Episode 43 Understanding success is an inside job

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Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

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leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

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I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 43.

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I am really excited about this episode

because if you can nail this, then

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it's a real game changer and it's all

about, success being an inside job

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because it's really important that we

pay attention to our mindset, to the.

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Beliefs and,, messages we give

ourselves that ultimately determine

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the reality that we experience.

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Working on your mindset, understanding

that success is an inside job, as well

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as doing the things externally that

you need to do can help you to increase

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your, not only your performance, but

also your wellbeing, your confidence,

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and your daily experience of your job.

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So let's get started.

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Let's dive into the topic and

work through some of those.

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Inner challenges that we all have.

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Often when we're thinking about

success, and I should quantify

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that is success on your terms.

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So as you define success, it's

not necessarily about getting a

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more senior role or promotion.

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It might be other aspects of

success that you're thinking about.

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We often think , we need to get more

experience, or I need to upskill, or

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I need to get another qualification.

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So the external pieces that

we think contribute towards us

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being more successful at work.

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And they, of course, are important, but

actually we need to also be thinking

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about mindset, because our mindset has

a huge impact in terms of our performance,

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how we work what our reality is.

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And , mindset spans, not just

work, everything, but, work.

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We spend.

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Half our life at work, which

is a scary thought, isn't it?

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92, 000 hours of our

life is spent working.

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Work contributes to our identity

and how we see ourselves.

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So we want to be having a

positive experience at work.

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We want work to feel joyful, satisfying,

fulfilling, giving us all that great

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stuff around direction and purpose.

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And our mindset can contribute

hugely to our experience of work and

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therefore our success at work too.

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If you think about mindset, it will

definitely influence our productivity, our

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courage, our confidence, how we present

ourselves, the language we use, the

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conversations we have, how we respond to

challenges that we face, the opportunities

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that we seize, that we say yes to, whether

we're, intimidated or whether we're bold.

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Whether we lean in or whether we

hide away and not want to be visible.

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That's all down to our mindset.

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It really does impact everything we do.

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Mindset tends to be habitual thinking

patterns, mindset is thoughts plus

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beliefs plus actions equals outcome.

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So those habitual patterns of thinking

that we have, those either limiting or

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empowering beliefs that we add into

that mix, then the actions that we take

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determine the outcome that we can expect.

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And what we are thinking and believing

about ourselves will be projected

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outwards, and will create the

reality which we then experience.

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And often we think that it's fixed, that

we can't change those thinking patterns,

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we might not even be aware of them, often

they're unconscious, they're just the

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way we've always thought about things.

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We just don't think

that's possible to change.

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, I like to think about it as being

the director of your own movie.

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Because in a way, you're, the stories that

you tell yourself about work, and about

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your ability at work, your confidence

at work, your experience at work, it's

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the story that we're telling ourselves.

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. But , if you think about yourself as being

the director of that story, of that movie,

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you know that you can edit it, you can

reshoot things, you can change the story.

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It doesn't have to be

that particular ending.

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You have the power to rewrite that story.

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The first thing is to become aware of

the stories you're telling yourself

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about work and about yourself at work.

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Which could be very simple, , when

I think about going into work

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tomorrow, what am I thinking?

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Am I thinking, Oh , I really don't

want to be here, I'm dreading it.

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It's a, a nightmare.

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Am I thinking, Yeah, I

can't wait to get in there.

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Is it somewhere in between?

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Or are there particular aspects of your

job where you think about them, With a

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negative mindset that you're conscious

that you don't want to do that piece

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of work, or you find it dull, boring,

challenging, or whatever it might be.

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Or it could be about particular people.

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It could be about your boss, or a co

worker, or a member of the senior team

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where you've got a negative story that

you're telling yourself about that person.

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The first stage with anything

around our mindset is to increase

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the awareness of what's going on.

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To be really mindful of the stories

that are playing out for you.

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That's the first thing, and

then think about Okay, how can

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I rewrite some of those stories?

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So the consciousness piece first,

the awareness piece first, and

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then thinking about rewriting them.

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I'm going to share a example to

illustrate how this can play out.

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I was working with a client

recently who was really talented,

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skilled, good at what she was doing.

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Knew she wanted to get to

the next level in her career.

