Off Track: Feeling Lost? Fear, Purpose, Identity & Reinventing Yourself

追加: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Hello everyone and welcome back to Offtrack. It is the inside episode you didn't know you needed. There are no guests, there are no scripts, there are no performances, just a stream of consciousness really, my consciousness.

[00:00:13]Uh things I think are are worth talking about and today's episode was rooted in the latest conversation I had with Bassam Tahawi. It was a very surprising conversation with Bassam. There are things that he said and shared which I was not expecting. I don't want to say too much about it because I want to respect him. Um I don't want you to watch the episode, but it was a conversation that really did surprise me beyond the coaching, the identity, and the purpose, and even spirituality.

[00:00:38]There was sort of something much more human underneath all of it and it's that sort of negative feeling, um a negative feeling of fear and misalignment and the exhausting pressure that so many of us are feeling right now when it comes to proving ourselves. And I think that's what I'm going to start with today with today's episode. So there's three insights I think I really want to share with you um that that need to be talked about. And then the first really is around, you know, life sometimes takes your own decision. It takes it takes a decision to sort of force you to make a change that you're maybe too scared to make yourself and we'll come back to that later, but it's around the job market.

[00:01:16]It's around the things that you've always wanted to do, but all of a sudden life forces your hand. The second insight is um you know, around that the fact that many of us are feeling exhausted from this constant performing act, um this performing version of ourselves that no longer really feels real. And then the third insight is around my own journey and the more I realized that I'm growing, the more I realized that meaning, real meaning, doesn't come from from achievements. It really does come from what you contribute and how you contribute. I think there's a lot of people right now who need to hear this because there is a really strange energy in the world at the moment. Now I say the world, I'm not I'm not an expert in global affairs, but what I can tell you is my world and the world in the Middle East and in this region.

[00:02:03]There's a lot of worry. There's a lot of concern. There's worry about the economy. There's worry about the job market. There's worry about people paying rent. And rent is actually going up. Uh there's worry about covering school fees and providing for their families in the same kind of way that they've always done. And just basically trying to keep up with life.

[00:02:19]And there's a sort of cloud of fear that's sitting over so many people right now. Everyone I seem to speak to sort of on edge. Um they're not sure what's going to come next. And I completely understand it. And and I felt it, too.

[00:02:30]But the feeling is absolutely real. It's that level of uncertainty. Um They are not sure if they're going to have a job. They're not sure if their salaries at the moment are going to remain as they are. Um a lot of people have had to take some some pay cuts.

[00:02:45]And it's a really challenging time for so so many people. And we're in that kind of period just before summer where everyone's thinking, "Okay, yeah, in September hopefully things will be okay." And we're sort of in that sort of wait-and-see policy.

[00:02:56]But all of that is a a wait-and-see policy, which is all very uncertain. And nobody likes uncertainty.

[00:03:03]We love to have certainty. We love to know what's sort of coming next. Um and without that certainty, you know, fear starts to really sort of step up. It steps up its game big time.

[00:03:14]Now, I know what it feels like to walk away from that sort of certainty or that sort of stable corporate career um without having, you know, another job that's sort of waiting for you. I know what it feels like to not have any guarantees, uh to not have a road map.

[00:03:29]I know what it feels like to wake up in fear, go to bed with fear. And I'm talking real fear about everything, about the life that you've created and built. And all of a sudden you start worrying and fearing that everything is going to sort of crumbling away and crumbling around you.

[00:03:43]And if I'm really honest, that was the hardest the hardest period of my life.

[00:03:46]And it was about a year and a half where, you know, I've gone I've gone through it because you're constantly having this thing in the back of your this voice in the back of your mind telling you, "It's not going to work.

[00:03:55]You're failing. You know, everything's not going to be okay." It's a really It's a really position to be in.

[00:04:04]Um because when you remove the title and that's what about that beautiful golden handcuff salary that so many people have and the status and all the stuff that you've built up, you know, around external validation and then your sort of network, you're just sort of left, you know, with one absolutely terrifying question.

[00:04:21]And that question is, "Who am I?" And more poorly, "Who am I right now?"

[00:04:25]And a lot of people are looking up to you, especially if you're a father or a mother and you've got responsibilities.

