Five Traps That Keep You From Making The Next Step In Your Career

Five Traps that Keep You Putting Off Your Next Career Move

Trap #1: “But how will I pay my mortgage?”

This is the trap of your comfort zone

The longer you stay in your current career situation, the more you burrow into your comfort zone. Each day that you don’t make a commitment to making your next step, you will make more contacts to succeed at your current job, you will have more reinforcement that you are “good at what you do” and should stay, and you will become more used to the same routine – convincing you to stay where you are now. Your quality of life is being determined by the extent of your fear that you won’t be able to create the same (or better) comforts somewhere else.

Tip: Be clear about the costs of staying in your job as well as the costs of leaving it for your next step. Play out the scenario if you stay in your current job – how will you feel in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years? Then do the same for making a career move that you are excited about. Beware “all or nothing” thinking, such as thinking you wouldn’t be able to find a career step that allowed you good health benefits AND passion.

Trap #2: “I have too many ideas, I don’t know what I want”

This is the trap of lack of focus.

If you are still having too many ideas about what you want to do next, it is because you are not thinking critically. You have not yet done your homework to become clear on what your “must haves” are versus your “nice to haves”. You just shut down instead of making a thorough list of the actual work related activities you would like to do each day, and the features of a career situation that are important for you. You may have a vague idea of your endpoint in mind, but you have not broken down the process of figuring out your next step into do-able projects with clear timelines. You're not trusting your intuition on what is right for you.

Tip: Distinguish between the “form” of your next career role and its “function”. For example, first determine the function you want to play (e.g., I want to help other people grow beyond their limitations). Then determine the possible forms that could take (e.g., coach, teacher, spiritual leader, etc). Review each of these possibilities against the “must haves” you listed.

Trap #3: “I KNOW I’m capable of getting the next career step I want…but there’s a part of me that doesn’t believe it”

This is the trap of your lack of confidence

When you start to get excited at the idea of what your career life could be like in just a few months, immediately that voice pops up: “I don’t feel deserving of the freedom, the financial reward, or the satisfaction…” or “I don’t have what it takes for the career I REALLY want”. Notice that this lack of confidence is the thought that directly stops you from picking up the phone or working on your resume or business pitch. Even though you know your current job is not right for you, as long as people keep telling you that you are good at it, you feel confident. But when it comes to thinking for yourself about what you really want, you doubt yourself and your value. This judgment of yourself reveals a deeper belief you have (whether you are aware of it or not) about your worth and whether you are “enough”.

Tip: You are waiting to feel confident in order to start your career change process. Try starting your career change process first, and then seeing how confident you feel with each new action you take. Keep focusing on the enthusiasm you will feel when you are already in your next career position – it will create a momentum that will overcome your initial doubts.

Trap #4: “I don’t have the right _____’ (experience, contacts, etc.)

This is the trap of self fulfilling prophecy.

You will block yourself from taking action towards your next career move because you think “it will never happen” or I don’t have “the right ___” (fill in the blank). For example: “I don’t have the right contacts” (which leads you to shy away from creating the ‘right contacts’) Or “I’ll never be able to do this all alone” (e.g., thinking you need to write the business plan and do all the administrative tasks for the new business you want to start; or that you need to know the exact person at an organization who will be in a position to hire you), then not starting because you don’t believe you’ll be able to do it. Or “I’ve been here so long, I don’t see how I could do anything else”. When you have these thoughts, you are creating your future reality.

Tip: Stop focusing on the past that’s been creating your present. And start focusing on solutions to make your next career step successful! Think of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 quote: “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why…I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

Trap #5: “I always come back to this same problem…”

This is the trap of the ‘elephant in the room’.

You will stay stuck if you have something in your record or experience that you don’t know how to explain. An example might be if you think that you didn’t go to the right school, or if you took time off and don’t have something constructive to show for it, or if you had a messy termination and don’t know how to ‘spin’ it, etc. Or it may be that you know you will need to ask references to vouch for you, and you may have had a troublesome interaction with them that leaves you embarrassed to call upon them. You let this ‘problem for which you don’t have a solution’ bottleneck the rest of your career change process.

Tip: You have 3 options: Either 1) Accept. Accept that you’ve had the experiences you’ve had and change your attitude to focus on the value-add contributions that you have and can make; 2) Spin. Figure out a way of framing your experience that is either neutral or shows a strength in you; Or 3) Upgrade. Instead of repeatedly looking back on your history and judging yourself, make a plan to do something about it! Go get the next level of professional licensure, go back to night school at a prestigious area school, etc.