THE DIRTY DOZEN!! – (12 sure fire ways to sabotage your career goals)
“I told you so!” Have you ever heard that before? I’ve never been a proponent of that statement but I can attest to family members, teachers and colleagues who have. Typically, I’ve found the genesis of such statements centers around “sabotage.” Self-sabotage, and enemy to all of us at one point or another, thwarts our often told intentions around our desire to “step out of our comfort zone,” and gain something new or exciting.
I’ve assembled 12 sure fire ways to sabotage your career goals … The Dirty Dozen.
Try to sprint a marathon – Get so excited about the possibilities that you commit yourself to running hard towards your goals … then burn out because you didn’t put in place any system or process to sustain your efforts for the long run.
Suggestion: Ask for help to find a reliable system/ process that turns you into a Champion Goal Achiever all the while enabling you to become a long distance runner with stamina to maintain momentum for the long haul
Try to do it all by yourself – You’ve had years of experience, a first rate education, others have let you down … so why not – take what you have and launch! Take advantage of these facts and try to do it all yourself. It’s a guaranteed anchor for your progress.
Suggestion: Remember the cartoons on Saturday mornings, “there’s always a faster gun around the corner.” I don’t care how capable you are, or how much of a genius you are in your chosen field – you can’t do it all on your own. You will always need support. There will always be things you don’t know, or aren’t good at. Ask yourself, “What support do I need?” “Where can I find it?”
Say, “I can’t,” a lot – Any time you’re faced with a challenge you can’t seem to “slam dunk,” look at the obstacles and state with clarity, “I can’t.” Remember all the times your significant others told you, “you can’t,” and if you’re still unsure, enumerate the complete list of reasons why you can’t and try hard to make the obstacles the path!
Suggestion: Replace “I can’t” with “I will.” Remember that self-talk is the first frontier to Success
Listen to the cynics – If you can’t convince yourself that you can’t … turn to others who have Olympic Gold Medals in nay saying. You’ll find no shortage of cynics, skeptics, and natty [smiling under the guise of being realistic] friends who in reality are projecting their own lack of belief onto you – take all of that that you can get!
Suggestion: Seek out positive, motivated and successful people to “hang with” It’s said we become the composite of the three- five people we hang out with … so choose wisely.
Focus your attention on the negative – Whatever you do, don’t pay any attention to the positive. Don’t look at what you’ve done well. Ignore the progress you’ve made, downplay any success achieved. This ensures feelings of uncertainty, and insecurity making it impossible to risk real action, or heaven forbid, getting any real traction on the path to success.
Suggestion: On a daily basis identify, acknowledge and celebrate the positive. Start an accomplishment journal and a gratitude journal – review them daily!
Wait until the time is right – If you want to completely sabotage your dreams while maintaining plausible deniability … pursue with lip service the “intent” to accomplish your dreams. A truly great option!! The time will never be right, besides you’ll never consider yourself, “quite right or prepared.”
Suggestion: Today is the 1st day of the rest of your life. Take steps [right now] that you’ve identified as action items that will lead you in a pre-determined path to success.
Make the obstacles the path – Who can foretell the future? Regardless, you can just about guarantee an encounter with obstacles along the path to your dreams. So what better way to get in your own way than to fixate on them? You might as well focus on them and ensure they stop you dead in your tracks.
Suggestion: Make each obstacle a starting point [vs. and end point] Identify each and every “possible” solution you can use to overcome the obstacle [write them out]
Look for the “quick fix” – If you’re looking for a way to never change those dreams into reality, repeat after me, “This has to happen right away!” The more impatient you can become, the greater the likely hood you’ll become frustrated and realize it won’t happen immediately providing you the proof you need to throw your arms up in despair, declaring, “See? It’s not possible!”
Suggestion: A journey of 1000 miles begins with one step … quit looking for that quick fix and take that 1st step.
Equate today’s reality with tomorrows potential – I can live with today … it’s the uncertain future that requires new learning, risk, possible failure and besides there’s going to need to be a new foundation laid, preparations to be made and obstacles overcome. This makes a pretty compelling reason to never start. Make this your mantra – “If I can’t do it today, then it’s impossible.” See how easy that was? You didn’t even have to take a single step.
Suggestion: If you always do what you’ve always done … you’ll always get what you’ve always got. Trust your intuition. Plant a seed, nurture it, and decide that you’re worth the effort … Begin by writing out exactly what you’ll need to have on hand to make that first step … step forward!
Don’t prioritize your dreams – Make everything in your life a priority except your dreams. By making everything else more important than what you really want to do – guess what? What filters down to the bottom of the to-do list? You guessed it!
Suggestion: Commit to taking action on your dream and make it one of your top three priorities.
Don’t question your assumptions – Don’t take this literally, assumptions themselves aren’t going to sabotage your dreams. It’s that flawed assumption, never examined, that will do the trick. Things like – “That person would never say, yes to my request.” Or how about, “they’ll never let me do “X” … or the tried and true – “I can’t do that.” Whatever you do, if you find yourself making assumptions about whats possible in your life, – DO NOT look closely at them.
Suggestion: Remember how to spell “assume” – it makes an _ _ _ of u and me. I like to remind people that “ask, ask, ask and you’ll get, get, get – don’t ask – don’t get! Challenge all your assumptions; is there another way to look at it?
Make decisions based on what “they” think you should do – If you really want to shoot down those pesky dreams from the get-go, then ignore your own feelings and make decisions based on what somebody else, anybody else, thinks! It doesn’t matter who, as long as it’s not you. Choose your career because it’s what your parents expect, or because people will admire it, or because it fits our cultural definition of success. Under no circumstances should you look inside and take a good hard look at what energizes and inspires you.
Suggestion: What’s your genius? Identify your natural, authentic self, and to yourself be true!
Spending a lifetime exploring “possibilities” Bill Kille has founded the perfect vehicle to assist others to do the same. Rezults Group, Inc focuses on career development, transition, personal growth and Leadership Training. Awakening Solutions is his genius and sharing it with others is his Vision. Learn more – visit his web site www.rezultsgroup.com or email him at [email protected]
