Discovering Your Career Saboteur - First in a Series

Everyone has "voices" in their head, guiding their thoughts, choices, behaviors, and attitudes. You have a voice in your head that tells you to buckle your infant child securely into his/her car seat and to drive safely on the road. You have a voice in your head that tells you not to eat the fake fruit in a display bowl. We're constantly in dialogue with voices such as this; they help us make decisions.

But there is one voice that we need to pay particular attention to: our inner critic, or Saboteur.

The Saboteur-as the name implies-is the voice in your head that sabotages attempts to connect to your higher self. It does so by questioning your worthiness, commitment, ability, or anything else it can get its hands on to keep you from moving forward with what's important to you.

Let's say that you want to find a new job. You know how to or know how to go about finding how to write a resume, networking, creating a cover letter, and enhancing your position as a candidate. There is information on the internet and experts abound to help you with this. It's the saboteur that keeps you from acting, wanting you to remain exactly as you are despite your desire to change.

Any time that you think about engaging or engage in an activity that brings you closer to who you want to be is when the saboteur comes out.

You don't have a knowledge problem, because you know everything you need to know or have the means to find out. You don't have a failure problem because you've failed before and have kept persevering. You don't have a commitment problem because you have made and kept commitments all of your life. You don't have a worthiness problem because you are worthy of and deserve anything that you dream for your life.

You have a saboteur problem.

In this series throughout the month of March, we will focus on discovering your career saboteur, how it operates within you, what you can do about it, and how to live with it. Each post will conclude with an assignment to complete that pertains to the day's topic and will move you forward in your understanding of this powerful internal obstacle to your success. To get the most out of this series, complete the assignments.

Assignment #1: Identify Your Saboteur
Think of one to three things that you have wanted to accomplish in your career but haven't been able to. Make them as big as possible: starting your own business, freelancing, applying for a promotion, asking for a raise, or anything else that-logically and objective-is possible. It should speak to your highest values, your dreams, and/or a calling that you feel.

Next week: how your career saboteur operates.