Today I’m dipping into one of the greatest TV shows of all time:

Breaking Bad.

For anyone who’s been living under a pop-culture rock for the last 15 years or so, mild spoiler alerts follow.

So reader beware.

The main character in Breaking Bad is the shy & retiring chemistry teacher Walter White.

Walter’s life takes an unexpected turn when he’s diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.  In order to secure his family’s future, Walter decides to use his chemistry chops to pivot into the drug trade.

Quite the change of career!

Over the course of 62 episodes, we see the meek and dutiful Walter morph into a manipulative and ruthless drug baron.

Walter shaves off his mop of wavy hair.

He takes on the alias “Heisenberg”.

And, most starkly of all, Walter’s character, personality & moral compass makes a complete 180 as he feasts in the danger of his new position and does everything he can to protect himself & his newly formed narcotics empire.

Before the emails start flooding in, I’m certainly not advocating a similar change of career.

Instead, the point I want to make is this:

For all intents & purposes, it looks like Walter has become a completely different person.

But actually, I don’t think he has.

Sure, he might be older after 5 action-packed seasons.  He might go by a new alias, look very different and his personality, thoughts & feelings might be unrecognisable from episode one.

But no-one can argue with the fact that the person he is now is still the same person he’s always been in every single moment since the day he was born.

In fact, it doesn’t matter two hoots if Walter is a lovable chemistry teacher, a ruthless drug lord or if he’s decided to don a leotard, become an acrobat and run off with the travelling circus.

It’s still him.

Now I'd be lying if I said I've always seen things this way.

I haven't.

I used to think I was my job.  I was Tom the banker.  

So if a deal of mine went belly up, if I made a mistake in an email or if an angry client called me up to complain, these would all mean something about me.

But nowadays I know I'm not defined by my career.  I know who I am is independent of my job title, my unruly hair, my personality, activities, values, thoughts & feelings.  

And there’s something remarkably freeing about knowing this.

It doesn’t just make life feel lighter in the moment.  It also helps me dwell less on the past and opens up a lot of exciting & interesting options for the future.

Of course, investigating who we are isn’t a line of enquiry many people follow.

But if you’d like a greater sense of freedom, to spend less time thinking about the past or if you have exciting dreams & ambitions for the future, it’s well worth taking a look.

If that’s you and you’d like some support, hop on over here:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

That’s all for today.

 - Tom 

p.s. while I'm talking about jobs, careers and suchlike:  

Just like Walter, I'm in my lab right now, cooking up a product of my own.  

This product will be a group coaching for anyone in a 9 to 5 job who'd like to find more fun & flow in the office.  

Watch this space.  More info to come.