How Self Talk Can Harm Your Career Success
In any walk of life there seems to be people who appear to effortlessly achieve what they want, while others seem to struggle. These days it appears to be the case that by adopting certain behaviours and attitudes you can achieve a whole lot more in your career.
When I’m working with clients, one of the things I often notice is that people who are well qualified with great experience seem to suffer a crisis of confidence. Perhaps they were in a job for a while, doing pretty well and that all changes. Now they find themselves on the job market.
Yet what we say to ourselves can make a big difference to the results we achieve when looking to move on or move up on our career. 
Now to be clear I am not saying that you make up things about your ability and capability to do things. It is more about how you think internally about the situation and what you say to yourself.
In a more challenging job market it is all too easy to say things like:
“There are just too many candidates chasing each role and it is going to be impossible to move forward right now”
“I just don’t have the right experience that employers are looking for”
“No one will give me a chance based on what I have done so far”
If you were to have these types of conversations with yourself, how likely is it you would move forward to achieving what you want? Highly unlikely if we are honest as you have already convinced yourself that it is all gloom and doom.
So what can you do instead?
The first thing to do is to start noticing the internal dialogue that is going on. Pay attention to what you are saying and the impact it is having on your motivation and drive.
Look for ways of turning that negative talk into something much more productive so that you can move forward towards what you want to achieve.
For some visualising what you want can make a difference. For others it might be affirmations (essentially a declaration that something is true).
Of course this is going to take time and effort and a bit of work on your part. Just think about some of the following as things you might say as alternative to the challenging job market.
“I will do my best to show that I am the right candidate for the job”
“I will present my experience with confidence”
“I have done a lot of good work in my career to date”
The Bottom Line: It might feel a little unnatural at first to be taking control of your self talk and mindset but over time it becomes easier.
Duncan Brodie helps accountants achieve more career success. He invites you to sign up for his free report The 7 Biggest Barriers To A Successful Career In Accountancy
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.