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You Are what You Think
By Linda R. Dominquez
Executive Coaching and Resource Network

You've noticed it, right? On the mornings you leave for work in a bad mood, everyone else on the highway is a jerk, cutting you off, honking horns, driving too slow, etc. But have you noticed that when you are peaceful and happy on your way out of the house, the highway isn't quite as vicious?

It's the magic of "you are what you think" and it trips us up all
the time.

Take my client, Susan, a 52 year-old Marketing Executive with a solid background of impressive work experience, now in "active career transition". Susan believes she won't find a decent position because she's no longer 30-something.

With that thought process as an operating platform, that's exactly what she has experienced in the past 6 months of job searching: She has found herself responding to postings that are better suited to a 30-something rather than seeking out those companies, cultures and positions that are in need of a mature, vigorous, well organized executive with the expertise and skills a younger candidate is unlikely to offer.

Once Susan identified how her thoughts were limiting her progress, she gave some real consideration to what a younger candidate would bring to the workplace, and what she had to offer in addition. What would it take for Susan to demonstrate the energy, optimism, and flexibility of youth, and the wisdom and knowledge gained by experience? Ah ha! A different thought process, a different operating platform, a different targeting system - and doors started to open in her job search.

We are what we think: we think we're intelligent, successful and happy - we're right. We think we're never going to amount to much, never going to find a decent job, never going to have enough - and we're right again. We can choose to approach a job search - or life - from the position of, "There will never be enough" (so, I must grab and push and struggle). Or, our approach can focus on what we do have, and strategize how best to use it. One operating platform is constrained by fear ("I'm getting old!") and one is liberated by gratitude, ("I've learned a lot!").

You are what you think, so choose your thoughts wisely.

Email Linda at Info@Executive-coaching.com