Shownotes
In this episode, Sarah explores why success is an inside job and how your mindset, beliefs, and self-talk directly shape your career success, confidence, and fulfillment. Discover practical strategies to identify limiting beliefs, reframe your thinking, and step into your full leadership potential at work and beyond.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- How your mindset influences your performance, confidence, and experience at work
- The power of rewriting the “stories” you tell yourself about success
- How to identify and challenge limiting beliefs holding you back
- Practical ways to shift from negativity to curiosity, learning, and inspiration
- Real-life examples of mindset breakthroughs that changed career trajectories
Show Notes
[00:00] Introduction to Unstuck and Unstoppable and your host, Sarah Archer
[01:00] Why mindset matters as much as external achievements
[02:00] Defining success on your own terms
[03:00] How mindset shapes performance, confidence, and workplace experiences
[04:00] The link between habitual thinking patterns and career outcomes
[05:00] Becoming the director of your own story
[06:00] Increasing awareness of negative self-talk and workplace narratives
[07:00] Real-life client example: How mindset blocks affected career progression
[08:00] Self-sabotage: How unconscious beliefs hold us back
[09:00] Reframing challenges through curiosity, learning, and inspiration
[10:00] Practical strategies for rewriting your career story
[11:00] When it’s time to make bigger career decisions
[12:00] How mindset work supports career change and confidence
Useful Links
Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration
Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes
Join The Love What You Do Facebook Group
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn
Rate & Review the Podcast
If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk
Transcripts
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.
