Working with thousands of people over the past 10 years to help them build successful, rewarding careers, I’ve learned to quickly detect from our first conversation and from their responses to some key questions, the blocks that are in the way of their professional success and happiness. There are clear signs when my clients’ approach to life, to their situation, and to other people repels joy and success instead of attracts it, and also when their mindset and behavior keep them playing far smaller than they consciously desire.
Here’s my personal take on what’s in the way of your career success, and what you can do about it, starting this very moment:
What keeps you from the career success you want? Below are the top 4 obstacles in the way achieving greater success, happiness, and reward in your career and personal life:
- You desperately want things to fall in your lap and just magically “work out” so you resist doing the actual work required to create more success and bring yourself forward
- You fight against what’s happening instead of embracing it and learning from it
- You have subconscious blocks and emotional traumas from past experiences that hold you back 100 times more than you realize
- Because you’re not where you want to be, you deny the importance of gratitude and happiness, not realizing that experiencing more happiness and positivity TODAY – regardless of your outer situation - is what paves the way for more success and happiness tomorrow.
For those who are blocked and suffering from career inertia or paralysis, there are five essential steps to generating your own breakthrough starting today:
1. Do the inner work to know who you are authentically, and honor what you care about
You can’t have a happy career unless you know who you are, and honor that every day in your actions. When I was stuck and miserable in my corporate career for years, I didn’t understand that the negative, traumatizing experiences I continually encountered were occurring not because I wasn’t “good” or competent enough, but because I was trying to achieve something that, in the end, didn’t align with what I cared about or valued. If you are focused on endeavors that, in your heart and soul, you don’t believe in, you can’t create or sustain happiness or success. The remedy? Understand yourself intimately, make yourself “right” not wrong, and take steps to honor who you are in the world and what you value.
2. Don’t fight against what’s happening – see what it’s telling you
One of the biggest mistake professionals make (or all humans, for that matter) is to resist what’s happening instead of embracing it and learning from it. This comes from an over-attachment to what we think “should be” in life– for example, “I should have gotten that promotion – I really deserved it!” or “I should have landed that job,” etc. When we overly attach to what we think should unfold or what our life has to look like, we close ourselves off to embracing what’s happening as a lens into what we really want. In other words, if you’re not landing any of the jobs you think you deserve, you need to look at if you really want them in the first place. If you do, determine in a brutally honest way if you truly have the qualifications, attitude, background and credentials that employers are looking for. If not, do something about it.
3. Take concrete steps to change how you operate in the world
I’d be rich if I had a penny for every time a client said to me, “I’m doing all the right things – why isn’t it happening?” The answer is that you’re not doing all the “right things” – you’re doing what you think is right, but if you’re not achieving the outcomes you long for, a bold, different type of action (and thinking) is required.
For example, if you want more leadership responsibility in your job, don’t wait for it. Take the right steps to: 1) understand how your company and leaders perceive you and if there are any gaps you need to close, and 2) do more leadership work NOW to demonstrate how valuable you are. Volunteer to lead a new project, step up to spearhead an important new program, start a new networking group – do something that demonstrates your leadership talent.
If you want to launch a successful entrepreneurial venture, have you done the leg work (and there’s lots of it) to build a solid business, financial, marketing and communications plan? Have you researched the competition exhaustively, and know what you’re up against and how you stand apart? Do you know how you’ll fund it, and your growth? Have you analyzed and vetted your business idea, and know that it is sound? Do you know how to articulate your competitive edge and share that with everyone you meet?
Finally, if you’re stuck being mistreated by clients or colleagues, have you developed appropriate boundaries – and the strong communication strategies that are needed to support them – to be treated with respect? Probably not.
The answer to all of this is: Do the work now to change how you operate in the world so you can finally attract and generate the success and joy you want.
4. Release your subconscious blocks to greater wealth, happiness, power and success
I’ve lived this experience personally and observe it with every single one of my clients and leadership coachees – your subconscious beliefs and mindsets erect impassable roadblocks to what you consciously think you want. Most of us have experienced some form of emotional trauma in our childhood that blocks our ability to build more success, create health and wealth, step out into the spotlight, become more visible and recognized, speak up for ourselves powerfully, say “NO” to what we don’t want, and leave our “tribe” behind. If you don’t find a way to tap into your subconscious beliefs and mindsets and revise all of those beliefs and fears that are holding you back, you can’t advance or create the life you think you want. (Check out 5 Powerful Ways to Change Your Wealth Programming for more on this.)
5. Bring gratitude and happiness to the forefront
Finally, it’s clear that our society’s most commonly held formulas for success are utterly broken. Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. We think, “If I can just find that great job, or win that next promotion, lose those ten pounds, or (fill in the blank), then I’ll be happy.”
But research and other recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is completely backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn’t just pie-in-the sky wishful thinking. This discovery has been borne out repeatedly by rigorous research in psychology and neuroscience, management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the world. What to do? We need to take steps to reprogram our brains to become more positive today, in order to gain a competitive edge at work and create more success, happiness and reward in our lives. (See How Happiness Directly Impacts Your Success for more on this.)
* * * * *
The upshot of this is that you don’t have to wait until you get a career coach, a mentor, a promotion or a raise, for you to create more happiness and success in your professional life. It’s within your grasp now. Stop waiting for your outer world to change, and begin today to take empowered action to bring about the changes you long for most.
To build a more rewarding, successful career, visit KathyCaprino.com and The Amazing Career Project.
