723: Living a Fulfilled Life (with Ex Google Executive, Megan Hellerer)
Oct 28, 2024
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Megan Hellerer, a former Google executive and founder of Coaching for Underfulfilled Overachievers, shares her transformative journey toward fulfillment. She discusses the disconnect between career success and personal happiness, revealing how she overcame mental health struggles. Megan emphasizes the importance of intuition and self-discovery in career choices. She dives into her coaching approach, highlighting the need for commitment and reflection. Lastly, Megan encourages viewers to embrace life's journey and see setbacks as opportunities for growth.
Megan Hellerer emphasizes the disconnect between external success, such as promotions at Google, and true personal fulfillment, leading to her mental health struggles.
She advocates for acknowledging the 'fulfillment ache' as a signal to realign career paths with one's authentic self rather than ignoring it.
Megan introduces 'big direction' living, encouraging flexible goal-setting and self-exploration instead of a rigid plan to achieve fulfillment.
Deep dives
The Journey of an Under-Fulfilled Overachiever
Megan Hallerer describes her own experience as an under-fulfilled overachiever, highlighting the disconnect between external success and personal fulfillment. Despite excelling academically and working at Google, she faced mental health challenges, including depression and panic attacks. This discontent led her to quit her job without a clear plan, prompting a quest for answers on how to achieve fulfillment in her career. She emphasizes the importance of acknowledging one’s internal voice and the need to find alignment between one’s work and personal values.
Insights from Working at Google
Megan shares her perspective on her time as a Google executive, emphasizing that the company itself wasn't the issue, but rather a lack of alignment with her personal goals. She experienced a steep learning curve and enjoyed many aspects of her role, yet ultimately realized that promotions and external markers of success did not bring her happiness. A pivotal moment was when she achieved a long-sought promotion but felt emptiness instead of fulfillment. This revelation pushed her to reevaluate her career path and what truly mattered to her.
The Fulfillment Ache
The concept of the 'fulfillment ache' is introduced as a signal of discontent stemming from a gap between one's authentic self and how one presents in the world. This ache becomes increasingly painful as the distance from one’s true desires grows. Megan highlights the importance of recognizing this feeling as a guide for decision-making rather than an obstacle. By learning to differentiate between intuition and logical reasoning, individuals can better navigate their career paths and achieve greater fulfillment.
Not This Experiment
After leaving Google, Megan undertook a six-month 'not this experiment,' intentionally refraining from applying for new jobs to explore her true aspirations. Through this time, she allowed herself space to experiment with various paths and identify what brought her joy and alignment. This self-discovery process highlighted the necessity of patience and acceptance of uncertainty during transitions. Megan believes that such exploratory phases are critical for anyone seeking fulfillment beyond traditional career paths.
Big Direction vs. Destination Living
Megan introduces the concept of 'big direction' as a more flexible approach to purpose compared to the rigid 'destination living' mentality. This perspective encourages individuals to focus on overarching goals, akin to driving with headlights illuminating only the next steps. By welcoming uncertainty and adaptability, individuals can navigate their careers without the stress of needing a detailed plan. The emphasis is on enjoying the journey and recognizing that purpose can evolve over time, allowing for continuous growth and exploration.
Welcome to an interview with the author Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life, Megan Hellerer.
In this episode, Megan shares her experience as an executive at Google and how she realized the misalignment in her career path, which led to physical and mental health issues. She also discusses how she navigated through it by listening to her inner voice and experimenting with new paths. Additionally, Megan explains how she built her coaching practice, how to find clients that are a good fit for you, the common issues clients face, and how to help them solve those issues.
Megan Hellerer is a career coach and the founder of Coaching for Underfulfilled Overachievers. She has led hundreds of women, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to transform their lives by transforming their careers. After checking all the traditional boxes of success—graduating at the top of her class from Stanford University and spending eight years as a Google executive—and still deeply unhappy, she quit her great-on-paper job with no plan. Now her mission is to provide others with the support and guidance that she needed when she herself was struggling. Megan has been featured in New York, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and The Times. She lives with her husband and daughter in the Hudson Valley, New York.
Get Megan’s book here: https://shorturl.at/Icv8wDirectional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life