What comes first, the chicken or egg? When it comes to achieving success, let’s say the chicken is career growth and the egg is personal growth. You can’t really have one without the other, and yet the question remains – which path is the most direct for accomplishing your goals, living your ideal life, and finding fulfillment?

When you are truly successful, business becomes another conduit for your personal growth.

As I look at my own path and the paths of those I have led and coached, personal growth is the domino that allows for career growth. The career growth path is limited, or maybe even non-existent, if we aren’t focused on our own personal growth. Why? Because really, there are no business problems or roadblocks or limits, there are really just personal problems that end up showing up in your business or career.

For me, I was driven to succeed in my career from the start, and I had quite a bit of financial success in the real estate industry. Unfortunately, despite the obvious appeals of wealth, I didn’t feel great. You can read more about my journey here. I was working all of the time, struggling with my personal relationships, and trying to find fulfillment through the material things I could now afford in abundance. If this doesn’t sound that bad to you, remember, wealth is nothing if you don’t have joy to back it up.

My problem was I didn’t yet understand that my overall happiness didn’t just depend on my financial situation, which had been my only priority. Thinking all of your problems will be solved, and every day will feel like a vacation after you have [FILL IN THE BLANK], is always a poor mindset to start with. Setting expectations like that will lead to temporary bouts of excitement that are never as long-lasting as you thought they would be.

If you’re hitting a ceiling of achievement, if you are finding limits in your career growth, if you are feeling stuck in a particular role with no new opportunities, you will not likely find the path to a new place career-wise by just focusing on more business knowledge, acumen or skills. Those things are important, and yet you are likely developing those by just working and having personal and professional experiences every single day. 

The real question is where are your own limits and what is your roadblock?

Ask yourself, is it in your:

• Self-leadership?
• Mindset management?
• Self-awareness (or lack thereof)?
• Ability to move from subconscious to conscious actions?
• Choices and commitments?
• Focus and intention?  

Have your answer? Good. Now is the time to take action on it. When we work on these things in our lives, what we do and what part of us does it starts to change. We begin thinking differently, which leads to new actions, which gives us the results we are looking for. 

Here are some tips on how to get started in confronting your roadblock, beginning your personal growth journey, so you can achieve the career growth you want:

 

Self-Leadership

• Take charge. Stop blaming the external world or other people for your problems. Recognize that you are capable of overcoming obstacles, and you are the only one who will take you to the next level of success, through your own actions, decisions, and time management.
• Leadership is influence. When you talk about the 6-mile run you had this morning, or the book you’re reading, or an interesting podcast you listened to, you are subtly inspiring those around you to improve their habits. That influence starts and ends with you. Build the habits you would like to see in those you surround yourself with and watch what happens!

 

Mindset Management

• Embrace every situation like you chose it. Nothing is a challenge if you choose to take ownership. Take the stress out of problem-solving by not resisting the fact that you need to take care of it. That could mean delegating the task to someone else who will better handle it and holding them accountable, or taking full responsibility yourself. Either way, let go of the usual resistance you would feel when confronted with a difficult situation at work or at home. Read more about mindset here.
• Work, learn, and play every day. Stop categorizing every day as a workday, or a vacation day. You can be just as excited about a Monday as a Saturday! It is all about building a calendar or routine that allows you the freedom to make every day a day where you have the opportunity to work, learn and play! 

 

Self-Awareness

• Act from a neutral state. See yourself the way others see you, and then understand the intention behind your actions. Do these two things align? Do your values or principles align with how you act and react? Make a note of what you think you need to work on, and watch yourself closely when you begin to react from a place of emotion. Then center yourself, and act from a place of neutrality.
• Journaling. Take the time to reflect on what you really want, what really brings you joy, and the kind of life you really want to build. If you try journaling on these ideas each day, you can prioritize actions that will align with your true goals and authentic self. More on journaling here.

 

Moving From Subconscious to Conscious Actions

• Stay in the moment. Be present, be conscious – we’ve all heard these things before! But it can be tough. Self-Awareness ties strongly into this category. You first need to become aware of when you are acting from a subconscious place and bring awareness into your actions. If you find your mind wandering, listen to the sounds around you, find something new about your environment, then recenter yourself in the present moment and remind yourself you are alive and are always striving to contribute.
• Get an idea of where you are at. Try our Consciousness Quiz to find out how conscious you are in your daily life, then get some more tips on how to move forward. You can also get our free 4-week audio series, Consciousness at Work, to help bring more of yourself, your leadership, and your joy to work.

 

Choices and Commitments

• Learn to say no. Yep, you can’t do everything! Sometimes you need to leverage tasks that you are not great at or that you simply do not enjoy. Finding the ability to say no to things better handled by others, or things that do not contribute to your goals, will help you get ahead.
• Align your choices with your goals. Are you staying up late watching Netflix even though you know you want to wake up the next morning early to get in a run before work? Do you want to develop yourself in a certain area to boost your career, but aren’t willing to work on your budget so you can afford the training? You need to commit to yourself to be better, and that means aligning your choices everyday (and sometimes every hour) with your biggest goals.

 

Focus and Intention

• Make a list of your life’s principles. Principles can help you stay aligned with your authentic self. In this way, when making big decisions, you can turn to your principles and make sure your choices are aligned with your intentions in life. Intention matters! Whatever you put out into the world will, the world will give back to you. Being intentional in your decisions, actions and habits will help feed your success and joy.
• Know where you are going. If you don’t have goals for the next 3 years of your life, you need to find your focus! Try our Future Self tool to help you focus your intention every day, and build the life you want, whatever that looks like for you.

 

Take action on what you need to do in the area of your personal growth to take your career to the next level. Not only will you find a new and better career path, but you will have more joy and fulfillment in the process because you are growing, which is an innate human need that we truly desire to fill. Get into your calendar and time block for your own growth and development, it will pay off in your annual earnings, but in so many other ways as well!

Look, personal growth that will lead to major career growth is hard to implement and you will need some help along the way. You will find support with your close family and true friends, but if you are looking for a rock-solid accountability partner, I hope you will give me a call to try out our coaching for free. We have helped so many people find the courage and strength within themselves to grow and take their lives to places they never dreamed possible. Learn more and sign up here.