Career Killers to Avoid
Posted in Career Building
There is more to working and building a career than just getting a degree and job searching. There are a number of factors that can influence how you feel about your job, which in turn affect your performance.
Althea DeBrule, a career coach and consultant names the top five "career killers" that could end your career. DeBrule shares the following steps on how to keep these career killers in check.
Procrastination
Procrastination is when you keep putting off doing what needs to be done by keeping yourself with busy with a number of tasks that have little or nothing to do with your job.
According to Wikipedia, to some psychologists believe that people use procrastination as a "mechanism to deal with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision."
DeBrule suggests combating procrastination by listing the times you postponed a task. Use this list as a checklist and deal with each task one at a time.
Perfectionism
There is nothing wrong with striving for perfection. However, if you let your desire for perfection get out of hand it could do your career more harm than good.
For one, it will take you too long to decide or act on a task at hand, thinking too much about the best way to go about things. You also over-analyze each detail, even the mundane, trivial things.
To deal with this, DeBrule suggests leaving a single thing imperfect on purpose each day.
Burnout
Pushing yourself to the limit leads to burnout. Physical and mental exhaustion is caused by prolonged stress.
To curb this career threat, take it easy. If you feel mentally or physically tired, take a break instead of forcing yourself to work more. Seek professional help or ask someone to help you recover.
Disappointment
Not everything works out perfectly. That is just how things are. No matter how much hard work you put in or how good you plan everything, there will always be setbacks.
Don't beat yourself up (and your co-employees as well) if you experience disappointments.
Failure
DeBrule says that the "symptoms" of this career killer are: mistakes, omissions, ineffectiveness, non-performance, or just falling short of expectations, hopes and dreams.
To prevent this killer from destroying your career, DeBrule advises to, of course, learn from your mistakes, and laugh often.
