Did you know that you’re a walking tool kit? Yes you are! You have inside of you everything you’ve ever needed to achieve great things. Your career success is not dependent on what jobs are out there or what others can do for you but what you can do for yourself. How well you know yourself, your tool kit and how to apply this tool kit to work for you are the root of your career and life success. But you need to start somewhere on this journey of greatness and that begins back at the body shop. Well, not literally, but you do have all the “right stuff” tucked safely inside of you that you can leverage when you need to make change happen, any kind of change you need to or wish to make.
It’s unfortunate that many individuals don’t realize or recognize this set of tools and spend their time and energy (and money) looking on the outside for a solution. Yes, what’s outside of you—people, places, things—can all support and guide you along this journey, but they cannot give you the tools you need to make positive change happen. When we rely on the externals to give us what we need to grow a better life and career we are giving up our control. We can also be very disappointed when these externals don’t come through. This leads to blame and bitterness. The next time you see someone who’s feeling blue or dejected about their career, ask them “why?” Odds are they’ll blame their parents, job, recruiters, companies, their resume or someone else for why they are not happy in their careers.
Another downside of not leveraging your inner tool kit can be self-defeating behavior.
Negative thoughts and blaming one’s self can be an easy place to go when things don’t work in our favor. Still, it can result in blame. This time we are at fault. We are neither good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, talented enough nor are we confident enough to be a success. Though this is often an inaccurate and unfair assessment of your situation, we are partly to blame, but not in the way you might think. Rather than not being “good enough” we simply weren’t aware of, or didn’t leverage, our inner tool kit.
This negative self-talk is what is commonly known as the “inner critic.”
The inner critic is real and it can either serve to make us bitter or better, but it exists in every one of us. Being better and stronger results from having a good relationship with your inner critic, being able to effectively manage it and leverage your tool kit to move past any self-defeating behavior that stands in your way and on to exciting new adventures. And getting there is half the fun.
All great journeys have started with a single step. Just reading this article is the first step on your path to successfully launching your next career adventure. The next step should be identifying your inner tool kit—confidence, motivation, strength, self-belief, dreams, resilience, etc. Then begin to work on evolving these tools and helping them grow to make you a better version of yourself. These tools will not only help you achieve your dreams but help you navigate obstacles. Through the process, your inner critic will grow quiet, your confidence will bloom and your purpose and plan will formulate. Only you own the tool kit to get the job done. Let’s get started together identifying and leveraging your inner tool kit for success.
How to Be Career Happy? Leverage Your Inner Tool Kit