3 Mindset Barriers Keeping You Stuck in an Unfulfilling Career

Quick question: have you ever stopped to think how powerful your thoughts are? Have you ever wondered what mindset barriers might be keeping you from career success?

A quote I like to share when talking about this encourages you to watch your thoughts because ultimately:

your thoughts become your words,

words become your actions

actions become your habit,

habits become your character,

and your character becomes your destiny.

Simply put, your thoughts are powerful, especially when it comes to achieving career success. Your thoughts determine the actions that you do or don’t take to experience career outcomes.

In this article, I am going to be sharing three mindset barriers that might be keeping you from your fulfilling career.

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3 Mindset Barriers Keeping You Stuck in an Unfulfilling Career

What exactly is a mindset barrier?  Mindset barriers are ways of thinking and thought processes that get in the way of your actions towards securing your fulfilling career. There are definitely a ton of mindset barriers out there, but I wanted to share the 3 most common ones based on my experiences in my life and with my clients.

Mindset Barrier No. 1 - Fear

You are allowing fear to keep you stuck in place and fear can manifest in multiple ways. But first, I want us to talk about the difference between fear and being afraid.

Fear is an emotion that we often have no control over. However, fear can come up without your conscious knowledge and that's normal.

What you do have control over is what you do with that fear, and how long you let the fear stay. And that's where being afraid comes in.

You see, being afraid is an action based on fear, so while fear is normal, it mustn’t become the driving force behind your decisions.

When it comes to finding a fulfilling career, a lot of women let fear control them. Fear of:

• Change
• Not being good enough.
• Losing an existing potential professional network.
• Failing.
• Other people’s opinions.
• Not knowing what the next step will be and what a career transition will look like.

And on and on it goes. It's important to note that these are all normal and valid concerns to have when thinking of a career change.

However, focusing too much on your fear and treating those fears like they're facts without any evidence can lead to a mindset barrier. Certainly, it's a mindset barrier that can keep you from transitioning out of a work situation that's unfulfilling.

Focusing too much on your fear and treating those fears like they're facts without any evidence can lead to a mindset barrier.⁠⁠ Share on X

Mindset Barrier No. 2 - Low Self-Efficacy

Secondly, self-efficacy - self-efficacy refers to your belief in your capacity to execute the behavior necessary to produce specific outcomes. Whether you believe you can or you can’t do something, you are right. Low self-efficacy happens when you don’t believe that you are good enough to attain a career that you enjoy.

Additionally, there might also be a little bit of not believing you deserve it. Remember the quote I started with? Your thoughts and beliefs drive the actions you take. The amount of effort you put into achieving a goal is all driven by your thoughts. 

Your self-efficacy will also determine how motivated you are to do the work and research needed to find your fulfilling career.

Moreover, when it comes to finding a career you genuinely enjoy and can thrive in, your self-efficacy will determine:⁠

• How motivated you are to do the work and research.⁠⁠
• The amount of effort you’re willing to exert or put into finding your fulfilling career.
• And honestly, it’ll determine whether or not you’re successful.

Because remember, whether you think you can find a fulfilling career or not, you’re right.

It all starts in your head.⁠⁠ 

If you don’t believe you can find a career you truly enjoy and find fulfilling, you’re not very likely to try hard to achieve it.⁠⁠ You’re more likely to put half-baked efforts into finding it.⁠⁠ You might do some journaling here and some reflecting there.

If you don’t believe you can find a career you truly enjoy and find fulfilling, you’re not very likely to try hard to achieve it.⁠⁠ Share on X

However, when it comes to going deeper into doing the work needed to find your fulfilling career? The amount of effort you put into finding a career you can thrive in slowly dwindles…because low-key, there’s a part of you that doesn’t believe that there is a fulfilling career out there for you 🤷🏾‍♀️. 

So, a question for you to consider - do you BELIEVE you can find a career you enjoy? If you answered yes, the next step is to get clear, intentional, guidance towards that goal.

You’ll want to check out Find Your Fulfilling Career to help with that.

Mindset Barrier No 3 - Feelings of Unworthiness

Finally, the last barrier is both simple and complicated.

First, it's simple in that this barrier is –  You don’t think you deserve a career that you can enjoy, you don’t believe that you deserve a fulfilling career.

Second, it's complicated in that this mindset barrier can stem from several things that have happened over your life. For example:

• Messages from society about work or an aspect of your identity
• How you saw your own parents engage with work and how that impacted the way you think about what work is.
• Messages you might have received from other relationships or even as a child about the value you bring into the world, into the table.

And so on. Now, this feeling of unworthiness isn’t usually a conscious choice. None of the mindset barriers are.

However, most women aren’t aware that they have this deep-seated feeling of unworthiness. At least not until they have engaged in deep self-reflection and self-work. So, you might have to dig a little deep into the corners of your mind and your beliefs to determine if this is a mindset barrier that you have. If you ever find yourself thinking thoughts like:

• “I didn’t work hard enough for a career I love”
• Or “I don’t deserve it”
• Maybe it's" “I will never find a career I love”
• How about? “A fulfilling career just doesn’t happen for someone like me”

Thoughts like those might be some signs that you are feeling unworthy of a fulfilling career.

Overcoming Your Mindset Barriers

So, there you have it! Three of the most common mindset barriers that tend to keep women who are unhappy at work stuck in an unfulfilling career. Did any of those resonate with you?

Were you able to identify one or more barriers that are keeping you from making a career transition but now you're not sure how to proceed? Above all, a great place to start is by getting clarity. Get clear about what is making you unhappy in your current role and what you really want from a future role.

There you have it, the 3 mindset barriers that are likely keeping you stuck in an unfulfilling career.