Laura Gassner Otting on Why Success Doesn't Feel Good & Redefining Achievement

Laura Gassner Otting's Career Journey

• 🚀 Laura Gassner Otting shares her diverse career path, starting from dropping out of law school to join a presidential campaign, working in executive search, founding her own firm, and eventually becoming an author and keynote speaker.
• 💡 Her journey highlights the importance of embracing change and evolving, even when it involves leaving behind established paths.

The Illusion of Achievement

• 🎯 Many people chase achievement with the expectation of lasting happiness, only to find success anticlimactic or even anxiety-inducing.
• 🧠 This pursuit is often driven by a "so that I can" mentality, where current actions are solely for future rewards, leading to a feeling of emptiness upon reaching goals.
• ⚠️ The speaker experienced this firsthand during the pandemic, realizing her overachieving and perfectionist tendencies were unsustainable.

Redefining Success and Embracing Discomfort

• ✨ A psychiatrist's insight that her "overachiever" and "perfectionist" traits were "untenable" but not inherently bad, led to a re-evaluation of her relationship with achievement.
• 🔑 The key takeaway is that you don't have to give back your trophies; past achievements remain yours, even if you're not constantly striving for the next big thing.
• 🧘 Embracing discomfort and enjoying the journey, rather than always racing to the finish line, is crucial for a more fulfilling experience.

Overcoming Stagnation and Embracing Action

• ⚡ The study on decision-making suggests that even a coin flip choice leads to better outcomes and lessons learned than inaction.
• 💥 Action beats stagnation, as making a decision, even if it turns out to be the "wrong" one, opens up opportunities for further choices and growth.
• 🗺️ The concept of "side quests" from video games is applied to life, encouraging small, preparatory actions even when facing significant challenges or feeling stuck.

Making Your Own Luck and Finding Agency

• 🌟 Luck is not purely random; actively putting yourself out there, making connections, and acting like a lucky person can increase opportunities.
• 🔍 When you tell yourself you have no options, your brain searches for evidence of that; conversely, believing you have agency helps your brain find potential solutions.
• 🤝 Surrounding yourself with people who see your future potential, not just your past mistakes, can provide the courage to act and achieve your goals.

The "Wonderhell" of Potential

• 📖 Laura's book, "Wonderhell," explores the paradoxical space where achieving something significant brings both wonder and anxiety, as you confront the burden of your new potential.
• 💡 The book offers insights from high achievers on how to thrive in these moments, recognizing that the other side of "Wonderhell" is simply the next challenge.
• 💖 True success, as defined by the speaker, lies in doing work driven by curiosity, interest, and joy, rather than solely ego, between the need to make and the want to make numbers.