[00:00:36] Vesna: Welcome to the Peak Revival Podcast. My name is Vesna Today I'm gonna talk about satisfaction versus fulfillment. For those who have it all, but still feel unsatisfied. So for years myself, I found myself working hard to launch things, and I've always thought as soon as I launch it, things will go back to normal, go back to a normal speed, you know? And but the problem was as soon as I finished launching that I would stack something else and another thing. And so I never slowed down.
[00:01:02] And I had this philosophy, which doesn't work by the way, but I would think that I would stack all these deadlines, I would everything onto my schedule, and they all had deadlines, so I was like, well, I have to get them done I'll just have to work really hard to get them done.
[00:01:14] There's not a lot of fun in doing that. You can get more done, but it creates a lot more stress and probably not doing your best work either. That's what I found. So if you are finding yourself in a similar situation that you are always saying.
[00:01:29] “Just another couple of months, I'll get over this part, and then things will slow down for me” right?
[00:01:35] But you find that you are always putting more onto your schedule. You're always trying to achieve more. You're always changing the goalposts, right? And so in business, there are things that you must do, and there are times when it's very busy and that's legitimate. But I want you to ask yourself, are you feeling fulfilled in your business and in your work?
[00:01:56] And the things that you do day to day? Or are you chasing satisfaction? Now I wanna [00:02:00] talk about the distinction between satisfaction and fulfillment. So satisfaction is when you're feeling satisfied. So when you tick off something from your to-do list, when you achieve a goal, when you hit a certain personal best in your business or in your fitness regime, whatever it is, You feel a sense of satisfaction? The problem with satisfaction is that it needs constant topping up, right? So if you've noticed that something that used to satisfy you before something that you did in your business, no longer has that satisfaction, right? And so it's like this dopamine addiction, it's a dopamine hit.
[00:02:35] We need to keep hitting the dopamine button, but then our brain becomes desensitized to it. And so we need. Bigger achievements, bigger goals in order to get that same hit. But it's always escaping us. We never get to that place where we feel truly fulfilled. so satisfaction, there's no end to it.
[00:02:52] It needs constant topping up. so what you'll find is that you'll have one goal. As soon as you achieve it, achieve it, you'll move straight onto the next goal, okay? Without really celebrating it. So I've certainly seen this for myself. I hit a really big milestone in my business, uh, last year, and I remember having this conversation with my brother and he was like, wow, that's amazing.
[00:03:15] I said, yeah, so, and then I talked about all these other issues that I had to resolve and what I was working on next, and he's like, hold on a second. Can you just take a moment to be grateful for where you are at and to really celebrate and appreciate where you're at? And I was like, Hmm. Busted because I wasn't right.
[00:03:37] I really, I, my mind had already moved on to the next thing. And so when we caught up in that satisfaction craving or chasing satisfaction, we are never feeling satisfied. And it's really exhausting. Okay. Because we don't realize that fulfillment, which I'll, which I'll talk about. Is much more nourishing.
[00:03:55] Okay. But satisfaction is gonna be much more draining. Okay? Because it's, [00:04:00] we're always chasing, we're never slowing down the nervous system. It's, we're always on. Our brains always ticking over. We're always looking for the next thing. And so there's never a gap. There's never a moment to slow down.
[00:04:09] Fulfillment on the other hand, is very different. It's nourishing, it's energizing. It has life force in it. It feeds the soul, and it feels so much better than satisfaction. And actually, that's what we're chasing
[00:04:23] When we're chasing satisfaction,
[00:04:24] we're really chasing fulfillment
[00:04:26] that when we get that goal, we are going to feel a sense of inner peace, like contentment.
[00:04:32] a feeling of contentment. It's a really higher state, mentally and emotionally, and we're feeling really good about ourselves and about our life.
[00:04:39] And so I want you to think back to moments when you have felt fulfilled, right? There'll be moments in your life when you have felt this sense of really feeling fulfilled. What did that feel like? where did it come from? How did you get it? So these are really important questions to ask ourselves.
[00:04:57] 'cause most people think by chasing and achieving more and hitting a new personal best in whatever area, or having a new car or a new house, a new holiday or new partner, whatever it is, is going to be fulfilling. But that's really chasing satisfaction. And so we are never gonna get to that place that we're really yearning to get to.
[00:05:17] So Fulfillment is a feeling. It's a higher state of mind, a higher state of consciousness or a higher state of wellbeing, and
[00:05:25] We don't need to get anything from the outside in order to feel fulfilled. And that's kind of where we go wrong, right? So we feel like if we get all these achievements, if we get in a better place financially, we'll feel really good and we'll feel really fulfilled.
