Everyone’s dream is to have a successful career. Growing in your profession is equally important to getting a job. You can measure your growth from the amount of knowledge you acquire. Moving on to higher positions at work is nothing but a result of applying the acquired knowledge. If you remain in a particular position for longer, then your promotions could take longer as well. Therefore, it is important to focus on what you need to avoid, to have a vertial growth in your organization.
Here are 5 things that stop your career growth:
Fear
Fear is the primary reason that stops you from growing. It hinders you from taking the necessary steps to hit a said target. This could be the fear of failure of not getting the optimal results. It could also be about the nature of work itself, if not about the end results. Being creative is a much needed skill in any organisation. Fear hinders you from reaching your fullest potential. You can function at your optimum capacity if you are mentally free and calm.
For eg. If you want to inform your manager about your findings on smoothening your project but you have an hesitation.
Here’s the workaround that could work.
- You can try and change your mindset to be more flexible with your results, rather than being fixed. When you eye on five things in a row but you have done two of those, be positive about it. With this practice, you can easily work with yourself to getting better.
- When you make small efforts towards working towards your goals, appreciate yourself and start developing those efforts little by little to do more of it in the future.
- Accept the fact that you have a fear. This is because, if only you accept the fact that you are hesitant towards something you could take steps to work towards the betterment of the problem.
Procrastination
If you are someone who procrastinates things, then it’s something to be avoided. Postponing things to the future is equal to not doing it at all. If you have caught yourself pushing things to do later, it’s time to change the habit. Whenever you have a task to do in mind, take the first step to do it even though you feel like it’d be better to do the next day or sometime later.
Normally, developing such a habit happens when you’ve not acquainted yourself with the line of work or you simply feel lazy to do it then. Either way, you need to start doing it as it only gets easier and simpler as you do it.
To help you come out of the habit of procrastination, here are a few simple steps:
- The first step is to accept that you do have a problem of procrastination and that you need a solution to solve the problem.
- The next step is to develop a habit to start doing tasks, with the finished picture in mind. When you start doing things with the end in mind, you subconsciously prepare yourself with what you imagine right from the beginning.
- Another simple workaround is to decide on a deadline. Working with a fixed date in mind helps in the proper completion of tasks and also supports getting off the procrastinating mindset.
Failing to Plan
An important step that most folks fail is because of not planning. When you don’t have a plan of action, you lose track on how & where to work. A well-thought plan is a necessity to life and to work. Lack of planning could affect you at work in various stages. It could lead to waste of time, energy and opportunities.
It is not difficult to get actually organised. All it requires is to know your objectives and align your actions in accordance. If you want to complete a particular task in a month, you can split the tasks into weekly and daily goals. This way, you have quick and easy goals to complete and as you pursue your tiny goals, you could eventually complete your bigger goals too.
When you start your day, recalling your daily objectives, it’d be easy for you to just focus on that. By this way, you avoid the risk of wasting your precious time and energy. You might have heard people tell “Time is Money”, I would say, “Time is multiple folds more valuable than Money”. Therefore, utilise your life to the fullest by putting your time to the best & optimal use to eventually create proper results that pay off for your lifetime.
Perfectionist Attitude
This is another important cause of problems that you need to avoid if you want to grow in your career. Being perfect at the things you do is not bad at all, but becoming a perfectionist before you start a task is a big downside to your career. Having a perfectionist mindset before beginning any work might give you the starter’s fear.
This means, when you want to complete a course and get proficient in a skill that is required to get you your promotion, you need to start at some point. There is no perfect time to start working towards the next level of your life. No one can be perfect at the first try or before even starting. When you feel like you’ll need to be perfect before you even start something, don’t worry, just start and you’ll get better and eventually get perfect.
Lack of Consistency
One main cause for failure is not being consistent in your efforts. Inconsistency results in lack of growth, leading to demotivation. Every effort could result in winning or losing. At work, when you try to achieve a target, it is normal that sometimes you fail. However, every failed effort is to be seen as a stepping stone rather than as a hindrance.
Every failed effort gets you one step closer to your goals. When you want to progress to higher levels at work, you must consider staying consistent no matter what result you get at the beginning. Irrespective of the result, if you keep pushing your boundaries, you would slowly get proficient and start getting the right results. So, remaining consistent not only at work but also in life is a skill to learn in order to succeed in your career.
Conclusion
To finish with, if you play it safe by teaching yourself to steer clear of these common pitfalls, it would surely help you in having a neat professional growth. By sidestepping these five career hindrances, you direct yourself to the way for success , opening new doors of opportunities. Remember, it’s not just about what you do, but also about what you avoid that carries you towards a thriving career.
