Ask Me Anything 15 April 2026

This was one of our weekly Ask Me Anything sessions. It started with such an interesting and important set of questions from someone who wrote in anonymously. During the session, they added more context (anonymously). 

I figured many people might hear themselves in these questions, so I wanted to share it to the podcast platforms.

Initial question: I regret moving into UX and now I don't know what to do. On one hand, I'm glad I found a field that resonates with me and aligns with what I'm good at. On the other hand, I'm not happy about the people I've encountered in the larger community and how companies set people against each other. I'm sort of relieved that the industry as it exists now will collapse in on itself, but I'm also attached to it and not sure how to move out of it — how can I reframe my story so this makes sense and I can move forward with my life? I'm embarrassed by how UX has been treated. I find solace in the fact that AI will eat most people's jobs and they will have to justify their existence the same way UX people have. I'm angry, frustrated, and annoyed. I'm finding it hard to stay positive and I'm tired of rebranding. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Welcome, low ego action heroes and phoenixes. I'm Debbie Levitch from Delta CX, and uh welcome to Wednesday's Ask Me Anything. This is where you get to ask me absolutely any question that is work-related or life-related. There is literally no question you can't ask. Um, and I am here to do this for free, so it's worth at least what you're paying. And it's something I do every Wednesday currently at 7 p.m. Italy time. So I'm thinking about changing up the schedule a little bit at some point this year. Uh, today is the 15th of April 2026. So, Americans, I hope you filed your taxes. And uh, if you would like to ask a question, you can put something in the chat. It pops up on the screen like this, or you can send it to dcx.to slash q. Um, even if you're not watching this live, I will collect these questions. I save them, save them all week, and then I answer them in the order in which I get them. So we do have a question that was sent anonymously. I think it was earlier today. So we'll be starting with that shortly. And if you have questions, yours will be after that. Um I will try to check my email. Um so, oh, why did that look wrong? Was that hold on. What sorry, just check. And by the way, um, because we have an amazing first question today that came in anonymously, I am going to send this broadcast to our podcast. If you would like to um enjoy this in the audio only format, you can find Delta CX Hive on your uh preferred uh podcasting platform. So, yeah, take us on the go or catch the YouTube archives. Plenty of ways to interact with us at no cost. Um, so I want to start with the question that we got today. And it is such an important question that it might be the only question we get to today. So let me then quickly give a couple of plugs and remind people you can go to dcx.to, our URL shortener, to see all of the links to everything that I and our community offer, our free Discord, our free Patreon, which I use like a mailing list. We broadcast also on Twitch, which I think is much better than LinkedIn and YouTube. We've got events and courses coming up, lots of events that are free, a couple that are not free. Um check it out. Um I was trying to use Claude to test your skill, but forget it, it's impossible today. Yeah. Um, some of you may know I just released a Claude Skill. Um, you can check it out in our store. Our store is at deltacademy. Um, you will find the Claude Skill there. And inside of the Claude Skill, it links to a new workshop I've set up where I can train you on the Claude Skill if you don't want to stumble through it yourself and you want to learn what it can actually uh do. All right, plugs out of the way. Let's take a look at the question that came in. I am going to read it probably multiple times because it's pretty long and there's a lot of questions within the question. And I say everybody get out your your pen and paper, make some notes as I'm talking, because if you're joining live, I want to hear what you think as well. Um, so here is what this says. I regret moving into UX, and now I don't know what to do. On one hand, I'm glad I found a field that resonates with me and aligns with what I'm good at. On the other hand, I'm not happy about the people I've encountered in the larger community and how companies set people against each other. I'm sort of relieved that the industry as it exists now will collapse on itself, but I'm also attached to it and I'm not sure how to move out of it. How can I reframe my story so this makes sense and I can move forward with my life? I'm embarrassed by how UX has been treated. I find solace in the fact that AI will eat most people's jobs and they will have to justify their existence the same way UX people have. I'm angry, frustrated, and annoyed. I'm finding it hard to say positive, and I'm tired of rebranding. Well, I don't know who sent this, and I I cannot send you more love than I am sending you. Please know that we so many people watching this right now will absolutely feel what you are saying, um, probably on multiple levels. And so, number one, I want to send out that love. Uh, number two, I want to absolutely validate what you're saying. You've made a lot of great points. Your uh