Is your career strategy focused on external goals and accomplishments? If so, you may be overlooking one of the best secrets to career success.
I believe one of the biggest components of a robust career strategy is what I call inner work.
Yes, we can all learn new skills. Yes, we all have talents and strengths that we can develop. However, without the benefits of inner work, your skills, talents, and strengths may not carry as much weight. In fact, inner work helps us to potentize the skills, talents, and strengths we already possess.
What do I mean by inner work?
To a large extent, it’s about examining our habits, patterns and practices.
Habits and patterns include things like how you complete your calendar and how you organize (or don’t organize) your desk. But they also include the way you think, i.e. comparing yourself to others, or thinking of yourself as a victim.
Setting personal growth goals, having a personal growth mindset, and developing effective self-management skills (all forms of inner work) are SO IMPORTANT for career success, career growth, and positive change!
Here are some inner work actions and behaviors that contribute to an effective career strategy:
- Self care
- Self advocacy (being your own best advocate)
- Not comparing yourself to others
- Not engaging in self doubt and self criticism
- Not thinking of yourself as a victim
- Not having unrealistic expectations of yourself and others
All the bullet points above are habits – and that means they can be changed.
When a client calls me with their hair on fire, ready to quit their job, I first tell them to take their shoes off and sit down so we can have a conversation about what’s happening.
Once they are in a more calm state of mind, we can construct a career strategy process that includes identifying and reforming the habits and patterns that are no longer serving them.
Can you identify any habits and patterns that are holding you back from achieving your career goals?
Feeling stuck in a job you hate, but not sure what to do next?
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And if this made you think of a friend or colleague who's struggling at work, please share it with them. A little encouragement goes a long way.
