Discover the 5 internal attitudes that can prevent you from building a successful career and learn how to overcome them to reach your full potential.
Reaching career heights in your chosen profession is a good aspiration. Unfortunately, there is no magic pill that will allow you to do this easily and quickly. But there are plenty of internal attitudes that can hinder and slow you down. Let’s look at what thoughts block the path to a successful career.
“A good specialist must be a multitasker”
He must be able to work in Excel with one hand, answer calls with the other, manage three projects at the same time, and at the same time attend lectures on improving professional skills. A dream worker!
In fact, multitasking is far from an advantage. In fact, it can be a hindrance. Susan Weinschenk, who has a PhD in psychology, says it can cost you up to 40% of your productivity.
Susan explains this by saying that humans are only capable of performing one cognitive task at a time. That’s how the brain works – we can only concentrate on one mental activity. And if we do two or more things in parallel, we risk doing nothing well.
This is also supported by a number of studies that have shown that the human brain tries hard to perform two tasks at once, but instead switches between them. Each time, concentration is lost.
Psychologist Glenn Wilson from the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London and his team conducted a study that showed that multitasking reduces IQ by up to 10 points. And scientists from Stanford found out that people who combine several tasks at once remember information worse.
What to do about it?
To break the habit of multitasking (and not feel bad about it), Susan Weinschenk recommends the following approach to completing tasks:
— Use the 20/80 rule . Identify 20% of all tasks that you believe are the most important. Calmly do them one by one — this will give you 80% efficiency.
— Allocate a specific time for the task. For example, if you need to prepare a presentation, set a specific time period in which you will work on it: 30 minutes, 60 minutes, two hours. During this time, you should concentrate only on this task, without going into messengers, without answering calls, and without being distracted by anything.
“The more you work, the more successful you will be”
You’ll get more things done, earn more money, build a career faster – and there are a bunch of other misconceptions that make a person work longer and harder.
In fact, it only hurts productivity.
In 2014, economist John Pencavel, a professor at Stanford University, published a paper on productivity at work . In it, he describes an experiment in which scientists monitored workers with different work hours. It turned out that people who gave up their weekends in favor of work lost up to 10% of their productivity.
Pencavel also cites a study that looked at occupations that involved keeping others safe. It found that nurses who worked 12 hours a day or more than 40 hours a week were more likely to make mistakes. Which was unsafe for patients.
And in Iceland, an experiment was conducted this year : doctors, teachers, and government workers were transferred to a 35-hour workweek without a pay cut. The results showed that employees showed fewer signs of burnout and improved well-being. And productivity either remained the same or increased.
Other studies have shown that overworking is also harmful to health, particularly to the heart.
What to do about it?
— Don’t work more than eight hours a day. It has been proven that systematic overtime has a negative impact on productivity and well-being.
— Structure the tasks you plan to do. This can be done in the evening before leaving work or in the morning.
— Do complex tasks in the first half of the working day, and small and technical ones in the second. Complex tasks require more concentration, so it is better to do them with a fresh mind. And you can sort out emails that require monosyllabic answers after lunch.
— Have quality rest. After finishing the working day, turn off all work chats and do not go into them. It is better not to spend time at the computer, but, for example, go for a walk or exercise. Create your own rituals that will help you relax.
“If I don’t know something, it means I’m a bad specialist”
After all, a good specialist should be a walking reference book. Know everything and about everything. And if he cannot give a clear answer to a specific question, then by definition he cannot be successful.
Dr. Mike Varshavsky, better known as Dr. Mike, one of the most renowned family medicine physicians, says that no matter how experienced and highly qualified a specialist you are, you always have the right to say, “I don’t know.”
Moreover, Mike is sure that a good specialist cannot know everything. He tells us from his own experience that the more he learns, the more convinced he becomes that his profession has a huge number of subtleties. It is simply impossible to keep them all in your head. In addition, something new constantly appears in any activity.
What to do about it?
— Allow yourself to say, “I don’t know.” Without beating yourself up or labeling yourself as a “bad specialist.” There’s nothing wrong with saying, “I don’t have an answer to this question yet, but I’ll definitely figure it out.”
“If I haven’t achieved success by the age of 30, then I have no chance.”
Either by 25 or by 20.
Looking at young people who achieve something at 15, it seems that time has already passed. And after 30, the brain stops absorbing new information altogether, and it is absolutely impossible to learn anything.
This is a misconception. Thanks to neuroscience, we know that learning is a permanent state of the brain. You can study and learn new things whenever you want, the main thing is that the process is interesting to you – then the information will be absorbed better.
And there is evidence of this in real life: the great animator Hayao Miyazaki directed his first full-length animated film, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, at the age of 38, and founded Studio Ghibli at 44. J.K. Rowling published her first Harry Potter book when she was 32, and Stan Lee created his first superheroes, the Fantastic Four, at 39.
What to do about it?
— Keep a gratitude journal. And praise yourself at the end of each working day for what you managed to do today. Even if you just refused an extra cup of coffee.
— Compare yourself not with others, but with yourself. And this works not only as a psychological attitude, but also as a very real exercise. Describe what positive changes in your professional life have happened to you over the past five years (in fact, the number can be any). Did your salary go up? Did you get a promotion? Were you able to leave a job you didn’t like? Did you get an education? Did you take a language course? We all work hard, and it’s important to notice this, rather than take it for granted.
“Do your job perfectly or not at all.”
True professionals always do everything perfectly. They have no right to make mistakes, that’s why they are professionals. And the better a person does the job, the faster he will be noticed. As a result – success, money, career heights.
Yes, doing your job with all your might, and not half-heartedly, is a useful attitude. Especially if you really want to achieve a lot in the area in which you are developing. But you should not go to extremes.
The desire to always do everything perfectly is perfectionism. Often, it not only does not help, but can also become a problem on the path to career growth.
Perfectionism is one of the causes of impostor syndrome or straight-A student syndrome . It affects the occurrence of procrastination, depression, anxiety disorders, insomnia and headaches.
It is important to allow yourself to make mistakes. And sometimes to do a “C” job. For example, if you need to prepare a project presentation, you can start by simply throwing out ideas and arranging key ideas on slides, without trying to immediately come up with a super-stylish design and witty jokes-inserts with which you will conquer your colleagues. Just jot down the thoughts that you want to reflect in it, and only then do the “tuning”. At the very least, you will definitely get a working presentation, at the very most – yes, you will conquer your colleagues.
When you start doing something without expecting it to be perfect, you take unnecessary pressure off yourself and reduce the chances of procrastination and feelings of self-doubt.
What to do about it?
— Accept the fact that mistakes are normal. Because without them, it is impossible to learn anything and gain experience.
— Learn to benefit from failures. Why did something fail? What can you do to prevent it from happening again next time?
— Forget about the stick, think about the carrot. Think about what you like about your work, why do you love it? Realize its value. This way you will concentrate on the process itself and enjoy what you do. And not fanatically work for the result.