experiences are real and you are not alone. This happens and has been happening and continues to happen and will happen to a lot of people. I agree with you that more and more people in tech and corporate will have to justify their existence. And if we're lucky, they will remember the time they made you do that, and there will be some sort of karma moment where time will stop and they will realize um what they have brought on themselves uh in in their own uh universe way, if I can say that. Um, so I'm going to give a quick plug for for something that I believe will help, um, and then we'll answer this, of course, quite seriously with minimal plugs. And Anna Lucia says, just to make a small point, it's not like this is UX exclusive. These experiences may happen in some other job. Yeah, so I definitely don't want to, what about this person? Um, and this person already says AI will eat most people's jobs and they'll have to justify their existence the way UX people have. And I think this person recognizes that that has already started, that there's already fights among product managers where they're trying to prove that they have value when I feel like the the more I see what's happening in product management, the less value I feel like they're showing. So I think they're in a lot of trouble as well. Engineers are having trouble as well. Marketers, we're seeing it across everybody. And we even talked about this last year in episode 270. Uh, if you want to go back to the Delta CX Hive YouTube channel and and give that a watch. Um, we talked about how it's not just UX that's in trouble. There's a lot of tech and corporate jobs that uh people are saying, why do we need these people, or why do we need so many people, or what value do these people uh offer? And I don't wish it on anybody, but it it's uh it's uh it's falling. It's falling. So so the quick plug is um I did write a book about this. It's called Life After Check, and this is a book designed to help people feeling these feelings and dealing with these feelings and potentially burnout. And it's designed to help you figure out where you're going to go next. And it doesn't say what are your transferable skills, other than in a couple of paragraphs, it takes a very different approach at where you're going. And if you hit the courses page, I now have a live course version of this where I will give people personal feedback and coaching as they go through the exercises in case my input can uh help anybody with this. So, um plug over. Um, so uh where can we start with this? Um, I want to start at the beginning. The first sentence says, I regret moving into UX and now I don't know what to do. Um, I think because this person is so wonderful to ask, how can I reframe my story? I want to I want to focus on that word reframe. And reframing is when we we take something that we had a certain perception of and we start looking at it from other angles, and we shift our perception of that thing. And I want to start with the first sentence, if I may. Um, the first sentence says, Um, I regret moving into UX and now I don't know what to do. Okay, the I don't know what to do part we'll get to, but I want to ask you about reframing regretting moving into UX. Um, you said you found something that resonates with you and it aligns what you're good at. There are positives here, and chances are when you moved into it, you had good reasons to move into it. You um you found like you felt like you found something that resonated with you and you pursued it, and there's nothing wrong with that. And I don't want anybody to look back and go, oh, I I did this wrong. And maybe you do regret this. You're allowed to regret this, but I also worry about the weight that regret can put on a person, and and this is certainly an emotional post, uh, and I'm not saying it shouldn't be, but I wonder if we can reframe that regret so that we can kind of deactivate some of the negative emotions. So can you say, and this is just an example, and this might not work for you. Um uh I moved into UX feeling excitement, maybe a sense of belonging, maybe a sense of resonance, the vibes. Um, it aligned with me and it really um uh helped me shine in what I'm good at. And I'm grateful for the good days that I had, but when I look back on it, I do wonder if I should have gone into a different career. But I made the best decision I could at the time. At the time I made a decision to go into a field, excuse me, and I don't know how long you worked in UX. I made a decision to go into a field that appeared strong, that appeared well paid, that appeared stable or growing. Um I made the best decision I could at the time. If I knew what I if I knew then what I knew now, would I go into UX? If I'm pretending I'm I'm the person asking this question, okay, maybe you wouldn't. Maybe if we all had a time machine and saw where this would would end up in 2026, we all would have done something different. What would you have done? And and that's what Life After Tech challenges you to think about. What would you have done? What else resonates with you? Or what else are you reasonably good at that you can do and just make money and have some stability, even if it doesn't fulfill your life purpose, so that you have money and headspace to go fulfill your life purpose? Our work doesn't have to be our life purpose, nice when it is, but it doesn't have to be. So I wonder for starters, can this person take take