Are you your own worst enemy when it comes to your career success? So often we blame others for our specific circumstances or think that our career or job satisfaction is out of our sphere of control.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Only we can take the steps necessary to create the life that we want and secure the job that we desire. In today’s article, I cover some of the key lies that could be holding you back.
Age is holding you back
We hear it all the time. We are either too young, or too old, or just too something. It is so easy to blame age on our failure to secure that job, promotion or get an ideal job. Worse still, we use age as the easiest option to avoid doing something, by saying, ‘I’m too old (or too young) to do this.
The reality is that it’s almost never really true that you are too old (or too young) to do something and people like Yuichiro Miura, who at 80 years of age climbed Mt Everest is testament to that. Do you remember telling yourself when you were young, that you were too young to do things? Now that you are older, you might be telling yourself that I’m too old for that, or they won’t pick me, because I’m too old and I’ll be discriminated against.
Yes ageism (and biases against the young) exists and are real, but are you using this as something to hide behind, something that you tell yourself so you don’t need to take those essential steps out of your comfort zone, or change the way you are doing things, to really secure what you want?
The reality is, only you can decide if you are too old, or too young to do something. There is never the right time, only the present time and no matter what your age, it is never too late (or too early) to pursue your dream career.
Fear is holding you back
So often we don’t take the essential steps required to move jobs (even though our job sucks) or fail to take the steps to nail the right job (such as using networking) because we are fearful. We are fearful of rejection, fearful of the unknown, fearful that it will all come tumbling down on us.
Then we tell ourselves that ‘big fat lie’, that if we are fearful or afraid to do something, than we are not able to do it. Just because you are fearful about networking, or don’t want to move out of your comfort zone, does not mean you can’t do it. You just choose not to do it.
I don’t have time
So often we remain in the same organisation, or don’t move jobs, unless we are forced to move (think redundancy, workplace bullying or the family moves). Most of us have a very reactive approach to our career and although not fully satisfied, we simply don’t have the time to commit to finding a new job – as our lives are so busy.
Yes, job hunting is time consuming, (in particular if addressing selection criteria) – but is it true that there’s never enough time?
If you were truthful you should probably say, I want to, but I’m not committed to it at the moment. You see there is always time if there is a strong desire or a situation arises when you have to find a new job. When you put your focus on your career, you have all the time in the world.
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