MINDSET
The Simple Mindset Shift That Will Move You from Feeling Hopeless in Your Career Progression to Totally Empowered
Everything is a choice
Today I was moved by a simple yet extremely powerful quote from a fantastic coach and friend. This simple shift in thinking hit home in so many ways and can be related to everything we do, whoever we are.
As a Careers Coach, I have immediately tied this into our working life and career choices, as it really demonstrates how we have control over our careers and the way we live our lives, simply by the way we choose to view our situation.
This is what he said to me:
“The highest form of freedom is that we have the choice in the meaning.”
So what does this mean?
Well, every day we have an unlimited number of experiences and we place certain meanings onto each of these. So for example, if it’s raining, we might see this as negative.
“The rain has hampered my plan of cycling to work.”
However, what we need to remember is that we can choose a meaning for everything that happens. We always have a choice. We can see rain as ruining our plans outside, giving it a negative connotation, or we can see it as an opportunity for our gardens to get much-needed water.
In a careers context, we can decide that we are no good at interviews because we got a rejection letter, or we can assign a more positive meaning to that situation and consider the fact that this was the first interview in many years for a very competitive position. Even getting an interview was an achievement and it is practice under our belt.
In essence, we can assign meaning to anything and we can choose whether that meaning brings us down and stunts our progress or empowers us and inspires us.
What is your narrative?
In my day-to-day work, I support mums returning to work after taking time out to raise a family. Many of my clients come to me with the narrative that they can’t get a job because they have had too long out of the workplace.
When we drill down, there is more often than not, very little evidence that this is the case. In fact, it is just a meaning that they have ascribed to the situation and it is very damaging as it creates an immediate block.
Most of the time it is subconscious and is brought on by a loss of confidence or a reluctance to re-enter the workplace and leave their young children. Therefore, they don’t realise that they have simply assigned this meaning and that they have the power to assign a different meaning.
What if we look at this situation differently and give it a more empowering meaning?
What if taking time out of the workplace to raise children has given these mums a wealth of skills and experience that they didn’t have previously? What about seeing the gap in employment as time to get clarity on what they really want to do?
Suddenly being out of the workplace to do the admirable job of raising a family has positive connotations in their mind, therefore raising confidence levels and spirit.
Assigning a negative meaning immediately stops us from moving forward, but it doesn’t have to be this way. We always have a choice in how we see things.
During Covid, a number of businesses have gone bust. This is the sad reality for many. Alternatively, other businesses have thrived. What sets them apart? Very often, these are the businesses that have seen the pandemic as a challenge.
By reframing what is essentially a negative experience to one that is an opportunity to do things differently and adapt in order to profit where competition has declined, this has empowered certain businesses to get ahead.
How we view the world and our circumstances is incredibly powerful and it really can be as simple as changing the meaning we assign to events in our lives. We always have a choice and it’s important in any given moment to remember that the story we choose is up to us and we can choose to focus on the negative, with little or no solutions or something more empowering to help us move forward in our challenges.
I hope you find this useful. Next time you feel like something is stopping you from making progress, consider these wise words and see how differently it makes you feel.
Nikki Vivian is a writer and Careers Coach, specialising in working with women who are returning to a career after a break to raise a family. Join other like minded people who have re-imagined their career to mean more than money and status by signing up to her fast growing newsletter REDEFINING SUCCESS.
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