124. Purpose or Paycheck? Can it be Both?

Is your job helping you build the legacy you want—or just paying the bills?
This episode is for anyone feeling stuck in a role that’s financially stable but emotionally draining. If you’re wondering, “Is this really it?”—you’re not alone. I share stories from real clients like Carla and Sherry, and walk you through the same values-based process I use with my 1:1 coaching clients to evaluate career alignment.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why a paycheck alone isn’t enough to define success
• How to use your top values as a filter for job fulfillment
• What to do if your current role doesn’t allow space for creativity, freedom, or impact
• The difference between a job that sustains you and one that lights you up
• What it looks like to build a job—even inside your current company

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Transcript

Laura: 0:03

hello and welcome to money and career mastery from overwhelmed to ownership. I'm Laura Sexton, your abundance and legacy coach here to help you navigate the world of money, debt payoff, and career growth with confidence and clarity. In this podcast, we'll tackle the financial and career challenges, holding you back, optimize your income and build the freedom that comes with true ownership. If you're ready to break free from overwhelm, create a budget that aligns with your values and design a legacy that empowers future generations. You're in the right place. Hey, accelerators, I had a question for you. Is your job helping you build the legacy that you want, or is it just paying your bills? This is a question that I want to pose very often to people. If they come to me and they feel stuck in a role that either it pays fine, but it doesn't fulfill them or it fulfills them, but it's not paying well. The biggest obstacle for a lot of people, their job pays the bills, but it doesn't feel good. It is completely not fun for them to get up and go to work every day. One person comes to mind in particular when I tell the story. Actually, I have two that I'm working with right now that really fit this description, but I wanna tell you Carla's story. Carla has a stable job. She moved to a different town in a different state to take this job. She's very good at this job. But every week she wonders. Is this all that it? Is Do I want to get up every Monday and spend five days, 40 hours doing this? Sure. It pays the bills. Sure. She's able to travel. Where she would be if she ever was able to take time off. But because of her role, it's really difficult to find a week at a time for her to take off a couple days here and there. Sure. But a week to travel to go to Italy? No, she hasn't been able to find that yet. She hasn't creative spark and heart for helping people. But right now, when we started working together. She would've told you that she doesn't see a clear path to using those gifts. You see her struggle. It's not laziness, and it's also not lack of gratitude. She has a lot of good things to say about her employer, but her struggle, it's that she wants her work to matter more than it does. If you can relate to that, I feel you. I took two weeks off for maternity leave when I had my precious fifth child, and she's wonderful. But I only took off two weeks and people were like, are you sure? Are you sure you wanna come back? Like it's, it's only been two weeks. And I'm like, yes. I love my job, and it was hard for me to take two weeks off. Because I love what I do and I'm fired up and I'm ready to go. If you don't feel that way about your job, if you're not excited about going, we need to make a shift because I love the work that I do. That's one of the reasons why I got tapped on the shoulder and picked to be one of Ken Coleman's first career coaches. At the time of this recording, there are only nine of us. There are only nine Ramsay career coaches. That number will quickly grow because it's a very fun field to be a part of, and Ken will continue to train. Why did I get picked to be in that inaugural group? Because I love what I do and I'm fired up and I want other people to be fired up as well. And part of that. Is because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you were fired up and wired up and ready to go, you are going to make an impact and leave the legacy that you are desperate to leave. If you wanna make a change in your community, you wanna make a change in your family, you just wanna make a change in your home, how you are and how you see yourself, a lot of that impact comes from the work that you do. Are you making an impact in the world? So let's say that right now you aren't sure whether or not your role is really where you wanna be. Let's talk about it. The first thing that you need to do, and you guys hear me say this, I think I say this every single week, so forgive me if you've heard this before, but it's important, so I will continue to say it in case this is your first time listening. At which point, hello, it's so nice to meet you. Thanks for being part of our crew here. The first thing you need to do is you need to clarify your values. You knew I was gonna say it. It's like budget and values. These are the things that I talk about the most, right? So. Clarify your top five values and how they relate to your work Use values like creativity, freedom, impact, family growth. These are the things that are going to guide your vision, your overall vision, and then check and see how your values line up with your job. Use your values as a