind me to succeed and if I do something different people are going to think that I've quit on myself. I know a lot of people struggle with this false choice and as a result they stay where they are whatever the cost. Today I want to offer you a different framing because I believe and I've witnessed many times and I have my own lived experience that success and self-directed work. really do go hand in hand. Okay, I'm going to pivot for a moment. Come with me on this journey because I want to talk about a video that I saw this morning of Alyssa Liu, who just won gold at the Olympics in women's singles figure skating. I know figure skating is not for everyone. I personally love it. But this isn't actually a sports story. It's a story about performance and pressure. So I didn't know Alyssa's you backstory when I saw the video of her gold winning performance and I'm gonna start with what I saw in that skate. I saw someone skating for the joy of it, I saw someone experiencing so much freedom in their craft, I saw someone bringing a kind of a lightness and ease to an extremely complex, technically challenging performance. I saw someone experiencing what it's like to do things in their own way, with their own expression and the whole of their personality. And it was really just so joyful to watch. And when I was younger in particular, I was obsessed with figure skating and I watched it all the time. And typically what I saw was people performing under extreme pressure. And I guess that was kind of part of the drama of why I loved it. Because, you know, you saw what it was like when people showed up and, you know, showed off their skill. But under this incredible, incredible degree of pressure. And none of that was present when I watched Alyssa's performance. And at times it almost felt like a little bit loose or a little bit rough around the edges. But actually that was what made it just so compelling because she was just so human and real in her expression. And it was really beautiful. And then I read a little bit about her backstory and how she'd actually quit skating and stepped away from it completely because... you know, she was burnt out, it was too much pressure. And she'd chosen to return to it in a completely different way. And she talked about how, you know, she just chooses not to engage with that pressure at all. And yet she was able to come back and compete at the very highest level. And to, as I say, to deliver her skill with such visible ease, you know, and And... As I was thinking about it, I was thinking about how, you know, taking that break, first of all, didn't do her any harm. It was obviously completely transformative in her skating career, but also that all of the skill that she had, all of the training that she'd done, none of that disappeared and nor did her ambition. You know, she wanted to come back and to do this, but she just refused. to engage with the pressure and my impression at least is that she refused to sort of buy into the system in the way that she had before. So as I said this is not a story about sport or figure skating and this is what it means for you if you are considering leaving corporate. Leaving simply means that you are choosing to remove external hierarchy, that you no longer want to engage with any kind of performance theatre, that you choose to reject artificial urgency or kind of status comparison, it does not do anything to remove your standards, your capabilities, your drive, your discipline, your skill. You have, to just draw on my skating reference for a moment longer, you have the technique, you've built the muscle memory, you've done the reps. It's, as I say, muscle memory for you. It lives in your body. What you haven't yet tried is what happens when you consciously choose to step away from the pressure and stress and deploy those skills on your own terms, in your own unique way, living by your values, balanced with your life. And that is not a lack of ambition. It's a shift in where your ambition is directed. It's actually really ambitious to say, I want work that is commercially viable, intellectually demanding, genuinely contributive, but I also want it structured in a way that is sustainable for my actual life. That is far from stepping down. It's stepping into authorship. When you choose self-directed work, you are not retreating from ambition. You are making a decision to author the conditions under which you perform. And when you understand it that way, the question isn't, are you afraid you won't succeed? It's actually, are you afraid you won't succeed without the pressure of a corporate environment? And that's a really valid question because succeeding in self-directed work takes accountability, consistency, commitment, ingenuity, resilience. For many people it is not a natural transition at all, it can be a very challenging one. But here's the thing that I want you to remember. You already have all of those things. Accountability, consistency, commitment, ingenuity, resilience. You already have them all. You simply couldn't have made it to where you are inside the system without them. All you have to do now is practice applying them to your own direction. instead of someone else's. What you're doing is making a powerful shift from system-directed success to self-directed success. And that is truly meaningful. Okay, so where do you begin? As always, with baby steps. I invite you to test who you are without the corporate system. Keep it micro, keep it safe. And this applies wherever you are on your journey, whether you are still in corporate, whether you're actively in that transition out of corporate or taking your first steps in self-directed work. I invite you to test who you are outside of the corporate system with a deliberate deviation from corporate norms. So choose just one low-risk, manageable deviation. Right, here's what this might look like. Wear something that feels like you, not like the corporate culture. Rewrite one email in your own voice and strip out all of the corporate language. Have the courage to do a presentation and say no to slides. Set an out of office that actually tells a human story about what you're going to be doing and what you're looking forward to. Run one meeting where you don't feel the need to lead with kind of urgency theatre and let it just breathe a little bit more than usual. For this experiment, keep it safe. As I say, keep it small. This isn't about... kind of grand gestures or really challenging your comfort zone. This is about noticing who you are when you consciously part ways with the corporate system. Invite yourself to analyse, did your competence drop when you did that experiment? Did your credibility collapse? Or perhaps did something in you relax? Did something come alive? Did you perhaps feel something? feel more like you. You know, and this is just data, okay? And if you try this experiment, please email me, tell me how it went. I would love to hear what the experience was like for you. It's Alyssa, A-L-I-S-A at regenerativeworklife.com. Try this out, see what it's like, consider this a first step towards self-directed ambition. And if that experiment feels significant to you. If even a small deviation changes how you experience your work, then I want to suggest to you that what comes next is not another job inside the same system. I think it's an indication that you are looking for a different structure. And if that's true, I have an offer to help you take your first meaningful steps in that direction. I am running a live workshop called How to Build Meaningful Self-Directed Work. It's going to be on the 18th of March with two time slots available for different time zones. This workshop is for professionals like you who are serious about leaving corporate, not reactively but structurally. It's a super practical workshop where we're going to map your capabilities, your working style and develop a viable model for self-directed work that is both commercially credible and structurally sound. So if you want ambition without all of the pressure architecture, then this may be your next step. So once again, that's on the 18th of March. It's called How to Build Meaningful Self-Directed Work. There is a link in the show notes with all the details and you can book through the link. Enjoy your experiment and I will see you back here next week. If this episode of From Corporate to Calling was helpful or inspiring, follow the show so you don't miss an episode. And if you know someone who's questioning their career, send them this podcast. Lifelines are meant to be shared. Remember, you don't have to tolerate burnout or misalignment. You can redirect your skills into meaningful work that brings back life to you and to the world around you. Hey.
