Living with Your Career Saboteur - Last in a Series

You've done it. You discovered your career saboteur, figured out how it operates, faced it, and now you have conquered it forever.

Wrong.

Remember when I said that the career saboteur appears "any time that you think about engaging or engage in an activity that brings you closer to who you want to be"? The operative words in that sentence is any time. Unfortunately, the saboteur is going to keep coming back into your life, right when you don't need him/her the most, when you are getting closer to the life you dreamed. Up until this point, you might have listened to your career saboteur and backed off, fearful of failing, "them" laughing at you, screwing up, or overextending your reach.

But we both know this is nonsense, a ploy created to keep you safe. You are much stronger, more capable, and more successful than you have imagined yourself to be. And look at you now: you are much better equipped to handle your career saboteur. You know the circumstances when he/she appears. You are familiar with his/her name, back story, and other ways that he/she operates. Finally, you have methods to combat your career saboteur.

And I have some news for you, too: you have beaten your saboteur before. There have been times in your life when you have met a challenge head-on, fighting back the fear, trepidation, and uncomfortableness to achieve...for yourself or for a cause that is much bigger than you. You need only remember, and use this information to propel you to future success. So for your final assignment...

Assignment #4: Your Success List
Create a list of things you have accomplished in your life of which you are proud. Keep it available to add to it any time, and to look at whenever you feel the saboteur appearing. Use it as another line of defense against its power.

There is nothing that you can't create from your dreams. Empower yourself, not your saboteur. Now show the world what you can do.

How Your Career Saboteur Operates - Second in a Series

You have decided that you want to start your own business.

Or you want to change careers.

Or perhaps you want to apply for a promotion you feel you "barely qualify" for, or even apply to your dream company.

Welcome to the land of the saboteur.

Last week's post asked you to think of one to three big, "dream-worthy" things that you have wanted to accomplish in your career but haven't been able to. If you haven't done this already, go back to it now and do it. You're going to need them going forward. Because today we are going to get intimate with your saboteur, rooting him/her out and connecting in a way that you haven't done so previously. But, right now, we need to learn about what the concept of resistance.

In his book Do the Work, Steven Pressfield speaks of resistance, ultimately confirming that "any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity" will be welcomed with resistance.

You know what I'm about to say: your saboteur is what generates the resistance. Because your saboteur only comes into play when you're dreaming big. It's not your saboteur that keeps you from eating a piece of rotten fruit that will make you ill or keeps you from jumping off of a 20-story building. You may think it is, but it isn't. The saboteur is different from your physical survival instinct. The latter keeps you from dying; the former keeps your dreams-and you-from living.

In order to build the resilience to counter your saboteur's resistance, you need to get to know him/her. This is our next assignment.

Assignment #2: How Your Saboteur Operates
At the top of a page, write one of your career dreams from the last assignment. Underneath that, note all of the saboteur-like statements that arise when reflecting on that dream: statements that undermine your power, want to keep you safe, discount your magnificence, and strive to keep you the same. Make the list as exhaustive as possible. Finally-after you have done this with all of your career dreams-answer these questions about your saboteur (note: this requires a modicum of creativity and playfulness; just go with it):

- What is your saboteur's name?
- What does your saboteur look like? Describe him/her physically.
- What does his/her voice sound like?
- Where does your saboteur live? Describe his/her home.
- When do you first remember your saboteur first communicating with you?
- How has your saboteur evolved over the years?
- Under what circumstances is your saboteur the loudest? The quietest?
- What can your saboteur claim credit for costing you in your life?
- What makes your saboteur as powerful has he/she is?

Next week: what to do about your career saboteur.

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.