[00:04:31]They're looking to see your lead and how you deal with things. I think that's the question that a lot of people right now are quietly wrestling with.

[00:04:38]Not just about professionally who are who are they, but also personally who are they when they get really tested.

[00:04:46]Who are who are they without the role?

[00:04:48]Who are they without that salary, that beautiful, lovely income? Who are they when they stop trying to impress people?

[00:04:56]Because one thing I've realized after leaving my own corporate life was that a lot of my identity had become sort of attached to achievements and you know, even when I was leaving, I still had this constant need to prove myself. Whoever I would speak to, they'd ask me, "Luca, how's life? How's things?" I'd go, "Yeah, it's great.

[00:05:11]We're doing one, two, three." I would just just shout out so many things that I'm doing sort of to prove almost to myself I'd made the right decision, to prove that I was still successful, whatever that means. To prove that I still actually mattered um outside of the corporate world. And honestly, that pressure, it's absolutely exhausting. Um you start chasing validation in so many different forms. You know, now in in my life as a podcaster or as a coach, you start chasing the numbers, right? You start chasing the views, that recognition, the the approvals. Um And eventually you realize something a bit uncomfortable. A lot of us actually aren't we're not we're not actually tired from the work. We're just kind of tired from the performance. From trying to maintain sort of versions of ourselves that no longer feel authentic.

[00:06:02]And really that's why alignment for me matters so much um so much and I've done a lot of work around it because I generally believe that the future belongs to people who who know who they are.

[00:06:13]Especially in the world of AI, right?

[00:06:15]It's not going to belong to people who pretend um their best or people who sound the smartest or the people who understand themselves, you know, at a sort of superficial level. It's those who really understand themselves at a deeper level um you know, through their voice, through their values, through their energy, through their own truth.

[00:06:34]And I think honestly that's why I care so much about what I'm doing right now in my life because you know, Luke's Inside Track is a platform for people to share stories, so people to open up, for people to share insights about their life that hopefully can inspire other people. Um and that's what it's all about. And that's the same thing with Master Pitch, my coaching platform.

[00:06:56]You know, instead of giving them a platform, I'm trying to help them figure out who they are and how they need to show up because if you if you can't reconnect with yourself or rediscover who you always were, you're going to continue to feel lost and that fear is just going to keep staying there, right? I feel less fearful now because when I sit in this chair and I'm doing this recording, I feel a lot more secure in who I am. So that voice, although it's still there whispering away saying you're going to fail, you're going to fail, um is far less loud. It's far less influential than it once was.

[00:07:32]Um so for those people who are really going through some some uncertain times, I get it. It's it's really is difficult and I feel you, I hear you.

[00:07:41]Um But you've got to try and stop hiding behind behind other masks. Um you've got to stop trying to speak like everybody else. You've got to stop sort of shrinking um who you are.

[00:07:55]Whereas actually you've got to start embracing it.

[00:07:58]If you start finally feeling comfortable enough to speak as yourself and you've done that sort of work, inner work of self-discovery or self-actualization or whatever you want to call it. Um you know, not not this one the polished and safe version. We've done the real work.

[00:08:12]You know, and you understand who you really are or your real version.

[00:08:16]I think in a world that's becoming much more artificial, that matters more than ever. Um And like I just said now, the fear doesn't doesn't really fully disappear.

[00:08:26]You know, even if the podcast is doing very well, which it is, touch wood. Um even with lots of opportunities growing, my master pitch coaching is doing very very well. There are still moments where I question things. Even last night I was questioning things. I'm like, okay, but what if this situation in Dubai keeps on going and and this that and the other?

[00:08:44]You know, and you really start questioning everything and and if your mind is sort of not focused enough or it's not controlled enough or if it's not strong enough, you're just going to keep meandering down this path of negativity and fear.

[00:08:57]Um I still have them. I still have those moments of uncertainty. Um but what I've learned is that you cannot build a meaningful life around fear avoidance. You just can't just can't do it. At some point, whether someone takes a decision for you or you take a decision, you have to stop obsessing over everything that you cannot control and you've got to start focusing on what you can control.

[00:09:20]So, what skills can you actually build?

[00:09:22]What relationships do you actually really want to nurture?