filter. Not every job that pays well is going to fit into your legacy. So let's audit your current job, right? Look at what you're doing right now. Are you in alignment with those values that you just listed? If you were not aligned, I want you to ask yourself, does my current job allow me to live these values weekly? And you should ask yourself independently, does my current job allow me to be creative? Does my current job allow me freedom? And in what area? Freedom. Freedom in your time. Freedom in your money. Like what is the freedom that you're after? Does my current job allow me to live in these values weekly? If not, the next question you need to ask is, is there room for change internally? One of the other people that comes to mind when I think about a job that pays really well but isn't fulfilling is my friend Sherry, and Sherry is looking at moving internally into a more creative role. She wants to quit doing what she's doing right now, which she doesn't enjoy, but she would be more fulfilled by being creative. You see, Sherry decided that creativity was one of the values that she really wanted to align herself with, and her current role doesn't allow her to be creative the way that she wants to, but there are opportunities for change inside of her company. Now, if there's not. It may be time to plan for a pivot. If she was not able to find creative outlet inside her company, we have to completely decide on a new direction for her to go. That said, we are looking at possibly taking on this creative role inside of her company. If she's unable to do that, we will have to find her creativity in other areas. Maybe that means creating something on your own and allowing this job to pay you and fund your bills while you build a business on the side. Either way, we need to redefine success. Success is not just a dollar amount in the bank account. It's not just a dollar amount on your paycheck. Success could be energy, joy, impact. What does success look like for you? You see, it's not just the salary, it's not just the title. It's waking up energized to do meaningful work. If we change the measuring stick and we take away the salary and the title, and we look at the legacy and we let that be the measure, the question then is does this work, support the life that I want to build? Ultimately that is what we are after. We're after the peace of mind that comes from knowing that we are in the right role at the right place. I think it's Jim Collins who says that you need to be in the right seat on the right bus. We wanna make sure not only that we're doing the right thing, we're in the right seat, but we wanna make sure that we're going in the right direction. We're on the bus that's heading towards where we wanna go. Purpose and paychecks. They're not opposite. They can be partners, but you've seen partners, Tom and Jerry, they're partners. They don't like each other very much. I would much rather you be Bert and Ernie. Two people that are not the same, but that live in harmony together. I don't know why Bur and Ernie were the example that came to mind. I was having the hardest time thinking of any cartoon character that liked each other, and I was like coming up with, you know, Sylvester and Tweety. I was like, Nope, that's the same thing as the negative. So anyway what's your action step this week? It's pretty simple. I want you to journal about your current job and the alignment within journaling. Doesn't have to be crazy if journaling, writing things down is not your thing. What I would like for you to do is to get out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil, and I want you to just allow your close your eyes and allow your pen to go over the paper. It doesn't have to make anything cohesive. It doesn't have to make anything pretty, but I want your hand to be moving in a utensil on a piece of paper while you were thinking about and dreaming about your current job and how it aligns with where you wanna be. Ultimately, what's working inside your current position, what's not working, and what do you want more of? This could be a great time for you to think about what you want your core values to be and to journal about those as well. If creativity is a core value, what does that look like? If freedom is a core value freedom, how freedom and what? And then I would love for you to book a free 20 minute career audit with me. This is something that we're going to be doing on the podcast here. So yes, people will be listening, but it will be a chance for you to get clarity around your job in 20 minutes or less. You can do that@accelerateyourlegacy.com slash apply, and we're gonna start building a job that fits your life. And yes, I say building, even if you're working for somebody else, we can build. What you are doing to fit and align with what you want. Ultimately, that's it for this week. Accelerators go out and make a difference. thank you for spending time with us today on Money and Career Mastery from Overwhelm to Ownership. Remember, your legacy isn't just about financial freedom. It's about living with purpose, taking action, and building a foundation that lasts for generations. Don't just listen, implement what you've learned and share it with someone who could use a financial or career breakthrough. If you found value in today's episode, help us grow by rating, reviewing, and sharing the podcast. I'll be back next week with more strategies to help you master your money and career. Until then take ownership of your future and build your legacy with intention.