Better Way To Build with Shay Cochrane
Jul 27, 2026 · 27 min · 9 segments
If you're still showing up to work every day but quietly feel disconnected from it — this episode names what's happening and starts to show you the way back. I open a two-part series on work…
When our work lacks or loses a deep sense of meaning, passion, or purpose, we often resort to milestones to give our work significance and keep ourselves engaged.
Now, by milestones, I mean revenue goals, number of people in our program, our an invitation on a certain stage or platform, the number of books sold, followers, views, downloads, size of our team, size of your warehouse, size of your retail store, size of your event.
But none of those things are going to create a deep, lasting sense of satisfaction in your work.
When we start to lose passion for our work, we often use money and metrics to signal to ourselves that what we're doing actually really matters.
An example of this would be a business coach who no longer feels really passionate about what she's doing, but she creates, because of the lack of passion, she creates a sense of satisfaction by working.
what, growing her program to a certain number each year or hitting new revenue targets, right? And those get used as a substitute for truly loving the work, especially if you are like me and you tend to be productivity-driven anyway.
Sometimes the punch of satisfaction from the productivity is enough to keep us going when passion for what we're actually doing is fading.
And And, you know, if we're being honest, that way of operating may even buy you a few more years of going forward in your work and ignoring the deeper disconnection and dissatisfaction.
But the point being, milestones cannot provide meaning, purpose, or deep satisfaction necessarily.
They cannot replace the passion of truly feeling connected to what you're doing.
Everyone who has ever hit a milestone knows that milestones give short-term pleasure, right? They don't give a deep, sustaining satisfaction.
And this is why I think we all know that success can feel a bit hollow even when things are actually working, right? We've all felt the sense of sort of shame of like, I should be happy with this, right? I should feel satisfied by what I've done.
And on the flip side of that, you and I have probably both experienced the deep satisfaction of a project that really did feel aligned and meaningful.
When our work lacks or loses a deep sense of meaning, passion, or purpose, we often resort to milestones to give our work significance and keep ourselves engaged.
Now, by milestones, I mean revenue goals, number of people in our program, our an invitation on a certain stage or platform, the number of books sold, followers, views, downloads, size of our team, size of your warehouse, size of your retail store, size of your event.
But none of those things are going to create a deep, lasting sense of satisfaction in your work.
When we start to lose passion for our work, we often use money and metrics to signal to ourselves that what we're doing actually really matters.
An example of this would be a business coach who no longer feels really passionate about what she's doing, but she creates, because of the lack of passion, she creates a sense of satisfaction by working.
what, growing her program to a certain number each year or hitting new revenue targets, right? And those get used as a substitute for truly loving the work, especially if you are like me and you tend to be productivity-driven anyway.
Sometimes the punch of satisfaction from the productivity is enough to keep us going when passion for what we're actually doing is fading.
And And, you know, if we're being honest, that way of operating may even buy you a few more years of going forward in your work and ignoring the deeper disconnection and dissatisfaction.
But the point being, milestones cannot provide meaning, purpose, or deep satisfaction necessarily.
They cannot replace the passion of truly feeling connected to what you're doing.
Everyone who has ever hit a milestone knows that milestones give short-term pleasure, right? They don't give a deep, sustaining satisfaction.
And this is why I think we all know that success can feel a bit hollow even when things are actually working, right? We've all felt the sense of sort of shame of like, I should be happy with this, right? I should feel satisfied by what I've done.
And on the flip side of that, you and I have probably both experienced the deep satisfaction of a project that really did feel aligned and meaningful.
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