[00:05:42] Okay? And then that moment arises and it's like a blip, right? We don't even notice, we don't really celebrate it, and we don't really feel fulfilled as we thought that we would.
[00:05:52] So fulfillment is a natural state, right? It's a natural state of our being we're in when we're in a higher state of consciousness, like I said, a higher [00:06:00] state of wellbeing when we're really in the moment, it's
[00:06:03] The gaps in between all the doing okay. And that's kind of the best way that I can describe it. It's not the doing that feels fulfilling. It's the space in between.
[00:06:12] Because it's our natural state when we are always doing and being busy and. Even being present on a task, because I have confused this myself, like when I've been super focused and really productive on the day, like I'm really focused and present.
[00:06:26] I'm not talking about focus, and it's a different kind of presence. It's about really being more connected to yourself and it's the gaps in between all the busyness that we feel, that contentment and that fulfillment. So fulfillment is a feeling. It's not something we get by doing.
[00:06:45] When our mind slows down and we're in that space, we elevate our level of consciousness and we create these feelings of fulfillment. And in fact, some of the barriers to fulfillment is doing the things that we do because we are chasing satisfaction.
[00:07:00] But what we really want is fulfillment. Right? And so some of the biggest barriers to fulfillment is just looking in the wrong direction, right? Just looking at. Achieving more. Achieving more, and really burning yourself out and wondering why you never feel like you've arrived, like you never feel. You're at that place where you feel like, yes, this is, I'm so happy I'm here.
[00:07:23] So when you are feeling satisfied after a meal, if the waiter comes around and says, look, this is what we have for dessert. You're like, Hmm, yes, I will have that.
[00:07:31] Thank you very much. That looks good. But when you are fulfilled, you don't want another thing. Okay? The waiter comes around with a dessert, you're like, Nope, I have no desire to eat that. I feel very content. And that's kind of the difference. So if you are feeling like there's always something more that you want, there's always more, there's more, then you're chasing satisfaction.
[00:07:53] You're not chasing fulfillment. And that is a road to unhappiness, burnout,
[00:07:58] exhaustion and [00:08:00] never getting to that place where, that place between the moments, the place and the gaps, where we get the best stuff. We get fulfillment, we get peace and contentment. We get our best ideas. We just, Get into a higher state of wellbeing in those places.
[00:08:14] But if we're always doing and we're stacking, like I used to do stacking tasks and deadlines, we are never gonna create the moments for that.
[00:08:22] So like I said, the biggest barriers to fulfillment is not looking in that direction, looking in the direction of satisfaction, like constantly striving to achieve more, to be more recognized, to have more accolades, to accumulate more, right?
[00:08:36] If we don't understand that fulfillment doesn't come from those things, then we are going to keep stuck on that hamster wheel.
[00:08:44] And really what I've seen is that when you are disconnected from yourself, so if you're being very busy, and I've certainly been like this, that you kind of get lost in all the busyness. You get lost in particularly in business, there are challenges that arise that you really need to be all in, and it takes so much of your head space and your focus that.
[00:09:01] Doesn't create a lot of space in your mind and in your life. And then we end up really kind of, if we get stuck on this, we feel very disconnected from our true nature, from ourselves. Right. And in episode 52 of the podcast I talked about how it's so important to have this time to connect with yourself.
[00:09:20] Okay. And. The gifts that we get from it. Okay? Because un, if we are not slowing down and spending time doing nothing, and I'm not saying a long time, it could be 10 minutes, but if we're not getting those moments, those gaps, we're losing connection to ourselves. We're losing connection to these deeper feelings that are very nourishing and they're very sustaining.
[00:09:40] They're rejuvenating. They will sustain your success. They will be like a shot of vitality serum. Okay? And if we're not creating. Moments for that, we're just gonna miss out.
[00:09:52] So the reason why, chasing fulfillment or looking in the direction of fulfillment, I'm not saying don't reach your goals and your [00:10:00] achievements and all of that, of course you're going to do that. Nothing I say will make you stop that. But look in the direction of fulfillment as well. Okay, because it's important for your health.
[00:10:09] It gets you outta that fight or flight response. It gets you out of the system being in that overactive response and gets you back into homeostasis in the body. So balancing your hormones, balancing your metabolism, it's important for your happiness, and it's important to sustain your success.
[00:10:26] I don't see anyone who is burning themselves out who is happy and able
[00:10:32] to sustain that level. They all come and they're like, I went out of my business. I went out of what I'm doing. Okay? so it's really important to look at all these factors in sustaining your success.
