Stopping self-sabotage in careers

NAIROBI: Have you ever felt like punching yourself for letting great opportunities slip through your fingers? Many would-be career success stories have gone down the drain largely due to the owner’s commissions or omissions.

Self-sabotage - behaviour, thought, emotion or action that holds an individual back from getting what they want consciously is the pull-down mechanism that helps a person keep within a known comfort zone.

Many people blame everyone and everything for their poor performances in their careers, but hardly check in the mirror to see the real culprit.

They will barely invest in personal development to raise their self-esteem, self-worth and confidence to support their career success.

 Unfulfilled expectations

They will keep doing the same things, the same way over and over while hoping for progress. Unfortunately, these individuals live their lives unhappily and with unfulfilled expectations. Some of the factors contributing to self-sabotage include fear of failure. There are people out there who cannot handle failure for different reasons. As such, they do not attempt a task unless they are sure of the outcome.

Such people possess little faith in their capacity to handle challenging tasks. Other factors aiding self-sabotage include ignorance, poor listening and problem solving skills, which normally contribute to poor performance as the instructions are misinterpreted.

Lack of accountability is also a major contributor to self sabotage. Some people are rarely tasked with any serious responsibilities at work, leaving them at the risk of being rendered redundant due to poor productivity. For others, it is outdated values and beliefs that prey on their careers. It defeats logic why a person would hold on to some beliefs that make them misaligned with the world of work, in which their wish to belong and even excel. Negative self-talk is also known to kill many promising careers. People who continually confess that they are failures will rarely grow beyond what they profess. After all confession is possession.

For the progressive minded individual, there are steps that can be taken to stop the self-sabotage cycle. It is important to take some time to think and reflect upon the thought, feelings, decisions, behaviour and actions that have contributed to the undesirable career situation at hand.

 More risks

This will enable one to identify the grey areas and seek improvement on the same, to ensure they support their career growth.

It is also important to learn to overcome fear and take more risks. It is from failure that we know our limits and embark on capacity building.

Life is fun and adventurous for those who frustrate mediocrity. The use of personal development materials such as books, audios and videos will prove valuable in this regard.

Also evaluate your personal values and beliefs. Offload whatever curtails your career advancement. Seek career counseling to enable you strike a balance between your personal values and the world of work.

Be a continuous learner and embrace change especially when it is inevitable. Practice, practice makes perfect. Start with one idea, one event at a time, persist and persevere in your quest to support your career success and you will eventually learn to sheer yourself to the top.

Be your best career buddy today and stop self sabotage!

-The writer is a Human resource specialist at Peoplelink Consultants Ltd.  Email:[email protected]