a moment and maybe take a look at what they're grateful for and maybe what they would have done differently. But there's always that sense of, well, now that I'm looking back, I shouldn't have done that. But we can do that to ourselves for our entire life about everything. If I were to start making the list of everything I shouldn't have done, we're gonna be here a long time, and I have a call after this. I mean, imagine the people I wouldn't have dated or married, the uh the places I wouldn't have bothered trying to live in, the jobs I wouldn't have taken, the money I wouldn't have spent. I mean, how much should I dwell on that regret versus looking back and saying, I didn't always do things I feel great about now, but what can I learn from them and what can I be grateful for, and what can I take into my future? Um, before I continue, let's look at what Anna Lucia wrote. It already came off the screen, but I can see it and says, I'm I'm saying that because this person said, I'm not happy with the people I've encountered in the larger community and how companies set people up against each other. Unless you work alone, that happens a lot, UX or not. It's something that happens when you have to work with other people. There are good and bad people everywhere. I feel bad about saying this. Sure. And I was just saying this to somebody the other day. One of my best friends keeps getting new jobs, trying to run from a bad manager, and ends up in another job with guess what? A differently bad manager. And that that friend of mine, who's not in UX, by the way, but is experiencing what we many of us do, that person started feeling like I must be doing this to myself. I must not be making good decisions about jobs, I must be some sort of magnet for this. And I was trying to tell them, you're not. Every place has bad people and toxic people. And the only question is going to be, how closely do you have to work with them? Sometimes you have to work very closely with them, and it deeply affects us. And sometimes, luckily, that person is somebody else's manager or distant from us, and we don't have to interact with them as much, but they are everywhere. And and I run my own business and I have uh consulting and agency clients, and not all of my clients are freaking dreams come true. And so this is just the unfortunate reality of humans interacting with humans, which can be what makes being a hermit sometimes so attractive. So um, but but I don't want the person who wrote this to hear, suck it up and deal with it, like some Americans like to say. I think it's just important for us to understand that um I'm also not happy about some of the people you've encountered in the larger community and how companies set people against each other. You're absolutely right. This is happening, but I think it's happening at every job. My best friend, uh, I have a few best friends, um, I have a small inner circle of best friends. Um, and the one I'm thinking of doesn't work in in tech or UX at all. They are in a corporate environment, but not even tech or UX. So this is a thing. But I want to um focus on what I think is really the core of this question, which is the middle bit that says, How can I reframe my story so this makes sense and I can move forward with my life? Okay, so let's imagine for a moment that you have come into my life coaching world. Hashtag I'm a certified life coach with my ICF ACC credential. Um, let's imagine you came to me in a life coaching session and you asked to talk about the this exact thing. In ICF style life coaching, we don't tell you what to do, we don't tell you stories about ourselves, we don't tell you you're right or wrong. ICF coaching is very much about asking questions that invite the person to peel away the layers and go deeper and find their own path. So if you came into my advice side, I will happily tell you stories about myself and give you advice. But on the ICF side, we we don't give advice, we ask questions. And I'm trying to think about what questions would I ask you. And I think the first question I would ask you is Um, given the way you phrased this, have you already reframed your story? Because I hear I hear a lot of music in this story, I hear a lot of different notes being played. And I wonder if you have already started reframing the story. And when you say so this makes sense, I would ask you what doesn't make sense right now? Where doesn't make sense? And then I would probably ask when you think about what doesn't make sense what emotions are coming up? Where what are you feeling? And if you needed help, I would pull up my list of common emotions so you can latch on to some of those if you're having trouble thinking of them, but what emotions are you experiencing? And I'd want to dive into that, especially if you used some interesting words to peel away these layers and get at these definitions of of words for you, and then I'd want to know when you think about these things, where do you feel it in your body? Is it tightness in your throat? Is it tension in your shoulders? Is it uh tightness in your chest, uh fists? Get in touch with where you're feeling this just because that's going to help with that processing and that reframing. Now, this isn't therapy, I'm not a therapist. This is just ICF style coaching, and part of that is somatics and getting in touch with emotions and where they tend to reverberate in in our our physical bodies so that