Feeling Stuck? Look into Your Fears

  • 1 min read

Feeling stuck in your job? Having lack of motivation? It is very frustrating when despite all the hard work, you don’t get the deserved recognition. As a career coach when I say, “Focus on your vision”– it sometimes adds fuel to it. Last year during my seminar a gentleman from the audience challenged me, “None of what you are saying works, I tried everything, it doesn’t work!” Though I was little awkward, I could feel his disappointment, also learned something from it.

Is it not easy to project into the future –  our brain finds it hard to visualize something it doesn’t have the experience about. On the other hand, since the present problems are on our face, we get stuck occupied by those. In order to shift the focus towards vision, first we need to clear the mind of some clutters – assumptions and the underlying fears.

A very common limiting assumption: “Vision has to be limited by the team/organization I am in”. When you think about this kind of vision what emotion do you feel? Is it an unleashed joy or more like a feeling of relief or even less? I bet it is the later. Get rid of the assumptions until you feel that uncompromising joy in your heart. Consider these two statements: “I want to be a VP/manager/big shot” Vs. “I want to innovate, I want to work with a team of talented, passionate people and together we will create elegant, affordable solutions for the greater good.” Which one of these makes you genuinely excited?

This limiting assumption usually comes from a fear: “I am not good enough to get anything better than what I have right now.” This fear could be covered up by an apparently rational reason, “Since I have invested so much here already why not try a little more”.

After that seminar was over, I talked to the gentleman in private. When he calmed down a bit, I asked, “What is your attachment to this job you are stuck in”? It made him realize: “I am afraid I may not get anything better than this”. A week later he called me, sounded quite happy, he said, “I reached out to a few people in my network and did two informal interviews; I have got an offer today!” Looked like a little nudge helped him identify and address his underlying fear. And that’s all he needed to get unstuck.

If such a fear is holding you back, notice what is more powerful – this limiting fear or the desire for fulfillment? Until and unless you choose the later, your vision will always blurred by those fears.

Picture of Sharmin Banu

Sharmin Banu

Sharmin Banu  is a development partner for high performers who wants to have more Growth, Purpose and Joy for their work and lives. On top of her coach training, a deep eastern cultural background and a 12-year of high tech corporate experience give her a unique position of learning what blocks people to move up in their career path and what helps them to excel. She is very passionate about helping professionals so they can honor their core selves and leverage those to thrive and succeed in the high paced corporate culture and have more fulfillment from their lives. Sharmin’s clientele  is mostly high-tech professionals in the mid-level in their career. Sharmin and her husband have a young daughter and lives in Kirkland WA. Sharmin loves to stay in touch with her friends and the extended family.

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