Why High Achievers Feel Like They’ve Lost Their “Spark” at Work

Ready to have your mind completely blown about why you’ve “lost your spark” at work? If you’re a high achiever, read on…

In my last 5.5 years in business, I’ve worked with countless overachievers to find their professional “north star” and re-ignite their spark at work. Most of the time when they come to me, they’re feeling burned out and uninspired within their roles, doubting whether their chosen career path is truly “the one” for them.

Through the years, though, I’ve developed a bit of a theory… And at least in my experience, it holds up.

Ready to hear it?

For high achievers who feel like they’ve lost their spark, it’s often because there was never really a spark to begin with. At least not based on the work. 

For these high achievers, the thing that they thought was engagement in their career up until now was actually excitement about their growth and upward mobility. Due to their ambition, it felt intoxicating! But the thing that really kept them going each day was the feeling of accomplishment after accomplishment as they climbed the metaphorical ladder of success. It was never the actual content of the work which engaged them. 

Read that again if you need to. 

The “spark” you felt was never because you were engaged with the work. It was simply because you were motivated by the feeling of accomplishment. And now that you’ve reached a certain level of success that you once aspired to, the engagement you once felt is suddenly gone. Poof.

So…what do you think? Does this resonate with you? Do you feel like you’ve lost your spark, and it’s largely because you’re not engaged by the content of the work you’re doing? If so, tell me in the comments below!

If this resonates with enough of you, I’m happy to do a part 2 about what to do if you’re realizing you were never truly engaged by the work you do, only by the accomplishment. There’s lots to dig into on that.
Let me know what you think about my theory below!

To reigniting the spark,

P.S. If this blog post felt like a huge aha for you in your career, do me a favor and share it with a friend! I’d love to see this theory spread far and wide.