Overcoming Mental Obstacles to Success
While there will always be tangible obstacles and constraints, such as time, money and commitments, many of the barriers we face on a daily basis are mental and emotional.
Author Elizabeth Gilbert wrote “Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.” Negative attitudes and thoughts can play a large part in how we live, even to the point of affecting our self-confidence, our happiness and our ability to succeed. These types of thoughts and attitudes can affect every aspect of our lives, but are especially relevant to our education and career. How many times have you heard or thought, “I can’t do this,” “I am not good enough,” “I will never get that promotion”, or “I have never finished anything”? How about “I don’t have the time,” or “I don’t like change”? Persistent negative thoughts and attitudes such as these will eventually become an invisible cage you will not be able to escape.
Our brain is our most powerful tool, yet most of us haven’t been properly trained on how to use it. At Asher College, we want to make sure every student understands how their mind works and how to make the most of their talents and abilities.
All Asher students begin and end their education by taking Career Success classes. These seven-week courses help determine a student’s habits, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations. Students learn how these beliefs and attitudes have been acquired as well as identifying which ones may be holding them back from being as successful as they could be both in the classroom and in their career.
The course also helps students assess where they are presently, what their goals are and what they need to achieve those goals. The course helps to improve a student’s efficacy and helps keep them motivated. Students work on visualizing their future and adjusting their negative habits, attitudes, beliefs or expectations to set themselves up for success.
According to Asher College career success instructor Lisa Wrightsman, this course helps students “get comfortable being out of their comfort zone. It addresses the fact that based on our life experiences, we may need to re-program our brain to work for us instead of against us.”
The following words by Mahatma Gandhi summarize the significance of how our thoughts, words, behaviors and habits impact us:
Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive, because your words become your behavior.
Keep your behavior positive, because your behavior become your habits.
Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.
For more information on the career success course contact Asher College or visit one of their convenient locations.
Photo credit: M Campbell
