October 29, 2014

The Three Biggest Career Mistakes – And How to Avoid Them.

Quote.

When your mind and heart are truly open abundance will flow to you effortlessly and easily.

In a tense and uncertain job market, the advice on how to succeed doesn't change. Wise heads speak about hard work, seizing opportunities, taking calculated risks, following your passion, and so on.

Let's set this advice aside for a moment. More attention needs to be paid to what not to do, especially now, when opportunities for many appear to be shrinking. There are three common mistakes that people make in their careers, not just at the entry level or when changing jobs, but endemically.

In other words, their careers are blocked by their beliefs and the point of view they take. In my experience, the worst things you can do in the course of your career are the following:

1. Setting your expectations too low.

2. Feeling that you have to be certain.

3. Not seeing how much you will grow.

Let me explain each one, although in the end they are intimately connected.

Mistake #1: Low expectations

There are a few people gifted with roaring self-confidence who expect to conquer the world. But most people are insecure and uncertain. They want to feel safe, and they think that by lowering their expectations, a sense of security will come to them. It isn't true. Setting your expectations too low traps you into jobs that have a low possibility of expanding into anything worthwhile. For every copy boy who becomes editor of the newspaper, every tour guide in Hollywood who sells a blockbuster script, there are hundreds more who remain stuck in those jobs. It's not really the job that keeps anyone stuck; it's the psychological limitation of setting your expectations too low.

Mistake #2: The Trap of Certainty

Life is uncertain, and the vast majority of people feel so uneasy about this that they seize on certainty when they shouldn't. They follow the opinions of the people around them, go to work where they are expected to, and only feel secure when they fit in. Yet real success is built upon making peace with uncertainty, turning the unknown into a field of creative possibilities. Personal uncertainty is hard, undoubtedly. It takes a conscious effort to place yourself in a position where things are open-ended. But if you don't, the other alternative is being in a position that's closed off.

Mistake #3: Neglecting Growth

Most job interviews follow the same pattern, where the applicant tries to prove, even before setting foot in the door, that he knows how to handle the job. This ritual is empty, a piece of drama that's supposed to show confidence. In reality, great careers are built on growth. Seeing your own potential to grow isn't easy, especially when you are young. But it's a mistake not to see that you will grow, meaning that your future self, although out of reach, has an enormous amount to offer. What you can do today, what you know and how far you can see–this is all provisional, awaiting the mysterious process of growth.

What ties these three mistakes together is everyone's inability to predict who they will be in the future. Insecurity, anxiety, and the pressure to hold a job are powerful forces. They tempt us into believing that we will always feel what we feel now, always think the way we do now, always see the world through the lens of the present. The need to feel secure is what gets most people into trouble, which is why the three big career mistakes are so prevalent.

The way to avoid these pitfalls is by working on your core beliefs, exchanging the ones that hold you back for ones that meet the future without anxiety. To raise your expectations means approaching your life, not just your job, with open-ended goals that can bear fruit over the long haul. Here's a set of mental guidelines that link many of the world's most successful people:

I need to find out who I really am.

I want to expand and grow.

I must have a vision that I can follow for years, an aspiration that fits my highest self.

I will keep evolving without limit.

I listen to my surroundings and act on the signals being sent to me.

I keep an open mind.

I have learned to live with uncertainty, turning fear into a belief in the wisdom of uncertainty.

I listen inside to make sure I'm being true to myself.

I admit when I'm wrong and turn this into a way forward.

This may seem like a long list, but if you want a single productive change that grows out of it, here's what works: Associate with people who hold these ideas and follow them. You don't have to enter a formal mentoring relationship; in fact, it would be better if the people you bond with are your own age. As a group you can form an echelon of shared beliefs to support and encourage one another. Then the job you are holding, good or bad, is secondary. Primary is your sense of promise, which grows and expands naturally. That's an ideal you can begin to attain today.

This article was originally published by Linkedin

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  1. Jorge Astudillo

    Kirby MacDonell :)

  2. Bernadette Wenkman

    I am sorry to hear that Mari Ann.....I hope you are coping okay....thank you for still thinking about others....

  3. hereAndNow

    Deepak, On the hand, you`re preaching be mindfulness and Live in the moment. On the other hand, you`re preaching To have a vision of future self. No one can control the Future and that is where anxiety/stress begins. Don`t you think your teaching is contradictory? Just tell people to make up their mind. To be or not to be, it is the question.

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