Sometimes your own worst enemy is yourself, especially when it comes to your career. Luckily, there are some tactics you can use to prevent some of the most common forms of self-sabotage, read on to find out what they are.
Self Sabotage Problem: Sleep
Getting enough sleep isn’t just necessary for your career it’s vital to your entire life! However, it still seems that we do not have the willpower to click no when Netflix ask us if we want to watch another episode or to turn off our phones when we know we should have been asleep hours ago.
Now, I’m not saying it’s all due to personal weakness. In fact, much of the media is designed to be enthralling and to have an addictive quality that makes it hard to turn off those screens and get some decent Z’s. However, you can enhance your ability to concentrate and succeed at work by improving the quality of your sleep.
Of course, to do this means a screen fast for an hour before bed! Why not listen to relaxing music, meditate or, read instead? Also, be sure that your bedroom is a pleasing and calming environment, and that your bed is as supportive and comfortable as possible too.
Self Sabotage Problem: Confidence
Confidence isn’t like sleep; it’s not something that can be improved quickly and for all time by taking a single action. However, there are things we can do to make ourselves feel more confident at work, and cope better when we don’t.
One of those things is to take the time to get a specialized qualification relevant to your field like this civil engineering degree online that is on offer. By doing so, you will gain additional knowledge and experience in your field that can help you feel more confident when working alone, or when trying to get your idea heard in a group at work.
Something else that can be a useful tactic for boosting confidence in a work-related situation is to watch your inner monologue. Is it always saying that you don’t know what you are doing or will screw up? Well, if so it can help to replace it with positive self-talk that will improve your confidence and thus your performance at work.
Self Sabotage Problem: Procrastination
Weirdly, those that often procrastinate in a work situation are the ones that have strong perfectionist tendencies. In fact, it is their fear of failure or not being perfect that can cause them to put off what needs doing in the first place.
Of course in a work situation, this can seem as if you are lazy or unorganized and can hurt your career, even though your intentions are good. Therefore it is necessary to deal with procrastination at as quickly as possible.
To do this it can be helpful to draw out a rough time plan, but don’t get too involved in the detail as this can then be used as another procrastination device. Also, even if you don’t feel like doing it, allowing yourself 10 minutes on a massive project can help you to get that feeling of having begun and break down the inertia and resistance that is stopping you from fulfilling your potential at work.