we can listen for what messages they m that might have for us. And when this person says, How can I move forward with my life? I would want to know what's blocking you? What what is blocking you right now from moving forward in your life? And which of those blockers can you control? Because you can only control what you can control. So which of those blockers can you control? And we also know uh and we do have some emotions from the original question. The person says, I'm angry, frustrated, and annoyed. And I would say go ahead and sit with that a bit and give yourself permission to feel those things completely. Um what can you do to express those? Maybe there's a writing exercise or a drawing exercise or something that can help you work through that. So what then I would want to talk about what does moving forward with your life look like? Are you are you moving backwards? Are you not moving at all? What would moving forward look like? That could mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. Is that moving forward staying in UX, staying in tech, staying in corporate work? Is that moving forward with a different sort of work? No work? Early retirement? Um what does let's say you can move forward with your life? And let's say you reframe your story, um and I'm talking to you six months from now and you're feeling better, and and you've you've moved forward and done some reframing. What message does future you have for you right now? What what does current you need to hear from future you? That might help you refrain or move forward. These are some of the questions I might ask in life coaching. Uh ICF style, because it it wouldn't make sense for me to say, hey, I don't know you, no idea who wrote this, but let me tell you what your story should be. Here's how to reframe your story. Uh, tell yourself this. Hey, that sex. That's that's not right for me to do. This is your story, and your story has a lot of components here. Your story has anger, frustration, and annoyance. You're finding it hard to stay positive, and you're tired of rebranding. What does help you stay positive? What are the positive things in your life? What can you do for self-care or balance? How do you recharge your batteries or put your oxygen mask on? And who said you have to stay positive? Maybe you give yourself some time and space to feel negatively and and work through that anger, frustration, annoyance, fatigue, maybe burnout. It's okay if this is a healing process. It's not like I have a magic wand. I have a fly slaughter, but I don't have a magic wand. It's not like I can just say, boom. Here's how you should reframe it. Here's how you should move forward with your life. Here's what you should do next. I think I would probably also ask you if we were in an ICF life coaching type of universe, I would probably ask, if you were gonna rebrand yourself. Oh, we've got uh another anonymous question. I don't know if it's a follow-up. Let me check. Um, if you were gonna rebrand yourself one more time, what is that? What feels good? Uh I think this might be a continuation from the same person. Is this the same person? It would have helped if you said yes, I'm the same person. I can't I'm I'm assuming it's the same person, but let's put it up. Whether it's the same person or it's another person who feels similarly, um uh we know that these are common feelings, and and the person who wrote us is not the only person feeling this way. So let's um let's put that up on the screen since that just came in, and I'll read it out loud and we'll talk about it some more. So um the additional either it's either a continuation of the same person or someone who feels similarly. It says, I feel that after each reframe, not my first, the options get smaller and smaller. It's a feeling of running out of options, it's a feeling of suffocation. I agree that it happens in every industry, but UX claims to be people-centric, and I hate to see people prey on each other. It's one thing if somebody does it without shame or hiding, but doings beyond the guise of UX is what is painful to witness. Where are the honest people? I feel like hope in the world is gone. At the same time, I feel like I'm capable of doing anything. I felt the opposite of this when I was younger. Powerless, but hopeful about the world. Now things feel reversed. Yeah, thank you so much for for sending this. Yes, same person. Okay, I just got uh an email. Okay, thank you, same person. And I genuinely don't know who this is, and you don't have to tell me, and that's fine because you speak for a lot of people. So um, yes. So, first of all, yes. Um a lot of the things we're seeing right now are absolutely painful to witness. And um and I and again, it's okay to to feel that and and be in that, but we also have to think about how long do we want to do we want to feel that and do we want to stay in that moment. That doesn't mean heads in sand or ignoring things. Um, but uh, for example, the it's painful to witness, where are honest people, hope in the world is gone. It's going to be very important to find some hope in the world. That that is a minimum requirement for survival, uh, in my opinion. Food, water, shelter, medical care, some friendship, and at least a little bit of hope in the world. And I see some hope in the things you're writing. I see some hope in the um when you say I'm capable of doing anything. Um and I want to sit with that for a moment. I'm