You’re focused on achieving your career goals, but maybe it’s not happening the way you thought it might. Even if you know where you want to go and you’re ready to live your best life, there are some things you may not realize are holding you back. Experts have identified three distractions that you probably don’t realize are impacting progress in your career:
1. Not Looking After Yourself
Are you making your health a priority? Are you working impossible hours? When was the last time you took a day off? Or went to the gym? Or took a vacation? Do you get enough sleep each night? If you want to smash your career goals, you need to be in peak condition. If you’re not feeling your best, then you can’t perform at your best at work. Have a good hard look at how you’re treating your best assets—your mind and body.
Make your physical well-being a priority. Pare back your checklist and make time for exercise, fresh air, and downtime. Make sure you’re making healthy choices, taking the time to eat proper meals, and not just grabbing food on the run.
2. Staying in Your Comfort Zone
Sometimes career success requires you to step outside your comfort zone and do things differently. If you’re focused on getting ahead, it’s easy to stay with what has worked in the past, but it’s okay, even necessary, to be flexible and risk thinking outside the box if you want to make that leap and reach real success in your career.
Old ways of thinking and doing things can lead to stagnation and lower your energy. If you’re feeling bored and frustrated, it might be time to try a different approach at work. Think of how you could switch things up a bit and find some new pathways to reach your goals.
3. Being a Perfectionist
One big roadblock to career success is having unrealistic expectations of yourself. Take a look at your current goals, schedule, and expectations. Are you stretching yourself too thin? It’s time to cut yourself some slack and acknowledge that it’s not possible to do everything perfectly by yourself. And it’s not desirable either!
Where are the opportunities for learning and personal growth in being perfect? Perfection is stasis. Aim for ‘good enough’ and a happy, balanced life. Work out what you want to do and let go of the rest. Learn to outsource and delegate.
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As we near the end of the year, it’s a good time to review where you are in relation to your career goals and if any of these three concepts might be slowing you down. If so, work on identifying ways in which you can reconfigure the demands on your schedule or reposition yourself to better achieve the career success to which you’ve always aspired.
