Remember when Elvis sang, “I’m caught in a trap, and I can’t get out…?” Well, while he may not have been talking about his career, employees with an eye on their career advancement should know that there are roadblocks that they need to avoid in order to achieve career success.
Employees who aspire to something more than where they are currently not only need to consider what skills and qualities will help make them successful, but also the mindsets or poor habits that can hold them back. To do that, consider these five career traps all should avoid if they want to run that victory lap.
Thinking Like the Crowd
How often do kids use the “but-Jimmy’s-mom-lets-him-do-it” rationale to try and get what they want? Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it the right choice. In fact, being influenced by others to the point of lacking personal vision can be a detriment to someone’s career.
It’s like television ads playing over and over again or hearing a news story repeated continually. Somehow it becomes the truth, even if it isn’t. This product cleans better than that product. That candidate is better than this candidate. We’re left with no independent thinking.
Employees who want to give their career a boost need to stop thinking like the crowd or worrying about what everyone else wants or thinks and use their ability to think outside conventional limits.
Self-Imposed Limitations
One of the biggest challenges that career hopefuls confront is themselves. Artificial limitations that people superficially impose on themselves include:
- Paralysis of Analysis: When someone becomes overwhelmed by her choices or uncertain that she is making the right decision, she may take the easy way out and just go with the flow by making no decision at all.
- Fear of Failure or Success: There’s a book, Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, by Susan Jeffers [Ballantine Books, 1988], which speaks to the idea that choices are opportunities to learn and grow. When it comes to career success, employees have the ability to make the choice to move forward and not let fear get in their way.
- Lack of Motivation: Expecting that career success will be easy or the idea that someone can just “phone it in,” is the wrong mindset. Employees cannot expect something for nothing. It takes perseverance and focus to move a career forward. They have to take responsibility for making it happen.
- Negative Self-Criticism: There’s a saying about having to believe to achieve. Employees can undermine their own success if they feel they don’t deserve it.
Taking the Easy Road
Employees who are motivated to achieve need to understand that their success lies in their hands and since it takes time, they should avoid these traps:
- Giving Up: Sometimes impatience can get the better of us. No giving up too quickly, especially when things get a little tough.
- Being Lazy: Looking for a shortcut instead of working hard will only lead to nowhere.
- Short-Term Gains Only: Don’t just focus on the here and now. Besides short-term successes or failures, it is important for employees to consider the long-term impact of their actions.
- Avoiding Change: Too often employees stick with the familiar because it’s easier than making a change. Be willing to get away from what’s not working.
Using Money as an Excuse
Sometimes employees stick with a career choice because of the time and money they have already invested in it, when in fact they would be much happier – and perhaps even better at – doing something else. Employees shouldn’t be afraid to change because of the mistaken notion that it would mean “throwing away” a lifetime of hard work, a career, or a higher salary.
Being Overconfident
Confidence is an important aspect to being successful. However, overconfidence can be a hindrance if employees believe they can defy the odds of success – get a career in entertainment when the odds are against it – or that their abilities and skills put them ahead of the pack. While employees should shoot for the stars, they need to be prepared to fall back to earth.
It’s easy to see how employees can slip into a bad habit or diverge from a course of action on their way up the career ladder. The road to career success is a bumpy one. But with the right attitude and focus, it’s possible to avoid career roadblocks.
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