Most clients started working with me because they were highly stressed and needed a change in their professional life.
For some of them was about changing their career, for some it was about finding again the love in what they were already doing. For others it was about having the courage to start their own business.
Let’s face it though, most of us do not like change. We avoid it for as long as possible and sometimes put up with miserable job situations or dead-end careers. But, when we feel undervalued for a long period of time, our confidence becomes eroded. Then the change that we crave so much will feel impossible and scary.
One thing that can help us with change is to develop a growth and positive mindset. It will help to look at the situation through the lenses of opportunity, hope and optimism, rather than through the filters of fear, stress or poor confidence.
Yes, it is mainly fear that keeps us stuck, and yet there is something else that can play havoc with our brain: boredom. When we feel stuck is also because we have been comfortable for too long.
When we are comfortable, we become complacent, we stop learning and then become bored. Sometimes we don’t even realise that we are bored. Yet suddenly we seemed to notice everything that is wrong and everything that needs fixing.
Think about the home improvement preoccupation that hit many of us during the first lockdown. Sitting indoors doing the same thing day in and day out, we started noticing the cracks, the stains and the wear and tear of our frying pans. That is because when we are bored, we often look for problems to solve.
The same can happen when you spend too long in the same job.
At first you become highly competent at what you do and enjoy the comfort of your competence. Then you are so competent that you stop developing. Then things are no longer challenging. Slowly you become so bored that you shift your attention to the ‘cracks’.
You start noticing what your colleagues are doing wrong, what your company is doing wrong and so on. After a while all you see is problems, you know you should move on, but you feel demotivated and stuck.
If this is you, it could be time for an upgrade.
