My Daily Passion

Personal Habits that Can Ruin Your Career

You attend every meeting, work beyond the required number of hours, give constructive suggestions, and show up on time every morning. You are a model employee, but despite your amazing work conduct, you might not be as far along your career as you had hoped. What’s wrong with this picture? You may not be asserting and advocating yourself enough, especially in the office. As ambitious as you are, you may still doubt yourself, and this hinders your success. As much as you try to be the best there is, you may still be committing a few mistakes along the way.

Could you be downplaying your accomplishments? Socially speaking, boys are encouraged to toot their own horn while girls are required to be more modest about their talents. Whether you are male or female, you must take a step forward and champion your accomplishments. Your supervisors may be too busy to notice the staff. Chances are that they don’t know what you’re doing, and you need to tell them. Help them become aware by sending short and humble notes that hint that you are proud of what you’ve done because of the number of hours you put into it. A simple message like that will not make people think that you are egotistical. It’s short and sweet, but it’ll surely open the eyes of your supervisors so that they can help you fast-track your career.

Could you be speaking in a less than professional tone? You may find yourself using a lot of slang when talking to your supervisors. These speaking habits may indicate how you are professionally. “It was, like, uh, totally stressful!” Are you still going through puberty and unsure about your goal? Using a tone like that indicates that you still have some growing up to do. Be authoritative when you talk so that people will believe in what you have to say. Confidence brings you farther than what you think. If you know that what you’re saying is true, show it in your facade. People would rather listen to experts.

Are you confident enough? If you want to command attention and ask for the respect that you so deserve, you must let go of the fear of rejection. If companies can negotiate, so can you. Research on what you have to say and attend meetings well-prepared. If you know what you are talking about, then you’ll be ready to take your stand.

Everyone fears failure, so they simply take the coward’s way out and play it safe. It is perfectly understandable that you want your life’s course to run smoothly. You don’t want to get into a situation that threatens to destroy the house of cards that you built, but ironically, real growth occurs when you step out of your comfort zone and set foot in the new territory. So if you want you career to blossom, you may have to just take a deep breath and go for it. This attitude is what can make people admire you. You just need the guts to play the game that everyone must j

There is no shortage of opinions on how to achieve success in your career, but improving your personal habits may be rarely talked about.

You may be  a model employee and yet you are progressing slowly upward in your career. You may be holding yourself  back even if you arrive to work early, attend all meetings, offer your opinion, and work longer than is expected of you.

It may be time you started reminding those that matter how good of a job you are doing. If you still lack confidence you may not be assertive enough or tooting your own horn.

If your goal is to be the best that you can be, it may be time to implement a few pointers to help move you up the career ladder.

1. Do Not Downplay Your Accomplishments- your boss or other supervisors may not even be aware of what you accomplish day to day. Help make them aware by sending a short note on what you have done and the time you put in. Brief and modest notes will help open their eyes to what you are doing for the business and potentially help move you further along in your career.

2. Maintain A Professional Tone- avoid using slang when talking to your colleagues and others that are involved in making decisions about your career.  Language like “it was, like, uh, totally stressful” will give the impression you are not serious about your work.

3. Speak With Authority- speak so others want to listen to what you have to say. You will appear and sound more confident to others around you.

4. Avoid Fear Of Rejection- take the bull by the horns and read, ask questions, and research so you know what you are talking about when discussing issues related to your profession.

5. Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone- if you want your career to florish you may have to step out of your comfort zone and share your ideas and opinions without fear of rejection.

Sometimes you have to take a chance and rock the boat if you want people to notice what you have to offer.

You now have five personal habits you can focus on improving to help you move up the success ladder in your career. Optimizing these personal habits will help make you more confident, experience  more career satisfaction, and have people admiring you for taking the necessary steps to achieving all that you can with your career.