How To Leverage The 2 Most Powerful Things That Shape Your Career

Why is it that when two people with the same experience and talent are in the same environment, one struggles while the other thrives?

The difference between them lies in two powerful yet often overlooked things crucial to your professional success: mindset and perspective.

Your mindset is your mental attitude or outlook, while your perspective is how you see or interpret something.

Combined, they become the lens through which you view yourself, your career, and the world. They affect the story you tell yourself and the story you tell others and impact your potential. Your mindset and perspective influence your behavior, thoughts, and opinions and how (or if) you believe you can make an impact.

The parable of the three bricklayers illustrates their importance:

Once upon a time, a traveler came upon three bricklayers.

When asked by the traveler, “What are you doing?” the first bricklayer replied, “I’m laying bricks.”

Asked the same question, the second bricklayer answered, “I’m putting up a wall.”

The third bricklayer considered the query and responded with pride in his voice, “I’m building a cathedral.”

Mindset and perspective are often the difference between someone’s career soaring or sinking, so it pays to understand how to leverage them to maximize your professional potential. Here’s how:

First, understand the difference between growth and fixed mindsets

In her seminal book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, psychologist Carol Dweck coined the concept of growth and fixed mindsets.

Dweck says someone with a growth mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort and practice. On the other hand, someone with a fixed mindset views those same traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time. They believe they’re either good at something or they’re not.

A growth mindset is linked to openness to new ideas and experiences, while a fixed mindset equates to resistance to change. Not surprisingly, a growth mindset correlates with career progress.

Next, determine your current mindset and perspective

Though we’d all like to believe we operate from an optimal mindset and perspective, that isn’t always the case. So ask yourself these two questions to determine your existing mindset and perspective:

1. How would I describe my current career-related activities?

Do you feel you’re doing “just a job” and that you’re simply punching the clock? Unfortunately, you might be stuck in a fixed mindset where you believe your intelligence or talent is set in stone with no room for growth. Worse, you’re likely allowing fear to creep in and make you feel that your actions don’t matter.

On the other hand, if you believe that, like the third bricklayer in the previously mentioned parable, you’re an integral part of building something important, you’re likely operating from a growth mindset. You embrace your environment as a training ground and easily see how your collaboration with others and contributions, no matter how small, power the bigger picture.

2. Do my friends and colleagues consider me an optimist or a pessimist?

If you’re easily annoyed, feel like the world is out to get you, and are surrounded by idiots, you’re likely seen as a pessimist.

When we’re pessimistic, we tend to adopt a victim mentality, which negatively affects our attitude in many other damaging ways. We tend to judge others and make up our minds before listening and learning about alternatives, which prevents our growth.

However, if you tend to see the best in situations and are all about the possibilities, you’re probably viewed as an optimist.

Optimists tend to be curious and tolerant of new ideas and people and are less like to be thrown off course because of an unexpected setback. Their openness builds trust naturally, which allows them to connect with others more easily, paving the way for professional progress.

Finally, realize they’re a choice and can change.

For better or worse, the mindset and perspective we hold is a choice and often correlate to the degree of pessimism or optimism we possess. Fortunately, even if you have a less-than-desirable mindset or perspective, you have the power to change them through awareness and intention.

To shift to a growth mindset and positive perspective, try to:

• Reframe your challenges as opportunities. When you see a career challenge as an opportunity for professional development, you shift your focus to growth.
• Embrace “failure” as part of the learning process. When things don’t go your way, it’s not a failure; it’s data you can use to improve, learn from, and apply to future projects for a better outcome.
• Lean into your curiosity. When you’re curious, you’re open to learning and expanding your mind to consider the possibilities.
• Add the word “yet.” Adding the word “yet” after a negative or fixed mindset statement transforms it into a more positive one, implying that there will be a future solution and that the current situation is only temporary.
• Cultivate grit. Your perseverance and determination can help you overcome challenges and maintain momentum. When you’re struggling, remind yourself that you’ve successfully navigated tough situations before and can do it again.
• Reflect on your progress. It’s easy to forget how far you’ve come in your growth journey. Regularly taking the time to reflect and appreciate your progress can remind you that you’ve made professional strides and give you the encouragement you need to keep going.

Remember, your combined mindset and perspective are the lens through which you view yourself, your career, and the world. They influence your behavior, thoughts, and opinions and how (or if) you believe you can make an impact. By tapping into the power of a growth mindset and positive perspective, you can maximize your professional potential.