“Not enough” is a truly powerful virus that you can carry for a lifetime and never even spot that some occasional thoughts setting you back are a produce of that virus. You may think you’ve dealt with it, yet it still shows up and, believe me, nobody is immune. One might be only less aware.
Transitioning to a new career in a new domain is a challenging enough exercise especially if it’s measured by a successful career run-up to that point.
One thought kept popping up in my head:” I wish I have done training with the most prestigious and reputable school, a top school in the world. Because I haven’t done so, people will doubt my capability”.
On the outset, it’s not a harmful thought. It just shows I love learning; I want to be best I can be, and I want to be recognised for what I do. But this is only on the outset.
This thought was bugging me for a long time until one day, I was going through my papers and came across 5 different diplomas and certificates. A briefly dropped comment from my husband brought an unexpected insight. He simply said “You’ve done a lot. You should be proud. Why don’t you frame and hang them on the wall?” My old tape immediately kicked in:” Yeah, I wish they were from world’s top school….” And then an interesting perspective hit me: the only difference between me studying in one school instead of another was the amount of money I could invest into my training as a coach at the time I was doing it. Since then, I consumed tons of books, worked on and with myself and with my clients to create a real shift in their lives. That insight lifted a massive load of doubt off my shoulders.
That’s the power of tapping into the right frame of mind.
“The beauty is in the eye of a beholder” they say. I say, “the meaning is in the heart and mind of the beholder”.
The meaning and value we give are truly ours to give and they can either set us up for success or failure.
I thought to myself “where did this thought come from? …how come I ended up believing it? Ahhhh, because it’s a generally accepted way of seeing things.
There is an undisputed value in great education however it’s not the only factor that will define your luck. Sometimes what matters most is not how much resources you have at the starting point but what you have done with them and where you want to go next.
An interesting fact came up in the recent conversation with a colleague of mine, who holds a senior leadership position in a global organisation. He said that they no longer solely emphasize academic achievements and value of education in top schools but rather prioritise graduate candidates who showed most creative, proactive attitude and entrepreneurial initiative during their study years. Problem solving skills, desire to grow and ability to deliver – these are the most sought-after qualities.
Yet another perspective emerged in a conversation with a friend of mine, who attended Carnegie Mellon in the US, graduated from the most prestigious Austrian college and is a very bright guy. His social circle has graduates from various top schools in the US, aspirational entrepreneurs, and engineers from Palo Alto. And guess what, many of them worked so hard and ran so fast to the finishing line of their university lives that when they started working life, they ran out of steam. They struggle to deliver not because they can’t but because the drive, interest, motivation, and stimuli are not there anymore, replaced by boredom of work that doesn’t inspire them.
All in all, my self-defeating talk has been replaced by self-empowering thought “I may not have attended the world’s top school or course, but I know how much honest work and determination I poured into my research over the years. For that I give myself recognition”.
We all fall prey to external signs of prestige and recognition and forget to pay close attention to valuable qualities one may possess. There’ll be plenty external hurdles on a journey to mastery, so no need to trip yourself over with inner barriers to own success. Rather let your own frame of mind give you wind under your wings.
