How to think for success

Duncan Brodie reflects on his career and how he has built a mindset for success   

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Goals and Achievements

You have got your professional qualifications, and you do good work, yet you are not making the kind of progress that you know you should in your career. Sadly, this is a lot more common than it might seem.

When I was delivering a webinar almost two-thirds of people told me they felt their careers were stagnating. Interestingly, it was often mindset that was an issue.

So, here’s the thing. We all have our doubts. We all know that our thinking impacts our decisions. Our decisions impact our actions – and our actions impact our results. Something I’ve noticed over the years is that it isn’t necessarily the smartest, or even the most experienced, that go the furthest in their careers; it’s those who are ready to push beyond the self-doubt – those who find ways of dealing with their self-doubt.

I know when I reflect on my career where I climbed the career ladder when I wasn’t the best, but what I had was what I would call professional curiosity. By that I mean I was continually asking myself if I could really do the role at the next level, and the only way I could achieve that was by applying, getting the role and going through the discomfort of struggling, at least initially, with those areas that were new. It was also about accepting that it would be a struggle, and acknowledging the progress that I was making.

So, here are three things to ask yourself if you feel you are stagnating in your career:

• What do you want to achieve in the next stage of your career?
• What bridges can you use to move forward?
• What actions can you take?