# Finding purpose after burnout (Suneel Gupta) - **Episode:** [138](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/138.md) (2024-10-22) - **Type:** news-roundup - **Tags:** burnout, purpose, career, suneel-gupta - **Time:** 7:27–13:45 (start 447s) - **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/138?t=447](https://truthliesandwork.com/138?t=447) --- [7:27] Leanne Elliott: What have you seen this week, Al? [7:28] Al Elliott: Well, I've been reading CNBC. Not quite sure why, but it came up on my newsfeed. I don't know what the— the problem with those Brits is that we look at some of the— we can look at some of the websites and the newspapers over here and we know instinctively, all right, that skews towards Conservative, that skews towards Labour. In the US, I never quite know whether it's like— as someone who probably identifies more, more Democrat than Republican, should I be reading this? But anyway, I did. And the question they posed was, what makes us happy at work? A lot of people think it's down to earning enough, but there's a guy who's a Harvard lecturer and a multimillionaire. His name is Sunil Gupta, and he says finding happiness at work isn't about making more money. And he should know because he felt more burnt out after selling his company for $20 million. Gupta says we've got it all wrong about happiness and success at work because he sold his wellness company for $20 million and he felt completely burnt out and lost, proving that money doesn't really buy happiness in the workplace. After a bit of soul searching and deep thinking, and let's be honest, with $20 million in the bank, he's got time. He's got the time. He found that the secret to being happy at work was to have a clear idea idea of your purpose at work. Lee, we'll come back to you in just a second. You just pipe down while I finish this. He, he calls it finding your centre, which is what Hindus call dharma, apparently. And I think his granddad was the one who was telling— helping him through these ideas. It's like your personal sort of compass that keeps you going when things get tough. When you know why you're doing something, then your work has meaning and can often stop feeling like work. So if you're a manager or a leader or a business owner, the message here is to ensure you communicate The reason why your teams are doing what they're doing. Quick aside, as I mentioned before, Leanne knew all this, and reason is one of the 7 Rs in the RX7 method that she's developed for creating better workplaces. Drop us a quick line if you want to know more about this. They all begin with R [9:20] Leanne Elliott: Shameless plug there, Al [9:21] Al Elliott: RX7, the thrill of the shill. Anyway, so once you become clear on the reason, everything else seems to fit into place and you will feel happier. This is backed up by a guy called Frank Martella. He's a Finnish psychological researcher. You'd think I'd know how to say the word psychology, wouldn't you? And he's a philosopher, and he researched why Finland was the happiest country in the world, and he found that having a clear purpose was one of the 3 main factors that made Finnish people enjoy life. More advice from Gupta includes don't work harder, play more. Again, with $20 million in the bank, it's probably slightly easier to do that. He does say that blurring the lines between work and play is more than a recipe for happiness. It's a recipe for success. Secondly, interesting. Stop obsessing over time management. Instead, focus on managing your energy. Now, this could actually be quite game-changing for how you run your team, especially when you talk about the energy and you look at where perhaps someone is more effective during the day. Perhaps Jeff's better in the morning and Sandra's better in the afternoon. Maybe just have a look and see how you can schedule things around those people. And finally, Gupta suggests doing less work but putting more heart into it. His exact words, which are kind of poetic, says, when it comes to your dharma— remember, that's your center, that's your purpose— it's much better to be full-hearted and partly scheduled than fully scheduled and half-hearted. I quite liked that. Perhaps the most controversial advice is this. Gupta says we need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Running from pain means missing out on opportunities. His exact words: if you run from the pain, you also separate yourself from possibilities. So maybe the secret to happiness at work is to have interesting problems and know exactly why you are solving those problems. Lee, thoughts? [11:01] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, totes [11:03] Al Elliott: Great. Let's move on. Was there anything? But to be fair, I was asking for your thoughts, but maybe that's just— you go, I agree, let's move on [11:09] Leanne Elliott: Yes. I mean, a few, a few things. It's worth reminding that happiness is a state. It comes and goes. What we're probably talking about really is fulfilment, a sense of purpose and meaning. That is something that stays with us as as part of our identity. Focusing too much on happiness can be a double-edged sword because if people are unhappy, then they can start to question lots of things in life that they might not necessarily need to. In terms of the research, yeah, of course, having meaning in our lives helps us to feel fulfilled and therefore more content or happy. In terms of the actual hard data, what we absolutely know for sure, is actually, um, and I've mentioned this so many times before, the massive Harvard Longitudinal Study that's still ongoing. I think we just had an 80-year check-in of what actually drives happiness. They're following people throughout their lives for 80 years now, and actually the one thing that actually really does influence happiness is the quality of our relationships. Linking that back to purpose, you can see how if you work in an organization with people that you respect and share that value, share that purpose, share that mission, and then you're going to have really positive and productive relationships at work and therefore probably, um, experience a state of happiness more, more frequently. Um, so yeah, that's my thoughts. But yeah, has he gone to one of those— were you saying the other week about how some of these CEOs go to like the desert and take some kind of, um, maybe happy-inducing drug to help them reflect? Is that— [12:39] Al Elliott: I don't think so, but it's very, very possible. I think just one thing to kind of remember when you're queuing up for your spunky lice latte or whatever it's called, um, is that the guy who did the, did the thing on Finland, the study on Finland, he pointed out that Finland is the least unhappy country, which therefore de facto makes it happy. But that's something to think about. Is it better to be not unhappy than to be happy? [13:04] Leanne Elliott: That's one to reflect on on your next, uh, desert break, isn't it? Also, and just as you said, in terms of money, absolutely, $50,000 or about £40,000 to £45,000 is about, it's about your limit, um, in terms of, um, money happy, uh, money correlating with happiness positively. So the more money you have, the happier you are. After that threshold of about $50,000, it doesn't really have any impact anymore [13:28] Al Elliott: Interesting, interesting [13:30] Leanne Elliott: So yeah, he's not wrong [13:31] Al Elliott: He's not wrong. He's not wrong. Incidentally, yet another Short ad break for our RX-7. Leanne talked about relationships there. That's another one of the 7 Rs. You definitely need to contact us about the RX-7. I think you'll need it in your workplace. Lee, what have you seen this week, darling?