Strap on Your Heels and Step Confidently into Your Dream Career
Have you ever sat down and wondered: “Why am I not achieving the desired results in my career?” or “What are others doing that I’m not doing?” While many of us aspire to be successful businesswomen, we often impose limitations as to what we’re willing to do to create the life we desire.
Maybe you’d like to start your own business, but you haven’t scaled back on your lifestyle to invest more money into your creative endeavors. Or perhaps you’re allowing fear to prevent you from taking more risks. Regardless of what’s holding you back the question remains: Are you willing to do what it takes to have a more successful and fulfilling career?
Defining Success on Your Own Terms
As professional women, we’ve all experienced times when we want to throw up our hands in frustration. We become stuck and are uncertain as to how to proceed because we have either lost our passion for work or never had it to begin with. Oftentimes, we lose sight of the “why” and focus on the wrong things in attempt to fit in with the mainstream view of success. We then find ourselves in a career that fails to satisfy us emotionally or creatively.
In order to escape your career rut, it’s important to determine what success means to you. For some, it might mean building a media empire with thousands of employees, while for others it might simply be working for a small non-profit organization that serves the local community. Knowing what you want out of life and remaining focused on why you’re in your chosen industry will motivate you to take consistent action, regardless of how scary it might feel.
Breaking through the Psychological Glass Ceiling
We often settle for less than we deserve because of our self-limiting beliefs. For instance, we get a new idea and immediately talk ourselves out of it by thinking of all the ways it can’t work. “I don’t have enough time” and “I don’t have the money” are among the top excuses people have for not aiming higher and going after their dreams. Sound familiar? Rather than put ourselves out there and stretch beyond our comfort zone, we sit by the sidelines and then wonder why we’re not achieving our desired level of success.
We say we’re willing to “do anything” to accomplish our dreams, but let’s be honest: Are you really taking all the necessary steps to create your dream career?
If not, make a list of all the things that are standing in your way. Then write down all the possible solutions you can think of for overcoming them and take one action within the next hour – whether it’s making a phone call to a mentor for advice, scheduling an appointment to meet with a career coach, or introducing yourself to a new business in the area.
The Need for Action
How many times have you invested in books, business courses and seminars only to discover you’re no further in your career than when you began? You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you’re not implementing the ideas, they’re useless. What separates the success stories from the stories of disappointment is our willingness to take action. When we allow fear and a negative mindset to dictate our performance at work, we set ourselves up for failure. Despite our best intentions, we slip back into “bad behavior” and continue to do the same things we’ve always done.
So what’s really holding you back from the career of your dreams? Is it money? Time? The economy? Whatever you “think” it is, it’s time to confront your demons. Create a list of all the things you’ve been afraid to do in business and in life. What immediate thoughts surface as you review your list? Acknowledge what they have to say, and then write out all those self-sabotaging beliefs that tell you how you’ll never make but a certain amount of income or achieve a certain amount of success. When you really think about it, is it true? There are others who have overcome great odds to achieve professional bliss. Why not you?
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