Toxic Gratitude

You have a successful career. You get paid, you get good benefits, you even get paid time off. You have it pretty damn good, right? But what happens when you know how good you’ve got it and you’re still unhappy, unfulfilled, and frustrated with your career? Should you be grateful? No. You know how fortunate you are to have a job during a global pandemic; a successful career even. You still have the ability to pay your bills, and continue to make money during a time when so many people struggling to pay their bills and going out of business or losing jobs. But knowing your blessings doesn’t mean you have to love your job and it doesn’t mean you have to stay in your career. And wanting to leave doesn’t mean you’re being ungrateful. Real gratitude is the antidote to dissatisfaction. But toxic gratitude is when you use it against yourself. It’s when you deny how you really feel about your career and attempt to shame yourself into feeling real gratitude. Toxic gratitude is a rejection of negative emotions and keeps us stuck in careers that don’t allow us to design a career that makes us feel alive. And no amount of shaming will ever make anyone feel better about their career. Listen to this week’s Livelihood podcast to learn how giving yourself radical permission to feel ungrateful leads to real feelings of gratitude and how to utilize this practice so that you can design a more fulfilling, joyful, and aligned work life.