What would change if you decentered your career from your identity? Decentering your work from your identity might seem a counterintuitive topic for a podcast about career development, but burnout and disillusionment are running rampant these days, so it’s not too surprising this concept is getting a lot of airtime. 

Our work should be important and provide us with purpose, but it shouldn’t become the only important and purposeful part of who we are. Taking the spotlight off the career part of your identity gives you space and permission to respect the role of work in your life without requiring you to relinquish every part of yourself to your job. In this episode, I outline three considerations to help you realize this shift.

Consider a more balanced alternative to living for your job:

• How community involvement contributes to who you are and will be;
• Why passive rest and renewal don’t cut it, and what to try instead;
• Why you need to get real about the divide between your work identity and the rest of your life.

Related Links:

• Episode 456, How Connection Can Cure What Ails Us - https://www.bossedup.org/podcast/episode456
• Mondo, “Tips To Keep Your Job From Becoming Your Identity” - https://mondo.com/insights/tips-to-keep-your-job-from-becoming-your-identity/
• “Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career,” by Herminia Ibarras - https://herminiaibarra.com/working-identity-book/
• The Ezra Klein Show, “Tired? Distracted? Burned Out? Listen to This” with Gloria Mark - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-gloria-mark.html
• “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity” by Gloria Mark - https://bookshop.org/p/books/attention-span-finding-focus-and-fighting-distraction-gloria-mark/18423478?ean=9781335449412
• LEVEL UP: a Leadership Accelerator for Women on the Rise - https://www.bossedup.org/levelup
• Bossed Up Courage Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/927776673968737/
• Bossed Up LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7071888/