capable of doing anything. I'm capable of doing anything. I'm capable of doing anything. But okay, sure. But where can we find some small pieces of hope to latch on to and spiral back up? Because there's a lot of spiraling down right now, and that's going to be difficult, if not dangerous, for states of mind, mental health, and when those start getting compromised, we can sometimes make poor decisions or keep spiraling down. And I want to see people, even when times are tough, finding ways to stop the downward spiral and start to spiral back up. I used to feel powerless but hopeful about the world. Now things feel reversed. So you feel powerful. If I'm reading that correctly, I'm putting words in your mouth, I could be wrong. Do you feel powerful? You're capable of doing anything. You're angry at the world, tech companies, how people treat each other, how people prey on each other. Okay, I'm looking in a mirror. I recognize this, I get it, and you're sending this to me because you know I'll get it. And you talk about running out of options. Yet you've told me you've had to reframe and rebrand yourself many times. That tells me you're intelligent, you're resourceful, you have some resilience, you tend to figure it out. And I've heard a rumor that you're powerful and capable of doing anything. So what will you do next? If you had to rebrand yourself one more time, what would that look like? And maybe don't start with work. Who are you as a person? That's where we go in the book. Who are you as a person? And I wrote that before I went to life coaching school. Yes, I actually went to life coaching school. It was long and expensive. Um who are you? What's your core personal qualities? What is your brand? I don't think you have to rebrand from a personal perspective. I get the feeling you know who you are and you know what you're capable of. The world is ugly. The world is getting a lot of us down. Okay, so how do we keep our oxygen mask on? Where are the honest people? I think you know that also. I think you know who you can trust and who are your people. Is a lot of stuff painful to witness? Yes. I don't read or watch the news, I barely know what's happening in the world. Uh some people would say I'm ignorant, but I like to say I'm getting younger. There's a lot that's painful to witness, and there's a lot that we can't control or change. We didn't break it, and we can't fix it. But there's a lot that we can control for ourselves. Are your options getting smaller? In tech? Possibly. For all of us. Fewer options. But maybe that just means we drive our car off at the next exit, and we go down a different road. We take some detours we didn't think we'd have to take. And we find new options and new opportunities. And we might not know now what they are, and that's okay. And we might change our mind again later, and that's okay. You're talking about the pain of the hypocrisy of people who are supposed to be people-centric, hurting other people, and not life coaching moment, advising moment. Uh, I get you. We might be rather similar. I one of my main triggers has always been what I've called injustice. Very few things can set me off like what to me feels unjust, which is usually people's treatment of someone else, and especially someone's treatment of someone they either feel is less than them, or someone who is less powerful or empowered in the situation. Um, I've learned to change some of my expectations and recognize that not everybody falls into the bucket of powerful, capable people who can do anything and are people-centric without preying on each other, and who are honest, and who bring hope in the world. I've got about 700 of them in the Discord community, so I'm hoping that's a bit of a shining light, but I just keep looking at on my screen, which is why I'm not looking at the camera. Hello camera, hello screen. I feel like I'm capable of doing anything. What if you are? What if you're capable of doing anything? Could you rebrand again? Could you reframe again? How can you find the energy to do that? Do you get to be low energy and worn out and burnt out and angry? Yes, you do. Spend as much time in that space as you want to, so I recommend spending less time in that space. What can you do to bring self-care and balance back? When you feel these things, do you have something that you can do to work with that energy? Can you go for a walk? Can you text a friend? Can you share to a community you believe in? Can you write a page in your next great novel? Can you talk to a dog? What can you do that will help you start to spiral up? And Lucia says, I don't have much hope in the world, but I have hope in some people, if that makes sense. Some people make me think that not all people are bad, and not all people will stab you in the back. Some of them will help you without expecting anything in return. There are good people out there. You don't have to feel hopeful for the world as long as you can see the good in this sea of sticky, messy dishonesty. I would probably be asking what charges your batteries? You're honest, you're capable of doing anything, you're powerful. Maybe you're someone who might um get some recharge out of art, music, volunteering, knowing you're helping someone else and making the world a little bit better just for today for somebody. That works for some people. Some people say, you know what, the world feels like a garbage dumpster of crap on fire, and then