The Pain Side of Aspiration

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The success industrial complex says, if you just grind harder and 10x and lean in as soon as you get to the thing, the corner office. What it will take to get there will affect us physiologically, psychologically in a way that many of us are not skilled to be able to actually move through with ease. We've been sold this bill of goods that as soon as we get to a certain level, there's no new devil. And from everybody I talked to, I mean, I talked to a hundred different people, glass ceiling shatters, Olympic medalists, startup unicorns,. Like, just all these incredible people. Every single one of them at every age is still dealing

Ever notice how, the moment you step into a new level of accomplishment and visioning, it’s amazing, but it almost always comes along with a success-sized helping of struggle, fear and uncertainty that leads to suffering? Our guest today, Laura Gassner Otting calls this, "wonderhell,” that moment where you’re both celebrating and simultaneously grappling with the burden of your potential to do more, be more, achieve more. It’s both wonderful, and it’s hell.

According to Laura, "Wonderhell" is an essential part of any journey that finds you striving for something more. The burden of your potential is real, maybe even unavoidable, but the suffering doesn’t have to be. The success industrial complex, which teaches us to grind harder, lean in, and achieve more to be happy, leaves us unprepared for the messy middle, filled with doubt and uncertainty.

In her new book ‘Wonderhell: Why Success Doesn't Feel Like It Should...and What To Do About It’, she offers a toolkit to help people achieve their potential, with a "choose your own adventure" journey through three towns of Impostor Town, Doubtsville and Burnout City, each with five rides, to help people overcome their fears and doubts. Whether you're an entrepreneur or simply trying to achieve a personal goal, this episode offers practical tips and strategies for redefining your relationship with doubt and uncertainty and embracing wonder hell as a necessary part of the journey to success.

Laura also speaks from a place of personal experience. She’s has literally spent decades riding the Wonderhell roller-coaster, and developed a powerful set of tools to help find your way through with more ease and less chaos and suffering.

SPARKED HOT TAKE WITH: Laura Gassner Otting | Website

Laura Gassner Otting is an Author, Catalyst, and Executive Coach and inspires people to push past the doubt and indecision that keep great ideas in limbo by helping audiences think bigger and accept greater challenges that reach beyond their current, limited scope of belief. She is a frequent contributor to Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, Harvard Business Review, and Oprah Daily. She served as a Presidential Appointee in the White House and founded, ran, and sold her own global search firm. Her bestselling book, Limitless, was chosen by Robin Roberts as one of Good Morning America's Favorite Books of the Year.

AND HOSTED BY: Jonathan Fields

Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED.

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