Why Most Career Advancement Strategies Don’t Work for Long-Term Success
One day, I woke up to the realization that even the most proven, successful career advancement strategy doesn’t always sustain. To date, I’ve helped almost a thousand professionals achieve their professional goals. When I’m asked about my success rate with my clients the answer is: “Those that follow the strategy aligned with the work we developed have a 100% success rate.”
While not immune to external factors such as economic swings and global disasters, there’s a process to career advancement that’s straightforward and proven to work. So, why is it that even the smartest, most driven, high-achieving people get stuck, struggle, and fail to sustain long-term success?
Mindset is Your Most Critical Career Advancement Factor
After years of coaching and research, the answer was obvious. Mindset is THE most important factor in personal and professional success. This revelation was the catalyst that pushed me to add neuroscience and mindset to my coaching and consulting toolkit. As a result of my focus on helping people align what they do with who they are, my clients transform their lives in a whole new and exciting way. When you understand your inner landscape, you can plant or prune whatever you want.
Mindset is the ‘make or break’ factor in individual long-term success. Interestingly, mindset can even overcome global disasters. The Pandemic years were my best-performing years in business! It’s a matter of having the clarity to take the right actions at the right time. Mindset is what drives that clarity and gives you the instinct to make the right moves when it matters most.
However, what happens when your mindset isn’t supporting your success strategy?
You can have all the experience, certifications, best resume, great support, a good network, and a solid plan – but if your mindset isn’t aligned with your goals, none of it matters.
This hit home the hardest when I witnessed a client freak out when I presented her with fact-based information that proved her ability to be promoted. Her mindset told her that she would never be anything but a manager at best. She was shackled by a limiting belief that she “wasn’t cut out for corporate”. When I showed her that she had the abilities and could take the leap, she called me a liar.
I was shocked. Fortunately, I was already mindset coaching trained and I let her vent. Once she said what she felt she needed to say, I asked if she believed she could achieve executive leadership in a corporate setting. She spat out: “No, that’s ludicrous!”
It wasn’t her accomplishments getting in her way, it was her mindset. Her belief system told her that she couldn’t. The brain is out to prove you right, even if you aren’t. Its job was to influence her actions to push away the threat to her belief system: me.
Social Programming is Your Worst Enemy to Personal Success
These days, most people get that mindset is a contributing factor to personal success. What they may or may not realize is that your mind rules your experiences and societal programming plays a huge role. Humans are social creatures and the #1 influential factor for individual decision-making is social expectation and programming.
When it comes to career advancement in any form, some of the most common social programming is your worst enemy. The biggest one is the “Work Hard” ethic that basically states: all success is a result of ‘hard work’.
This is called a toxic agreement. Toxic agreements are an “if this, then that” destructive mental program. In this case, if success only comes as a result of hard work, then you are potentially locked into being indefinitely unsuccessful. Here’s how it works:
You work hard because you believe that is where success comes from. The first thing that happens, for most people, is that you get more hard work because you are good at it. Others see you working hard and think: “Wow, they do such a great job, let’s give them more of that.”
Keep in mind that there’s a huge difference between doing great work and overachieving. The latter can keep you stuck in your role longer than you’d like.
The second repercussion is that you never achieve your idea of success because the goalpost is always moving. When you achieve something, you don’t celebrate much (if at all) because the definition of success for you has shifted further away. You cannot achieve success and stop working ‘hard’ – that doesn’t align with the mental program! It’s a vicious cycle that leaves you constantly striving for something you will never obtain.
Even worse, I have personally witnessed people passing over opportunities because they didn’t work ‘hard enough’ to get them. This toxic agreement is a transactional approach to success. Often the “work hard” mental program comes along with: “You have to give up something to get something”. This is another toxic agreement that guarantees you will be unhappy and exhausted most of the time.
Don’t worry, there is a silver lining. You can change your mental programs any time you want. You are in control.
Where Your Mindset Comes From
Your mindset, as defined by our modern scientific understanding, is a subset of your mental programs. These programs are your brain’s way of saving energy. On the practical side, this saves you a lot of time! Just imagine if you had to relearn how to tie your shoes or brush your teeth every day. These patterns of behavior drive you on the subconscious level and influence your actions every day.