I show up to the food bank, the church, the mosque, the um scouts, the whoever, some organization that's out there to help people. Uh, my previous boyfriend's dad used to go build houses with habitat for humanity. Volunteer in a nursing home, read books to old people. There's so many interesting things that we can do that can feed society and feed the world, and and that our care and our power can affect somebody else. It can it can improve your energy and your outlook and help you spiral up even just a little bit. And then you share that with somebody else. Whatever it is. It's not gonna be the same for everybody, so I can't say step one, do this, step two, do that. That's why this falls into that life coaching bucket where it's better for me to ask questions than to answer them. Where are the honest people? Here. Same person. Okay, we got same person coming back. Thank you, same person. Um, let me open this up and copy paste. Ugh working with two screens badly today. Please excuse me that I'm in slow motion. Okay, same person says, I'm at the point now where instead of rebranding, I need to find a way to realign with something that has nothing to do with industry trends or anything external as much as I can. I want to avoid having to sell myself and I want to avoid this mentality. I understand the sacrifice of taking this path. I have a lot of anger and resentment, and I don't know how to transmute it into something positive and where to put that. I don't want to take it out on anybody. I'm understanding now that when I don't express that anger, it turns inward. Okay. Thank you. Again, thank you so much for sharing all of this and truly, I know it's a catchphrase, but bearing your soul, um, albeit anonymously, which is also fine. That's why we do anonymous questions here. We want people to be uh honest and and raw. So again, thank you. And and we celebrate you and we see you, and uh let's take a look at what you've added to this conversation. So um, first of all, I don't know about you because you're sitting somewhere and I don't know who you are, where you are, but I sense a small shift in the energy. Yes, you're angry, but your third message feels different to me. It just does. And and you might still have a lot of anger, and that's fine, you'll have to work through that. But this message feels different, and I think if you can start to shift, you can use that again just to spiral up, even if that's a slow spiral, little by little, just make sure it is upward, not downward. And you're saying I don't want to take it out on anybody, which makes me think you might have accidentally taken it out on somebody or more than one person. And okay, if that happened, maybe it didn't. What can we learn from that? And how can we catch it earlier? There's an exercise on my coaching website. Optional. You don't have to do it, or try it, change it, make it better, make it your own. If you go to delta CX.coach and you go to take action in the top navigation, there that's a page of exercises. Some of them I've made up, some of them are standard coaching exercises, some of them I've co-created with others with gratitude to them. Take a look at burnout chain. See if it resonates. Maybe it doesn't. You want to be a guest on the show? Sorry, I've got one of my dogs bugging me. I thought maybe she wants to be a guest on the show. Um the burnout chain exercise is designed for us to be more aware of when we reach burnout or something close to it, where the anger or pain or whatever, however, this manifests for you, uh, starts to feel out of control and consume us. And can we recognize some of the things we feel and do before that that might signal that we're headed to that worse state? And then we kind of keep tracing it back and keep tracing it back. So, first of all, if you can map that out, it's a little bit of an intellectual exercise for something that's truly uh feeling and experience space, so it won't be for everybody, but it could help you get a little more in touch with some of your patterns and some of your shifts so that you can try to catch yourself before some of the downward spirals, or potentially sometimes people take it out on others, sometimes they take it out on themselves with some sort of self-harm or overspending, overeating, um, other potentially self-destructive habits. Let me also grab Seanak's um comment so that we don't uh ignore that. From my past experiences and learning from mistakes, the best things to do is set boundaries with people that drain your energy and stop overgeneralization when you experience something negative. Yeah, and that's not bad advice, it's just kind of an easier said than than done, but that's certainly not bad advice. So I have a lot of anger and resentment, and I don't know how to transmute it into something positive and where to put it. And I think that I would start with uh is there an artistic or creative outlet where you can express this? Can it be expressed in visual art like drawing? Do you want to write a poem about it? Do you want to write a song about it? Do you want to write a comedy sketch about it? Do you want to write a short story? Um what can you do with that energy so that you have acknowledged it? You you have your feelings, you're acknowledging your feelings, you're not ignoring them or hiding them, but you're working through them. And again, depending upon the level of things you're experiencing, therapy might be helpful. I'm