Are You a Prisoner of your own Beliefs?

The saying ‘if you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you are right’ is a succinct summary of the situation where you are a prisoner of your own beliefs.

Let’s look at this through one of the case studies in my book ‘How to have an outstanding career.‘

“Dev knew there was an opportunity coming up in another department and was  very interested in it. One day, whilst walking to the lift, he came face to face with the manager of one of the teams in that department. The manager said that he  liked what Dev had to say in the meeting last week and thought he should consider applying for the job vacancy. Dev felt embarrassed so he tried to brush the compliment off by saying that it wasn’t his idea. It had been a team effort and he’d played an insignificant part. The manager walked away bemused. Dev gave more thought to applying for the job, but eventually concluded that it would be a waste of time as everyone else had so much more to offer.”

What a shame – Dev was stuck in a false view of his own strengths and skills and lacked confidence in his abilities. He was demonstrating all the signs of being a prisoner of his own beliefs. Dev was not aware of the value he had to offer this organisation. When he was complimented, he brushed it off as belonging to someone else’s.

Knowing your value prevents you becoming a Prisoner of your own Beliefs

We all have a value created by our competences, knowledge and experience. By knowing what this is through defining our career capital, we have the
collateral on hand to complete the application for a great new job.

Top tips for developing your career capital

• Review your career capital account regularly – just as you would with your bank account (hopefully).
• Pay into your career capital account regularly. This means adding new knowledge on a monthly basis; a skill or relationship that enhances you. It does not have to be something mega, such as gaining a new qualification, just a steady stream of small chunks of value.
• If funds have not grown for a while, or are getting low because you are falling behind others, then you are not growing your career; you’re stagnating. Whatever you do, if you want a resilient career as a Young Professional, don’t allow this to happen.

You could:

• take on new tasks
• gain some knowledge by reading a business book
• get yourself on an in-house training course
• complete a course on the training platform
• join a project where you could learn from others.

Whatever you decide to do, just remember that you don’t have to be a prisoner of your own beliefs…you can change your beliefs by changing your behaviour and next time you are asked to apply for a job, you can say yes with confidence.