Most mental programs are useful … However, these programs develop with complete disregard for your ability to achieve your life aspirations. In other words, your fundamental belief structures, mindset, survival modes, and social programming may be directly counter to your ability to enjoy abundance in your life.
Mental patterning starts early in life and your family influences your first set of belief structures. These may be helpful or not. Mental programs developed from survival responses are created with wild disregard for anything except your fundamental need to be safe. Unfortunately, these responses are typically counterproductive – especially in our modern society
Mental programs become disruptive when they are at odds with what you want to achieve in life. You’ve probably heard of something called “burdens” – these are mental programs that have either (a) built up cognitive drift over time and no longer sync with fact/reality or (b) no longer align with how you want to experience life. These create mental, emotional, and physical friction when they are at odds with how you want to be or experience life!
The good news is – you are 100% in control of your mental programs. Thanks to something called Neuroplasticity, you can remove them or change them at will. The key is knowing how, and most importantly, spotting the ones you want to change.
Mindset
A mindset, according to Carol Dweck, is a self-perception or “self-theory” that people hold about themselves. Mindset is basically your mental ‘tone’ or set point. It’s the ambient emotional response of your mind. If you have read Dweck’s work, you may be familiar with the terms Fixed vs. Growth mindsets.
Belief Systems
Sources of beliefs include environment, events, knowledge, past experiences, and familial patterning. Belief systems are created for you when you are young. Your family models your first belief structure and outlines your first understanding of how to interpret life experiences. We develop more of them on our own as we experience life and mature.
Survival Modes
In addition to your automatic (instinctual) responses: developed survival modes develop when you have been in a position where your survival was threatened – based on your belief system around what ‘safe’ is to you. This includes anything from stage fright because you were laughed at in the school play to severe PTSD developed during traumatic events. Even toxic workplace experiences can create a milder form of PTSD.
Cultural and societal expectations
One of the most powerful decision-makers is not your own desires. Modern psychology has identified social pressure as the most influential decision-maker for any human being. Unless trained or otherwise aware, you will struggle to respond counter to what you feel that society and your culture demand of you.
How to Spot Mindset Roadblocks to Your Success
Because you cannot print out your mental programs, your gateway to understanding your subconscious framework relies on your narratives – either spoken aloud or ‘aloud in your head’.
As a coach, I am trained to spot verbal patterns or associated word groups. These show up as repeated phrases or pet colloquialisms. Maybe you frequently state how much you dislike something, or wish something was a certain way. Keep in mind that every time you articulate these verbal statements, you are giving instructions to your brain. It prioritizes what you focus on and wants to prove you right … even when you aren’t!
Common disruptive mental programs can be easier to spot because they were modeled for you by your parents and your immediate family nexus.
- Money mindsets – everyone has a belief system around money. Consider what you experienced growing up and what definitions that gave you about money. What was your parent’s attitude about money, finances, wealth, and success? Do you see any of those patterns repeated in your life?
- Relationship beliefs – consider what was demonstrated when you were young. Were your parents got along well, were stoically dealing with each other, or were horribly toxic? These experiences told your young mind what normal was or defined what you would avoid at all costs to keep yourself safe. What have been your relationship patterns and do they reflect or repel whet you saw growing up?
- Self-worth narratives – most cultures around the world encourage us to think of ourselves last. We are not taught to appreciate ourselves or that it’s ok to celebrate ourselves. Most cultures encourage self-brutalization and repression of your own needs. When was the last time you put yourself first? How do you feel when you consider doing so?
Armed with the knowledge that you can spot your own roadblocks to abundance (you may already have an idea where to look) – you can observe yourself for a week or so. Note what you commonly say and consider how that narrative impacts your outcomes.
If you feel comfortable, connect with a close friend, colleague, or family member to get an idea of what they see and hear. While we may be blind to our blind spots – others aren’t. Because you live with yourself, it can be difficult to see what might be obvious to others.
Another way to spot disruptive mental patterns (mindsets) is to reflect on where you have the most friction in your life at the moment. Chances are, there is a misaligned mindset lurking in there somewhere. Happy hunting my friend!
Want to learn more about how to align your mindset to achieve long-term success, happiness, and wellbeing? Reach out for a free consultation here.