not a therapist, I'm I'm a life coach. Um I would ask what are the things that you do that make you feel great, powerful, capable, maybe even a little hopeful? What are those things? And can you bring them into your life a little more? Can you can you find that time? Can you prioritize that time maybe daily, maybe in the moment. And I also want to talk about something in the middle of what this says, which is I want to avoid having to sell myself. I think that for many jobs there's always a component of selling yourself. Whether it's in the moment of interviewing for the job and getting it. Or if you want to run your own business, you're kind of constantly selling yourself. Or at least selling the business. So I also wonder would selling yourself feel as bad if you were selling your powerful, capable self to someone who wanted that. These are the things we sit with in life coaching. Um uh first session is free if anybody wants to give it a try. DeltaCX.coach, pick the life coaching side, not the work advice side, unless you just want me to tell you what to do, then pick the work advice side. But if you want to sit with some of these questions and find your own path and peel away the layers yourself, and my job is just to ask questions and notice things without telling you what to do or being a fake therapist. I need a way to realign with something that has nothing to do with industry, trends, or anything external. Sure. I mean, if you're if you don't want something that's external, then you want something that's internal, that's you. And I say, oh, you want to reconnect to yourself more, better, in a healthier way, or whatever this means to you. Sure. How can you do it? How can you do it? Where do we start? So yeah, I would say there are some different things too. Oh, hey, some something in my email. Same person. Hold on. We've got uh we've got the hotline today. Uh same person sending in a message. Oh okay. Wow, it actually came in on my phone before my computer. What all right, let's paste it and thank you, same person, for for sticking with us today. Um same person says, I haven't taken it out on anybody, but I can feel that it's bubbling up to a point where it's going to happen. At the same time, I'm a person that tends to not let things out. I deal with it internally, and you can imagine the good and bad of that. My system of balance feels like it's failing, and that's why it feels like a bigger, bigger problem. I like what you said about packaging the parts that I feel good about and selling that. Yeah. I think so, first of all, uh, advice hat. I feel like you're in a a better place than you you think, and I'm still sensing a little bit of a shift because you have a good self-awareness that you're not taking down on others, but you can see it getting there. It's boiling. It's boiling, but it hasn't exploded, and you're trying to catch it before it does. The burnout chain exercise could help. And you're also talking about um holding things internally, and there's good and bad of that. Um that's probably worth looking at um as well. What are some um healthy, positive, reinforcing things that you can do when you're feeling struggle or these painful emotions? Um, and what are some negative things that you might do? Um, there's another exercise on the take action page. And by the way, everyone's welcome to do these exercises, even if you don't get life coaching from me. They're just on the site and you can give them a try. Um, they cost nothing. Um, I made ugly mirror boards. You can make better looking ones. Um there's an uh exercise there that I got from my coaching school called Inner Critic and Higher Self. And it's an it's an exercise designed to get more in touch both with what I like to call the devil on our shoulder, who has lots of negative things to say and cheers us on for the wrong reasons, and uh tells us you made a mistake, you did it wrong, you're not good enough, or you're not gonna make it, or whatever those negative messages might be. And then we have the higher self, the might what might be the angel on our shoulder who says no, you're powerful, you're capable, you can do anything. You made it through other crappy times, you can make it through this one too. Don't don't let yourself spiral down so much. And the exercise is designed to kind of turn these two into characters that that you can kind of give forms and names and really uh bring them to life and start to take a look at when the inner critic devil character, and it doesn't have to be a devil for you, it's it's all different things for all different people. When that character starts to creep in, can we catch it? Can we catch it and recognize it? That's really the first trick. Can we catch these things and recognize them before they affect us in ways that we wish they wouldn't? And can we find that power and strength and uh peace of mind and whatever else it might take for each person to bring in the higher self, to be the louder voice? So when it comes to dealing with the anger and the boiling over stuff, that could be therapy territory. Um, depending upon where you are and uh what you believe and what you can afford, I'd probably recommend therapy to work on uh coping with that and uh moving through what's obviously a very difficult time for you and many other people, uh, but certainly you. Right now we're focused on you. Um and then to me, the life coaching is more about future self. Uh