The Top Beliefs That Are Sabotaging Your Career

By Olivia Gamber

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Seventy-five percent of American workers are not engaged in their jobs. This is mainly because many people are passive when it comes to managing their careers. 

They think if they work hard, then everything will eventually work out for them. The truth is, success is not simply about working hard—it’s about working on the right things. 

There is also an obsession with qualifications and skills. Everyone thinks they need to go get another graduate degree, a master’s or an MBA. 

Usually, the root cause of the problem has nothing to do with your qualifications. In most cases, the approach is the problem, not your credentials. This is not something they teach us in college; in fact, we are programed to think the opposite. 

If you go and get a PhD or graduate degree, then you could end up with the same problem with more student loans on top of it. 

When you ignore your career strategy and approach, you can stack up all the qualifications in the world and still be left with a mediocre job that you settle for because you need to pay the bills. 

There are so many barriers to getting unstuck in your career because you can’t get out of your own way. You have been programed to think a certain way for your career that no longer works in today’s economic environment. 

Let’s go ahead and get all these toxic thoughts that are holding you back out in the open right now, so you can begin to get past them. 
 

Thoughts You May Be Thinking, Consciously or Subconsciously, Right Now That Are Holding You Back: 

I am lucky to have a job. I need to pay my dues. 

These two ways of thinking involve a scarcity mindset. 

People think they can rationalize being passive about their careers. Maybe they’ve been told this by their parents, maybe they watched them go through the recession, or maybe they even went through the recession. Either way, these two thoughts are toxic.  

These thoughts keep you from being proactive and taking control of the situation to advance your career. “A” Players know that no matter what the economy is like, they are still going to get the best jobs and advance their careers. 

I just need to figure out what I’m passionate about. 

This could potentially be a disaster. If you are focused on passion alone, then you are likely sitting in your room thinking intrinsically about yourself. 

What if your passion doesn’t pay? What if there aren’t any jobs related to your passion? Focusing on passion alone ignores the demands of the market. 

You’re not going to get clarity by sitting around focusing on your own thoughts and ideas. In fact, you need to go out and find out what value you can add that aligns with the value a company needs. 

That’s when you will start to feel the passion, rather than sitting passively waiting for the answer to magically come to you.

It’s easy to let yourself fall into a victim mentality and think thoughts like I’m not qualified enough for the jobs I want, I have no clue what I am able to do, or I feel stuck. These are all mindsets that hold you back. 

Qualifications are a list of demands that hiring managers hope to find, but in the end they want to find someone they know, like, and trust. 

Women are especially guilty of not applying to a job if they don’t meet all the qualifications. I will say it again—Your approach is more important than your qualifications. 

Trust me, I have not met all of the qualifications for every job I have landed. I see this happen every day because the qualifications are just guidelines, not the be-all and end-all. 
 

Get Past Your Fears and Limiting Beliefs!

The first step to getting past your limiting beliefs is to identify them and become aware of them. The next step is to find people who are in the position you want to be so you can model yourself after them.

Most people in society are unhappy with their jobs and don’t know what to do about it. This means there are few people who are highly engaged in their jobs that you can model. 

I’m one of those people who is highly engaged and very happy with her job, and I will show you how to figure out your next move and make it happen. 

In my new book, The Career Upgrade Roadmap: 90 Days to a Better Job and a Better Life, I walk you through my proven process to a job you’ll love. It’s free for the first 3,000 people, so download it now!

 

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