Why You Need to Stop Acquiescing in Your Career

You need to stop acquiescing in your career! ?

Allow yourself to pursue what you want and stop making excuses. Tell yourself you are going to do it anyway. We need to have a serious mindset shift to really allow ourselves to stop acquiescing.?

So, why do we do it? A number of reasons! Any of these sounds familiar?

?? People pleasing

?? We have already established self-limiting beliefs

?? Fear of the unknown and your dreams, and what others may think

?? We are unhappy with ourselves and our lives

?? We haven’t found our true purpose

?? Feelings of guilt to go for what we want (impractical, too spoiled, that's for other people…)

?? Not knowing our self-worth

?? Don't believe there is a job that's matched with our experience/skills

?? Don't believe employers will have faith in our skillsets

?? Doing what others need you to do instead of what you are excited about

What happens when we do this?

?? Damage is done when we settle for things that we shouldn’t

?? Wasted potential and a decline in self-confidence, regret for not choosing our dream career

?? The longer you stay in a career we don’t like, the harder it is to switch to what we truly WANT to do

?? Skills learned for a dream career will diminish greatly and we will become less desirable for hiring managers

?? Amplifies impostor syndrome

?? Burnout - doing work that doesn't light us up causes stress and frustration and eventually burnout.

?? Giving up on ourselves and our goals and dreams

?? Not pushing ourselves to reach our full potential

?? Settling will cause regret not going after our dream career whenever we talk with people who love what they’re doing

?? May spill over and affect other aspects of your life, eg. relationships

?? Self-sabotaging and self-fulfilling prophecies

So most importantly, how do you stop doing this?!

1???Acknowledging that this route is holding you back.?

2?? Face your fears head on. Are you concerned about other people and what they think? What you are scared of happening? Are there any real repercussions? Write them down. Brain dump. Recognize that allowing fears to hold you back is going to cause longer term stress even if in the short term stepping over your fears feels more stressful.

3?? Remind yourself that confidence comes from action and getting clarity, not from holding yourself back. Remind yourself of this when you take uncomfortable action or make a decision that isn't acquiescing to the needs and wants of others.?

4?? Have the mindset of excitement instead of settling. This is a CHOICE we get to make every day. Hold that alongside joyful anticipation instead of feeling not enough. Focus on the gain you've already had (not the gap - which is very damaging) but at the same time be excited for what’s coming next. Thing of scare-citement! Too much fear is damaging, but being a little scared of what you are taking on is a powerful force. Make this your new normal (for more on this check out episode 96: being comfortable with being uncomfortable)

5?? Agree to be super kind to yourself irrespective of the outcome.?

6?? Remind yourself that you can always change your mind later on. If necessary make some contingency plans for how you'll do that.?

7?? Establish a support system of peers and others doing like-minded things. This is where a community such as the Lit Up Leadership Academy is so incredibly powerful - these women are all supporting each other through uncomfortable change.?

8?? Take action and establish habits that help push the needle forward to reach for what you really want.

Are you ready to get what you WANT, and stop acquiescing? ??

Find out more and check out episode 102 of the Leading Women In Tech podcast: https://tonicollis.com/episode102