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She was really clear about the type

of role she was heading towards.

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And she, had all the skills,

qualifications, experience needed.

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But for six months she was getting knock

back after knock back from interviews.

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And when we unpacked it,

there was a lot going on.

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Part of it was she was feeling that

she didn't deserve, you That success,

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that she was going for it too early

in her career, that she wasn't

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capable, so there's that playing out.

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But she was also thinking about

how if she did get the job, how

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it might impact her relationships,

what the dynamics might be in that

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relationship, if she was more successful.

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So she had all of that going on,

which was definitely playing into her

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interview performance, how she was

feeling about potential interviews.

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And she was creating unconsciously

a scenario where she was not

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presenting her best self.

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She was holding herself back because

often when we've got these narratives

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playing, what we tend to do is self

So we'll put blocks in our own way.

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We will Send out unconscious

messages about how enthusiastic we

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are or how much we want that job

if it's an interview situation.

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It's definitely worth thinking

about what is going on.

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What is the story I'm telling myself

and what I might be doing is actually

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self sabotaging and holding myself

back, because on one hand, you

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want to move forward and you want

to create that success, enjoyment,

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Whatever, within your career.

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But the other part of you is holding

back from doing it because of whatever

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might be going on in your head.

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It feels like you've got one foot on

the accelerator and one foot on the

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brake, and the result is that you're not

moving anywhere, that you can be stuck.

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Paying attention to our mindset is so

important if we're feeling stuck, if we're

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feeling we're holding ourselves back.

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But also, even if we're feeling positive,

working on our mindset is a constant

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thing in order to push ourselves forward.

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First of all, notice what's going

on, then thinking about, okay, how

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could I rewrite that narrative?

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And you can do this in a few ways.

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You could use curiosity,

learning and inspiration is

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things to have in your head.

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You could be thinking, okay, instead

of dreading this situation or working

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with this person, how could I be more

curious about what's going on here?

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What can I learn about this situation?

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Either about me or about that other

person that I might be working with.

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How can I get inspired by?

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my own journey or by something that's

happening in that particular situation.

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So , rather than resisting, because

you will find resistance, rather

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than resisting these situations and

being negative about them, reframing

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it into, okay, what could I learn?

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What could I get curious about?

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What could I feel inspired by?

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Can just shift that perspective.

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to one from , feeling negative about

that piece of work or working with

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your boss, whatever it might be, your

co worker, going for that interview.

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You can just start to explore

what could be going on.

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And then you can reframe the situation.

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With that particular client, we

did a lot of work around her belief

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system and for her just realising

what was happening was a game changer.

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She did manage to secure a great

role that was right for her.

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, It's noticing what you're putting in your

own way, what's stopping you from having

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the success that you really want to have.

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Think about What am I putting my own way?

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What's the narrative I'm telling myself?

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How can I rewrite that narrative?

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How can I, experiment,

explore what's happening?

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How can I get curious?

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How can I learn?

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How can I find inspiration

in this situation?

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If you are noticing you're feeling

negative about something, just experiment

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with, okay, how could I turn this around?

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How could I look at it from a

more positive point of view?

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So that I'm sending out positive

messages about what's happening.

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rather than getting stuck

in that negativity that I'm

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feeling about this situation.

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Now I'm mindful as well that some

situations, you do have to walk away

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from if you can't change, so that's

always something to think about.

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Some of that curiosity might be about

actually, I've outgrown this role, I've

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outgrown this organisation, , I can't.

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Change the toxic culture in the

organisation that I need to move.

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There are times when this reflection

piece might lead to you making

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some decisions around change.

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But doing the work around your

mindset will enable you to

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manage change more effectively.

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Because , holding ourselves back in terms

of our mindset can be linked to fear.

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Fear of change, fear of

success, fear of failure.

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Love to know what your thoughts

are around the inner work.

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It's a huge topic.

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This is obviously, tip of

the iceberg sort of stuff.

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But just thinking about what

you're doing in terms of holding

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yourself back is incredibly useful.

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I do a lot of work with people around

limiting beliefs and changing your

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mindset into a more positive mindset.

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So if this is something that

you feel like you'd like to work

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with me on, just give me a shout.

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Because sometimes you

can't do it all yourself.

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Sometimes you need a deeper dive into it.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.