If the answer is yes what are you doing here?! Kidding aside, I intend this to be a short article as a motivator and teaser of things to come. This will evolve into concrete steps you can take, but first you need to have your mindset right!
What Is Holding You Back?
This is something that needs serious consideration, most often the answer is complacency, we grow comfortable with our zone and what we’re doing. In order to grow we must be challenged or we stagnate and become obsolete. If you are happy with where you are at and you’re too comfortable to change nothing about your situation will be different. In order to see a difference, we must change something, expecting something to be different while continuing to do the same thing is insane, even Albert Einstein thinks so!
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein – Probably
Here are the top reasons people are held back in their progression and what they refuse to change when I talk with them. It’s frustrating to always hear people complain about their situation but not take action whether it be: not enough money, hate their job, hate their boss or employer, tired of doing the same thing everyday.
Common Factors Holding Individuals Back
- Complacency or Comfort – We take what we have for granted, grow comfortable and take the easy lifestyle on coast
- Fear – What’s not to fear when changing something, it scary to take risks with our livelihood
- Change – We as humans hate change, we must fight against this to be our best
- Blame – It’s nobody else’s fault that you are where you are today, it’s entirely in your hands
- Procrastination – We know what to do, but we say “tomorrow” until it’s next year
- Unknown – This is really rare but possible and most common later in careers, definitely search for a career coach to help you!
All of these are the result of refusing to take action, due to one reason or another! We must have accountability for our refusal to take action and spring into motion now not later. Complacency, Fear and Change are the most common by far, it’s really tough to take a huge leap of faith or to change something with such large impact to your day to day life. Risk is not without reward, you will not be where you want to be by staying where you are and wishing for it. You don’t need to necessarily change jobs if your company is large enough, but you need to change something or pursue next steps. This could be as simple as a new job opening (something entirely different), talking with your manager for moving to next steps (with at timeline) or taking additional responsibility yourself without someone asking you to!
What Can You Do? Today, not tomorrow…
The heart of all of these is accountability we must hold ourselves accountable for refusing to take action and do what we need to drive us to the next level. Fear itself as well as fearing change really make this difficult as humans! Fear is nothing more however than the fear of the unknown, what’s to fear if we know exactly what to expect? It’s always important to understand the implications of “what’s the worst that could happen?”. We shouldn’t be reckless with our risks, but methodical as to drive positive and non-destructive behaviors to grow our careers.
Procastination is the most common, we know what to do but we wait to act! Start by doing something now, even if it’s just updating your resume. Create a plan with a timeline to achieve next steps whether it’s applying to new positions, setting a time to talk to your boss etc! Hold yourself to this timeline and push yourself to meet it.
Rarely is it number 6 Unknown, but this certainly can happen later in careers. Sometimes there may be a point where you’ve maxed out such as at the end of a technical or management track etc. However generally there’s always a path forward, it could be even starting your own business in your field, jumping career tracks (if that’s interesting to you) or a new challenge to take up somewhere else in the same type of role.
Be Willing To Change Your Situation and Take Action
The common result of all of the above is there is almost limitless opportunity and almost always a next step we could be taking, if that’s what you’re looking for. We must be willing to want to drive change and take action. Don’t be afraid to take the next step if you know it’s right for you. Most importantly give yourself credit if you’ve been consistently successful and have a consistently positive overall track record, what are you afraid of?