life coaching is not about looking at your past or dealing with trauma or any of those things. It's about how to go from today to tomorrow and into the future. Um, Seanak says, when it comes to therapy, go to someone that provides actionable coping strategies and personalized advice rather than going to someone where you're just venting. I feel like that never works. Um, yeah, I can agree. I think it's good to be picky about therapists. I've had to fire a couple, but I had mostly good ones that definitely helped me understand myself better and deal with the anger I had and the negativity I was feeling and the downward spirals I was in. Um and uh and yeah. So yeah, uh, I would probably suggest that just so you have that outlet for that, and and there might be some some trauma here, uh personal trauma, work-related trauma, you know, this is um these things can be traumatic. I don't think anybody who feels traumatized by these things is overreacting. So you're saying your system of balance feels like it's failing, and so the question is uh oh, there's an email. Same person. Just wanted to say thank you for all of your advice, sending love and appreciation sincerely, same person. No problem, same person. Uh I hope that that some of it was helpful. You know, it's it's definitely hard to have a one-way life coaching session, um, because usually uh I'm asking questions and someone's thinking about things and and responding, and then I've got fresh questions, and we're peeling away layers, and we're uh investigating things in new ways, and we're asking interesting, powerful questions. But um I would uh also probably think about um, you know, in the Life After Tech book, we have an exercise where we list our core personal qualities, the our strengths, our gifts, the things we like or love about ourselves, uh, the things we're we're grateful for about ourselves. And that may be something that might help you. Some people like to do gratitude for other things. You know, I'm grateful for the sunny day and my dogs and delicious pizza, but you can also do that type of exercise for yourself. What are your qualities that make you you and that make you awesome? You're capable, you're powerful, you're empathetic, you're compassionate, you're smart, you're self-aware, you're you're you know, just the messages you've sent. I have a sense of some of the things that you are. Still don't know who you are. I have a sense of some of the things you you are. You've had a system of balance that has worked before, and now it's being pushed too hard. Um, and and you're reaching out for help, and that's fantastic. And and I would say look for other ways to to reach out. Who is your most trusted person? For some people, that's a best friend or a sibling. Um, some people it could be a therapist or a coach. So for some people it's clergy. Um but I would say don't let this be the last time you reach out for help. I think that's great that you've been able to express this um the way that you have. And I know you're speaking for for a lot of us, but your situation is still uniquely yours, and you're uniquely you. And so what can you do? Because you're you're bubbling and you're struggling with a lot of anger and and negativity, and and it can be valid and it can be justified, but we still have to deal with it and find a way to to break that cycle, find the balance again, and start spiraling up. And I would say find more ways to live out loud the the parts of you that you like or love about you, because uh I've heard some good things about you. Well, I am happy that we spent the whole show on this. I hope it's helpful not just to the person who is writing in, but to other people who might feel some or all of these things. And uh, you know, on the selfish side, I hope people will check out the life after tech book or sign up for some life coaching. Um first call's free, and then a lot of people pay me 30 euros for 45 minutes. So I'm I'm nicely priced on the life coaching side, higher priced on the work advice side. Um yeah, I hope you'll keep in touch with us. You'll you'll say same person and we'll we'll know who you are. Um do check in with us. Send some notes into the to the show from time to time and let us know how the same person is doing. Because I bet you won't be the same person. You will be better person. You'll be the you'll be the same person, but feeling better. And you'll be the same person, but not bubbling. And you'll be the same person with some sense of direction. And and and a reframe. If you don't want a reframe, I get it. But maybe just one more? One more rebrand, one more reframe. And uh with that, perhaps we play our closing music. Aptly called Quit Forever by the band Toehider. Everybody knows Toe Hider is one of my favorite bands on the planet, and uh I licensed this song from him. So, yeah, is it better to quit forever? The song asks. The song doesn't give us the answer. For some, the answer is yes, and for some the answer is no, and for some it's still maybe, and that's okay too. Um, so I'm gonna claim us out of here, and thanks again to the person writing in anonymously. I'm here every Wednesday, uh, taking your questions about anything, um, truly anything. I hope um the same person will keep in touch. And um I guess our next stream is Take Action Tuesday, uh 10 30 at night, Italy time, and then of course, next Wednesday again. Thanks everybody and have a great rest of your Wednesday.