[00:09:25]And what version of yourself do you really want to become? That version that as a kid maybe that you always were, but you kind of had to sort of bury that.

[00:09:33]You know, I've had a great episode in in past with Dr. Saliha Afridi where she said it's all about, you know, rediscovering who you were in your second adulthood, and you start having almost your second life.

[00:09:44]You know, and and that's the life where you just want to start to create who you really want to be in that. Because yeah, fear is always going to be there. It's not going to completely disappear.

[00:09:53]But then so can purpose, right? If fear can exist, purpose can also exist. And I think maybe that's the lesson. It's not waiting for fear to suddenly to sort of disappear, but building enough self-awareness, enough alignment, and enough courage to move on anyway, right? Just just keep going. And I think the biggest insight of all is that the answers you know, people are desperately searching for externally usually always begin internally. It sounds very cliché, but I'm I'm living I'm living that proof.

[00:10:24]I'm living that reality.

[00:10:27]You don't get that sort of external validation through another title or through another purchase or another approval.

[00:10:34]But you get it with real honesty. You get it with with inner reflection and then about who you are and what really matters to you and the kind of life that you surely want to live.

[00:10:43]And you know, the reflection I had with Bassam, he's he's he's had some unbelievable things happen in his life, and he's learned a lot of things from from those around him. He's you know, he adopted three three kids from war-torn places.

[00:10:58]That's that's massive, you know. He lives relatively, you know, private life.

[00:11:03]Um but he would share things to me that would just make me go, "Okay."

[00:11:11]And I really do encourage you to watch the episode.

[00:11:14]Because it just it did make me reflect again on on what a lot of people are going through. He knows exactly who he is.

[00:11:20]And and I could feel that when I'm you know, across the room from him and and having that energy in the chair.

[00:11:27]He felt comfortable with his skin. He felt comfortable about talking about him being a Freemason. How many people can that? I mean, Freemasonry is a It's a very secretive society. He was talking He was talking about it. He was talking about his, you know, his private life.

[00:11:39]He was talking about his kids and then what he's what he's had to go go through and he talks about having turned his his life upside down. He He literally bought his boss flowers after his boss decided to fire him. I mean, who does that?

[00:11:54]Um someone who's who's been doing the work and I think that's the most important thing.

[00:11:59]You've really You've really You've got to start to understand that your voice really does matter. Your own story matters. Your life matters and then stop looking externally to to for that level of validation.

[00:12:12]You know, um do the work internally.

[00:12:16]Um because you deserve it. You deserve You deserve everything. You deserve to be successful. You deserve to feel very secure in who you are so you can move on to whatever next chapter in your life that's going to look like.

[00:12:27]And yeah, like I said, the fear and uncertainty is always going to be that, but that's also okay. It's It's It's It's Imagine it was all positivity all the time. Sometimes for me fear is a good thing. It keeps me a little bit grounded. But you can't let it be all consuming. So, that was really it. That That was my reflection on the episode with Bassem.

[00:12:44]Um I I really encourage you guys to watch it. I look I I I I I enjoy these Off Tracks because I get to share, like I said, a few things about myself and what I've been through and and I love it most when when I'm speaking to a guest and they're saying something or they're sharing something or or I get a sense of their energy or their feeling. I'm like, "You know what?

[00:13:02]I I I I get it what you're saying." And my hope on Off Track and all the episodes that we do on Lucas and I Track is also to help try and give other people the feeling that, "Yeah, things can change. They can take life into their own hands and they can be inspired by others to start looking in inwardly to say, 'You know what? I'm not going to accept someone else to control my life.

[00:13:21]I'm going to do what I really want to do.'"

[00:13:23]It's not going to be easy. No one is saying it's going to be easy. And there is a big element of you having to rebuild.

[00:13:29]But, two years on or two and a half years on, when I look at my own life, I may not be earning the same level of salary every month, but that's okay. That's right now. It doesn't mean that's going to stay like this forever. But, if you have the belief in yourself and you're secure in who you are, then absolutely everything, and I mean everything, is on the table.

[00:13:50]Uh Eid Mubarak to all of you that are celebrating. I wish you a fantastic weekend ahead. Thank you guys so much for listening, and I'll speak to you all very, very soon on Off Track, the inside episode you didn't know you needed. Take care, guys. See you soon.