Do you believe you have reached your full potential? Do you even know what that looks like?

success

If you haven’t reached your potential, chances are you don’t feel successful or completely satisfied with your career. Yet, you may be holding yourself back from stepping into your professional power. You have the ability to change the trajectory of your careers. The first step is to make this happen is to understand what you may be doing that is preventing you from realizing your potential.

Here are 7 reasons that can prevent you from reaching your full potential.

You’ve become complacent.

Perhaps you’re in the same position and company for a while and although there may be changes in leadership and office politics, the responsibilities of the job remain the same. You get to the point where you can do the job on auto pilot, and you find comfort in that. But maybe you get too comfortable and that holds you back from moving your career forward. Your complacency can keep you from learning new skills. You stop looking for new opportunities and responsibilities that will help you reach your full potential.

Create at least one stretch goal per quarter and hold yourself accountable to focus on that goal.

You don’t believe in yourself.

If you don’t believe that you have the talent and ability to achieve more in your career, then you most certainly won’t have the motivation to move forward. While the lack of self-confidence can be somewhat influenced by external factors, more likely than not it originates in your own mind. As a result, you make assumptions about your future and your ability to reach your goals which sabotages your success.

Keeping a success journal helps you stay connected to your talent and builds up self-confidence with a regular practice. Enter at least one accomplishment a day and then review your entries at the end of the week. Ask yourself, what does this say about me? Consistent journaling of your achievements builds new neural pathways in your brain that support your self-esteem and confidence to sustain your ambition.

You need to be perfect

Many of us strive to be perfect and this not only leads to an increase in anxiety and depression, but also a fear of failure. If you believe that you need to be perfect all the time, you are less likely to take risks that contribute to your professional growth and development. You are denying yourself the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

Reframe all situations you consider to be failures and write out the lessons you’ve learned from each.

You listen to your negative self-talk

We all have those annoying voices in our head suggesting that we aren’t smart enough, good enough, or qualified enough for a bigger career. It’s impossible to completely quiet these voices but we can learn to let them go and override their message with daily positive affirmations.

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